Puerto Rican, Guitarist-Singer-Songwriter Rique Colón expresses his positive vision and a social-humanistic perspective of the world that surrounds him, all of them framed in a message of respect for nature, fresh and profound melodies, truly present in his ten songs of his recent production ‘Sentido Tropical’. With his particular style ‘Chanova’ Rique combines the essence of Puerto Rican roots with Afro-Caribbean, Jazz and a very important touch of Bossa Nova and pop elements.

Rique is a winner of the first ‘Berklee Canta en Español’ singer/songwriter contest and recently this year he's chosen one of the six finalists to perform at the Lunario Mexico's National Amphitheatre to compete for the first price. This contest is sponsored by Berklee College of Music and the Sociedad General de Autores y Compositores of Spain. He is also a winner of the Vox Populi Awards on the 7th Independent Music Awards and his record ‘Sentido Tropical’ was finalist at the same competition in 2007. Also the same year he was semi-finalist at the Independent Music World Series. In Puerto Rico, ‘Sentido Tropical’ ranked number seven of the top ten records of the year by the National Foundation for the Popular Arts on which it broadened new opportunities for him to perform in numerous television and radio shows and over 250 presentations between, Puerto Rico, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy and the United States.

In Boston, Massachusetts, Rique completed a second bachelor’s degree in Professional Music at Berklee College of Music after studying classical guitar from the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico in San Germán. This experience connected him with important figures in the music scene and challenged his discipline in performance, arranging, songwriting and composition. After concluding his studies Rique returned to his country to produce his record ‘Sentido Tropical’ where he presented it on many festivals, venues, universities, television and radio shows.

On 2006, during his release of ‘Sentido Tropical’, Colón was awarded a Berklee Alumni Grant to present his music as an educational perspective to the young communities in Puerto Rico. This experience led him to continue studies in Music Education at the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico. Later, the National Endowment for the Arts granted Rique, through the Puerto Rican Institute of Culture, to present a second phase of this beautiful community experience.

Rique Colón is currently producing his second record, performing and planning on touring internationally. With no doubt, Rique Colón’s Sentido Tropical will be a juvenile and fresh alternative for a selected public in search of new sounds and representations truly worth to appreciate.

Rique Colón: ‘New perspective of contemporary music in Puerto Rico’

As a necessity to reunite a feel of unity and reaffirmation of his roots in the Caribbean realities, Rique Colón, a Puerto Rican singer-songwriter, brings us his first production Sentido Tropical.

According to Rique, “the experience of living out of your country transforms you automatically as a cultural ambassador; it is at that moment that you redefine your identity and how much you know about your country.” This is why Sentido Tropical is also a tribute of his experiences as a traveler, not only from the countryside to the west coast of his native island, but also his studies at Boston, and his cultural adventures in North and South America.

In South America the singer-songwriter undertook a trekker journey with his guitar and other instruments he was learning in the path, such as berimbau and charango. This journey gave him the opportunity to present his compositions around Argentina, Bolivia, Peru and Brazil, in which he had the opportunity to participate on a guitar workshop with Marco Pereira and learn the capoeira angola in Salvador, Bahia.

In Boston, Massachusetts, Rique completed a second bachelor’s degree in Professional Music at Berklee College of Music after studying classical guitar from the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico in San Germán. This experience connected him with important figures in the music scene and challenged his discipline in performance, arranging and composition.

“To be surrounded with such great musicians from different cultures really kicked in my creativity into a new level”, Rique recalls. Precisely the chanova emerges from this experiences and relations, not only with his professors and colleagues but with his friends and families that own an exquisite taste and love for music.

Through his chanova, Rique Colón expresses his positive vision and a social-humanistic perspective of the world that surrounds him, all of them framed in a message of respect for nature, fresh and profound melodies, truly present in his ten songs of his recent production. “I’ve learned about live always appealing to nature. This is the music of our senses that enriches our lives. Nature is music.”

In Sentido Tropical, the 28 year old singer-songwriter reunited musicians from the excellence of Aldemar Valentín (jazz arranger and bassist), Uziel Colón (pianist from Egui Castrillo’s band), Fernando Mattina (jazz guitar player), Néstor Toro (saxophonist and flautist), Luis Javier Santiago (hand percussionist), Paoli Mejías (hand percussionist), and Nomar Negroni (drummer of Negroni’s Trio), in which the last two musicians where nominated to a Latin Grammy in the Latin Jazz category in 2005.

This production was achieved in San Juan, Puerto Rico under the technical assistance of Francisco “Kiko” Hurtado de Mendoza and the production of Rique Colón himself.

With no doubt, Sentido Tropical will be a juvenile and fresh alternative for a selected public in search of new sounds and representations truly worthy to appreciate.