Original subtitles

Jeremy, where are we?

We are at the Bronx Brewery

in the heart of the South Bronx.

We produce every month an

event of live salsa music

that's called Salsa pa' la cultura.

And for the past five

years, me and my partner Brandon,

we've been doing it in the hot months,

you know, at April until September

in the backyard of the brewery.

But now this is a newly imagined space

in which we are showcasing

some of the most

amazing bands in the city

every single month from

January till December.

Actually, two or three days ago,

we were here having the

first show of the year

and it was absolutely incredible.

Oh man, I can't, I'm not

gonna miss the next one.

I saw the images, it's beautiful.

So talk to me about your new project.

Yeah, my new project is called

The Gospel According to Salsa.

It is definitely not a

conventional Christian album

because not like a CCM

or like a worship album,

but it's mostly a storytelling album

about amazing stories within the Bible

and that have touched me personally,

that have impacted my life,

that have helped me in my journey.

But also I think it could

be understood and related

from the storytelling

standpoint for anybody

and they don't have to

be religious or Christian.

That's the beauty of it.

Beautiful, beautiful.

You mentioned someone that

inspired you with storytelling.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, so one of the

people that I most respect

in this industry because of what I do

as a singer of Salsa music

and tropical music

is Rubén Blades and

I've been very blessed

to have a relationship with

him and Gilberto Santa Rosa

in which every time we can,

we try to set up a

meeting to just talk, chat it up

and I always walk away

learning so much from him

and in one of the

times that we were talking,

I remember he said that

there's nothing more powerful

than a good story and

that really impacted me

because it's so true.

I remember, I don't know

if it was David Letterman

or Johnny Carson, he

used to tell his guests

when they would come in, if

they were first time guests,

they would say, hey

remember, stories over opinions

and that always impacted

my life because it's true.

Few people care about

your opinion about a subject

but most people are usually

gonna care about a good story.

So that's the question,

can you tell a good story

and I think Rubén is one

of the absolute greatest

of all time in terms of telling stories

and the art of that.

I gotta say, when I

select a person for Un Chín

the first question that I

said, do I have a story?

Do I have something here

special that our audience

could learn from and

with you that was the case.

You mentioned other projects to me

as we were preparing for the shoot.

You mentioned, so talk

to me about the comic book

and the influence of one of

the projects and also comedy.

Comedy, yeah, absolutely.

So I became recently

very, very close friends

with a standup

comedian from New York City.

It's actually a Dominican comedian

and he's the first act I've

ever seen that is Spanglish

and he actually makes

it work here in America

which is quite a feat all by itself.

And then he came to some of my shows

and I went to some of his standup shows

and we immediately clicked

and we've been working now for a while

in building a set that

is not only standup comedy

in his own material, but actually songs

that are inspired by his jokes.

So turning his jokes

into actual salsa songs

so that his standup comedy

is interrupted by the music,

the music is interrupted by his set.

I've never seen anything like that.

So we're actually walking on

pioneering ground right now

during an avant-garde

type of project, if you will.

And then in terms of comic books,

well, our good friend, Edgardo Miranda,

who we know and love,

we are collaborating.

We've been collaborating for a while now,

building the first ever

salsa comic book experience.

And we are also

collaborating with an artist

that the whole world knows, world famous.

And he's also presenting

the project, so to speak,

because he also happens to be an

incredible comic book

connoisseur and collector.

So I'm very excited about that project.

Beautiful, beautiful.

And I noticed that you do

that even where we are right now.

And the first thing

is, look, I perform here.

You would like to get

this shoot to be done here.

And it's almost like

in you to collaborate,

to work with people.

It feels great when you arrive

to a particular

destination with other people.

And I think that

Un Chín is about that.

I really appreciate your time with us.

Just would like to do Un Chín

Un Chín thank you so

much to Un Chín Magazine.

Thank you, Ramon, and

thank you to the whole team

for having me.

It's been quite a pleasure.

And come to Salsa pa' la Cultura

Valle del Sur every month

here in New York City,

the Bronx, the Bronx Brewery.

Enjoy live music.

Okay, Japan.

We're going to the next stage.

This stage?

Yes, yes, so this stage...

This is where we're going.

And then we...

And then we...

We've got the...

Let's just bring our boy who has a great

sound equipment, sound guide, and then

let's bring our bag.

And it was very difficult.

Can we ask you a question?

Does the field never have a dog?

Yeah.

It's good to know.

It's good to know.

It's good to know.

It's a backyard of your experience.

It's a train passing.

This gets green.

Green is the best.

It's very easy to see the background.