Bio Ritmo’s enticing vintage salsa may very well have you dancing like it’s 1973, but not before realizing you’ve never heard anything like it. For one thing, they don’t pretend that the last 30 years of music never happened; they don’t bury their love for punk, disco, electronica, Brazilian pop, Afro-beat, Middle Eastern music and classical music when making their batch of salsa. Sometimes, the fusion is brash and in-your-face, like in the song “Tu No Sabes,” off the Salsa System EP.  Though it starts off safely enough as an instantly danceable tune with an Afro percussive tumbao layered with fierce trumpet-trombone-sax blasts, it is accentuated with an exotic Arabic scale on trumpet that would have sounded equally good on a Turkish zurna (squeaky, wooden clarinet-like instrument). Other times, the permeation is much more subtle, as on their take of Bobby Valentin’s classic “Seguirás Criticando” off Biónico, where at the end of the song they sneak in an irresistible, galloping Afro-disco-beat epilogue using two beats from the original song, but in a pulsating sequence.  There’s also “A La Cha,” an exquisite, zapping Middle Eastern funk salsa number influenced by ‘60s Egyptian icon Abdel Halim Hafez, the “Arabian Elvis.”  After 17 years in the game, this is where Bio Ritmo is today.

But to fully digest Bio Ritmo, context is necessary.  You first gotta understand the ‘70s New York salsa movement that propelled the music and dance into the mainstream.  To call that era anything less than a counter cultural phenomenon would be to misunderstand what happened on those cracked asphalt, street block dance floors in Spanish Harlem.  Young U.S.-based Latinos pissed off their parents and mainstream America, alike, when they raided and bastardized their parents’ beloved bomba, son montuno and guaguancó and seasoned it with American rock, funk and jazz. Beyond the fusionist sound, their often socially conscious lyrics in English, Spanish and Spanglish gave the Latino youth a voice of protest and a platform to demand equality and their place in society.

By the late ‘70s, however, salsa was making people some serious money.  It became formulaic and predictable.   Inevitably, it solidified into an impregnable monolith that halted the swashbuckling music exploration that defined it.  The movement was dead.

Fast-forward 20 years.  The year is 1991. Grunge is bouncing big hair bands out of the mosh pit of relevancy and salsa is still puttering along like your pop’s old, split pea-colored Pinto.  And then 350 miles south of New York City, in the improbable town of Richmond, Va., a sign of hope for the salsa movement:  Bio Ritmo is born.  They were a band that someday wanted to not just sound like their salsa heroes from the ‘70s, but also embody that spirit of exploration and experimentation with little regard to convention.  It seems they have arrived.  But getting there was no cake walk.
Puerto Rican natives Jorge Negrón (vocals, maracas) and Rei Álvarez (vocals, güiro, clave), and local rocker Jim Thomson (bongos, güiro) co-founded Bio Ritmo in 1991 as an Afro-Latin drumming ensemble to accompany a film about volcanoes that premiered at the Science Museum of Virginia, where Negrón worked. Though Negrón and Álvarez were teens living in Puerto Rico during the ‘70s salsa craze, it wasn’t until their unlikely encounter in Richmond that they realized their love for salsa and their need to make that music. Álvarez says, “The reason we were so crazy about this old salsa is that it rocked!  It was hardcore, groovin’ stuff!” The success of the volcano-ensemble gig motivated them to form a straight up salsa band with like-minded local musicians. Before long, they recruited aspiring musicians Gabriel Tomasini (congas), Giustino Riccio (timbales) and Bob Miller (trumpet).

The members shared a special affinity for salsa clásica, salsa dura, the real deal, and decided to model themselves on that old school sound.  Though Negrón served as the de facto elder statesman of the band, it was really his expansive, deep, vintage salsa collection that is credited for being the band’s teacher and inspiration.  Though at first they could not scratch that güiro just right, they had something more valuable going for them: hunger, passion, ganas.  Riccio captured the sentiment most accurately, when he told The Washington Post in 2008, “Even before we had a right, we were trying to do original salsa songs.  We didn’t realize how bad we were, but we know that we preferred to emulate those old salsa songs rather than cover them.”   

Bio Ritmo soon became one of the region’s must-see live shows.  Their rock’n’roll attitude in performing salsa made them popular even in predominantly Anglo college towns.  They hit the college circuit hard and frequently performed in traditionally rock venues.  They amassed a steady following and not surprisingly, their 1996 first full-length album Que Siga la Música did well.  It prompted them to get back into the studio and release Salsa Galáctica in 1997.  Álvarez had left the band to pursue his career in graphic design.  And not long after, Negrón also left the band to return to Puerto Rico.   

Cuban-born Rene Herrera (vocals, trombone, percussion) took over as bandleader and steered Bio Ritmo in a new direction.  Even if in hindsight, Herrera’s slicker, more polished, contemporary Cuban timba music wasn’t exactly where Bio Ritmo had intended to go, Riccio credits Herrera with giving the band its music chops.  “He had a much more technical approach,” explains Riccio.

Bio Ritmo then signed with Triloka Records (a subsidiary of Mercury) for the release of 1998’s Rumba Baby Rumba. Trying to capitalize on the big band-swing craze of the late ‘90s with groups like Squirrel Nut Zippers, Cherry Poppin’ Daddies and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy in the spotlight, the label encouraged Bio Ritmo to write more than half of their songs in English.  Riccio says, “If they would have had it their way, the whole thing would have been a pop album in English, so we’re actually pretty proud that we kept it as authentic as we did.” By now, Eddie Prendergast (bass, percussion) and Tim Lett (trumpet) had joined up, but with the departure of Herrera, the band was in flux and talk of a break-up loomed.

The band continued on and for the band’s 10-year anniversary Álvarez rejoined. With Tobias Whitaker (trombone) and Marlysse Simmons (pianist) joining the band in 2002 and with more musical muscle under their collective belt, they returned to form with their 2004 critically-acclaimed, self-titled “Green Album.”  Bio Ritmo had got its groove back and folks were noticing.  The album ranked in the top ten of numerous Latin and World music charts.  Released on their own Locutor label, it won first prize at the Disc Makers Indy World Music Series and was also a finalist at the Independent Music Awards. The standout song “Atrevete” was featured on numerous compilation albums including World Music Network’s Rough Guide to Salsa Dura and Latin Beat’s Best of Independent Salsa.

Bio Ritmo was ready to push the envelope and, for the first time in their seventeen-year career, embody not only the sound of salsa, but also the soul of its movement: saucy experimentation.  With a former dreadlocked drummer, a punk, a rocker, a classically-trained pianist and jazz, disco and funk players in their ranks, Bio Ritmo was ready to allow those very backgrounds to come through.  They also enlisted legendary Fania Records and multi Grammy-winning engineer Jon Fausty to help make their three-song Salsa System EP.  Fausty, who has worked on the production of over 3,000 albums, liked what he heard.  He told The Washington Post in 2008: “There’s been many variations on traditional hardcore salsa, but Bio Ritmo is taking it a step further.  People will be surprised by the weirdness and find it quite enjoyable.”
  
In 2008, J.C. Kuhl (saxophone) and Arnaldo Marrero (percussion) joined the band and they called back Fausty to help them make their most ambitious album to date, Biónico.   Álvarez, who felt he had hit a slump and had put off doing any work following the EP, had newly found energy that he and the band poured into Biónico.  “This album is more our thing than anything we’re ever done,” says Álvarez.   Riccio adds, “We’re so proud of this recording.  We’re not trying to conform.  This is definitely our most experimental salsa album.  There was never any thought on what people might want to hear. Ultimately, you have to enjoy what you play and hope that the rest of the world digs it.”

Apart from “Seguirás Criticando” and “A La Cha,” “Lisandra” walks that thin line of being spacey, electronic and new, but undeniably vintage salsa.  The use of zapping synthesizers gives it a modern touch, while still sounding like it’s straight out of a ‘70s sci-fi flick.

The San Francisco Bay Guardian hailed Biónico as one of 2008’s “best Latin releases.”  Aguzate.org called Bio Ritmo “one of the few pioneers in the ‘Latin music’ movement and simply the most innovative salsa band out there.”  Descarga.com, one of the leading authorities of Latin music, ranked their last two albums as “Editor’s pick” and “Very Highly Recommended.”