Anthony Almonte may not be a household name yet, but his resume speaks for itself. He is a two-time Grammy nominee who has played alongside legends, including his current gig in the E Street Band. Almonte recently released his first solo record Conversando Con La Luna and took some time to char about it and his career.
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On why now was the right time for a solo record – I’ve been in various productions as a lead singer front man, but not my very own production. I think the why now I think first and foremost, when you have something to say, you have to say it. I think now it’s a great moment for me to just come forward with this record and this type of feeling. Also, I wanted to write and create music that I really enjoy playing and singing. Salsa is, was my first passion in regards to genre and music so I wanted to revisit that. I also wanted to bring collaborations from the other side, from that little band from Jersey and that rock and roll world apart from also jazz. I do a lot of work with Jazz at Lincoln Center. So, I wanted to put a record together and bring in all my musical influences with a bed of the genre that first made me fall in love with music.
On his approach to evolving salsa music – Good question. I think especially musicians who work in various genres of music they start to become a part of you and your identity. You just start to pull from different things that you do, in this case, my work with Disciples of Soul and the E Street Band and jazz, Carlos Enriquez and Jazz at Lincoln Center and all these different, Kid Creole and the Coconuts, all the things and all the bands that I’ve been a part of, when it’s my turn to spit out music, there’s gonna be some of that influenced in there.
Now some things a lot more intentional than not. So, in this case when I was putting the songs together, I would envision who would I want, first of all, as a special guest, if any, on a on a particular track? But then, also what cool sounds can I implement on here? If you hear on that album, there’s a lot of electric guitar presence on there, whether clean or with some effects on there, which is not traditional to salsa at all, but that’s something, I say I played guitar in my previous life, so I had to use a lot of that.
In singing in Spanish but conveying the meaning in any language – First of all, thank you. That is, for me, that is the most important thing. That the sentiment, that the feel translates regardless of the language. One of the things that I really focus on is writing music that the music moves you regardless of the lyrics, before you listen to the lyrics. I actually like writing the lyrics to the music. So, I let the music dictate what I want the song to be about. But Spanish is my first language. My father is of Dominican descent, my mother Puerto Rican, so at home we spoke Spanish. Obviously outside of home I would speak in English, born and raised in the Bronx.
I’ve always had the Latin music career apart from E Street Band and, Disciples of Soul. At the same time, I was always making Latin music. It just never crossed paths for whatever reason. I think eventually once you get into the E Street Band, it’s such a massive band and, the attention becomes that much bigger that people start to realize the other type of work that you have done or are still doing at the same time, simultaneously. I think that’s what ended up happening. So, this is still just along the lines of what I’ve done in my solo career. Except obviously bringing in a few more influences from the rock and roll world. But there is some, I love singing in English, so there, there are some talks about doing some stuff like this in the English language as well which is a challenge, a great challenge but a lot of fun.
On if these are new songs or ones he wrote previously – It’s a combination of both. There were songs that I had been accumulating over the last few years. Honestly, it’s probably since when the tour began. I and I had all these other previous songs, but I knew they didn’t fit where I was at this moment or where I am today. It wasn’t the music or the messages, I would say that I really wanted to evoke in this album.
Anyone who speaks Spanish or understands a little bit of it, and you can still feel it, as you said earlier. It’s a pretty positive album. There’s no heartbreak. There’s nothing, that’s negative. Everything is pretty much very hopeful. Talking about not so much being in love with someone, but the experience of love itself. The title is Conversing With the Moon, Conversando Con la Luna. It’s just speaking it out to the moon. Where I am at this moment, I’m shedding this old skin and stepping into this new version of myself, and all the emotions that come with that.
I’m not the only songwriter in this record. There’s a few, but it was very curated. A really good friend of mine, he’s an uncle to me and my songwriting mentor, Manolo Vega, who is of Cuban descent and lives out in Athens. We’ve worked on various projects together. He’s one of the primary songwriters apart from myself, and there’s a couple of smaller songwriters based out of Los Angeles. Juan Cosme Young, songwriter who collaborated with my co-producer Jonathan Montes. There’s a couple of guys there. Daniel Rodriguez, who’s actually now the percussionist for Bruno Mars. Josmel Montejo, bassist. He is the bassist for Colin Hay. So, there’s a lot of that rock and pop thing circulating even though it’s Latin music. So that’s the fun part.
On guests on the record – I would start with the core band that recorded on it, oddly enough, I recorded zero percussion on this record. That was very intentional because this style I had to put my producer hat on. I’d been playing, obviously, rock and roll on this tour, for the last few years. So, I wanted a specific style of playing that I knew, could I have done it myself? Sure. But did I, was I gonna record it the way I envisioned it? Not quite. So, my style of playing is very different to the style that I wanted for the record. I had Marcos Lopez, who’s a percussionist for Marc Anthony on there. Another, Marcos Torres, on congas. He very talented. Jhair Sala as well. Then Carlos Henriquez, who’s one of the greatest bass players in jazz of our era. He’s playing bass throughout the record. But then there’s a salsa icon, and I’m so lucky to have had him to have had him sing background vocals on the record. His name is Gilberto Santa Rosa. In Latin America and especially in Puerto Rico where he’s from he is a legend, Alexander Abreu is singer, trumpeter, a master trumpeter out of Cuba. He recorded on a track, and I was a huge, I’ve been a huge fan of him since I was or, freshman, sophomore in college when I first listened to his music.
Jazz virtuoso Gonzalo Rubalcaba on piano, which was mind-blowing, the fact that I managed to have him on a track. Because I saw him at Dizzy’s, at Jazz at Lincoln Center back in 2018 when I first joined Carlos Henriquez’s Nonet. Gonzalo won’t remember this, but I remember sitting there watching him. I’ve seen enough videos of him, but to see him live do all that craziness he does, it’s wild. Then to hear him do it on one of my tracks was insane. Then there’s Venezuelan singer Ronald Borjas who is an ex-singer of probably Venezuela’s greatest band of all time, Guaco, which I’m a huge fan of as well. So I’ve been following Ronald for a very long time, and then we became friends shortly after COVID. It was pretty nice to have him on a track singing together.
So, I only have two vocal special guests. Gilberto only sang background vocals. Not only, he sang all background vocals on the album. Then two instrumentalists Gonzalo and Stevie Van Zandt. I can talk about Stevie for hours.
On how he came to work with Steve Van Zandt and the Disciples of Soul – Oh, man. Okay, so Stevie, I love Stevie so much. Stevie is, he’s just taken such great care of me, and just makes me feel at home and anything we do and anywhere we go. I joined Stevie’s band when I was 25 years old. At first, Stevie and he’s got this mean mug and the colors and the guitar, he’s an imposing figure. He’s…at first I was… I didn’t wanna get close to him because I was (nervous), but we became really friendly early on and, my job with Disciples is, the way I walk in every single day and how I take any gig is be as good as I can, be coachable, be open to whatever any ideas or any direction a band leader or an artist wants to give me. But come in as prepared possible so you limit that. I wanted to come in as prepared possible, have the greatest solos I can every night. I did that, and Stevie, I guess I earned this trust with Stevie, just coming in prepared. Then, just being myself, being the happy person that I am and enjoying every time I’m on stage or around the Disciples of Soul.
We became really close, so much so that eventually there’s an opportunity to join the E Street Band and Stevie was the guy who, who really pushed for me. Thank goodness because, that, that’s pretty life changing.
On what he’s learned in the E Street Band – Consistency. Consistency. These guys show up every single show, every single time, and just deliver religiously. It’s so impressive. You watch Max (Weinberg) just beating the drums for three hours and Roy (Bittan) having to play all these intricate parts, and Garry (Tallent) holding down the fort. Nils (Lofgren) is doing everything he does on guitar. Stevie, being as close to front and center as Bruce (Springsteen), which is that’s a huge role. Then everyone else, Soozie (Tyrell), Charlie (Giordano).
For a band that big to just constantly just outperform each previous show. It’s like when we first started this tour in Minneapolis, it was unbelievable. It felt like we hadn’t taken a break. We all thought it can’t get any, any better than this. We said that at every single show that followed. How many bands can say that? I don’t think many, so you learn a ton. You learn how to just show up, how to come prepared and just keep on pushing and keep on putting your best out there.
Then watching Bruce and everything he does, and how he interacts with the audience, how he makes everyone just feel like they’re in a living room. You just feel the emotion just soar across the crowd, and that’s him. He just knows how to direct an audience a certain way that is it’s beyond special.
On his favorite moments each night on the last tour – There’s a few. So especially for this last tour, there’s a couple of songs that I just go, “Oh, my goodness” throughout the whole show, but every show I get the same feeling. What’s the song? “Ghost of Tom Joad”. It always hits the hell out of me. Just the moment we hit the first note. Yeah. Boom. It’s just okay, everybody strap on. We’re going. Then let’s see, there’s another one, “Darkness on the Edge of Town”. When he holds that note with that growl in his voice, on that last chorus, I get goosebump every single time. It never fails. Every single time. I wait for it, I finish singing that background line and I just watch him just completely be him.
But, there are a lot of moments. Definitely “Death To My Hometown”, coming down and feeling the intensity in that front line. Especially Bruce, it starts with him. But, feeling Jake Clemons, who’s 100% committed you just see it in his face, and then, having Stevie to my left. That’s pretty powerful.
On working Tom Morello into the band – The great thing is that Tom had toured with this band before. So, there’s a huge familiarity there, so honestly, it was more for us, the kind of newer guys, to experience that relationship with Tom in the front. But it was very seamless, he just came in and does what Tom does, which is just wow the audience with his playing and his singing. He sounded great and his dynamic with Bruce is pretty fantastic. But for me, I was a huge Rage Against The Machine fan. I was playing Guitar Hero because I’m from that era, so I played “Bulls On Parade” and all these songs. Just watching him and then getting to interact with him. He’s a huge baseball fan and so am I. We’re massive baseball fans. There’s a few of us, Charlie Giordano, Ozzie (Melendez). Just getting to, to really interact with him and know him a little bit was really special. What a cat. Just great overall dude. It was really special for me.
Mets or Yankees – I’m a Yankees fan. There’s a little bit of everything in the band. Charlie and I are Yankees fans. I’m giving it all up now. Charlie and I are Yankees fan. Ozzy is a Met fan. I think Soozie Tyrell is a Met fan as well. So, we’re evened out. Then we have Tom, who’s a Cubs fan. Not everyone’s perfect.
On playing any solo shows – I will. Starting with July 9th, I’m doing an album release party, and it’s open to the public. Tickets are available at jazz.org. It’s at Dizzy’s Club at Jazz at Lincoln Center. There’s two shows. There’s one at 7:00 PM and one at 9:00. It’s gonna be a lot of fun. We’re playing the entire album. We’re gonna have a blast. I invite everyone to, to come and have a good time. So yeah, tickets are at jazz.org.
