Local Flavor

Grammy-nominated Latin star Frankie Negrón came to Philly to make salsa.

by Mary Armstrong

"Philly is on the verge of a lot of big things musically and I want to be a part of it," says Frankie Negrón. How often do we hear that from a Grammy nominee?

Besides almost taking home the 2001 best salsa Grammy for Por Tu Placer, Negrón's had four platinum and one gold album in the last seven years and he chooses Philly over New York? This is good news indeed.

"This the longest I've lived anyplace since my career started," he says. The fact that he met, wooed and finally captured a local woman helps. "She's a South Philly girl, born and raised."

An independent woman, Nancy Santiago says she loves the work she does in education and could never think of giving it up for the accessory status of celebrity wife. "That's his career and I don't interfere, just as he doesn't with mine."

Surely it does her educator's heart good to hear her husband proclaim, "I want to start developing talent in the city." Negrón has discovered a young man who he hopes to mentor.

"Luisito Figueroa, 14 years old," says Negrón. "He loves salsa, sings great, reminds me of when I was starting." Born in Newark, N.J., 26 years ago, Negrón won the Celia Cruz Award multiple times as a young man. He explains that that was a talent search sponsored by a local TV station which then paid for the winner's music tuition for a year. One of his many dreams is to institute a Frankie Negrón Prize to encourage young musicians.

He says he himself got a lot of encouragement at home. Negrón's father was a trovador in Puerto Rico. "My dad is a poet, can make a song out of anything. He played guitar. He was well-known on the island." But, as Negrón notes, "He and my mom made a lot of sacrifices," leaving the Island of Enchantment for steadier work in Jersey. After that, dad's musical opportunities were limited. "He would get with local cuatristas and so on for the holidays when we were living in Newark."

Negrón says he gives his parents full credit for his being bilingual. "They knew that living in the states I'd pick up English right away. They made it a point to only speak in Spanish to me, we only watched Spanish TV, listened to Spanish radio. Even though I was born here, when I started school, I remember vividly thinking, "What are they speaking, what is this?' English was a foreign language to me." He relates the tale with North Jersey inflections, so the folks were right.

Coming up in both cultures worked well for Negrón.

"I don't like the tag of "salsero.' I'd be doing an injustice to the salseros before. They were strictly from salsa. I have a lot of influences," he says. "I'm an artist who does salsa, [but] not just salsa." Witness the almost-Grammy: The title song, "Por Tu Placer," was cut in three different styles: salsa, pop and bachata. The idea was to completely saturate all Latino radio formats, and it surely worked. Beyond that, "So Wonderful" is a country song with synth instead of steel, a perfect vehicle for Negrón's smooth tones.

"Ruben Blades is someone I model myself after. He is well-rounded. He is an actor in films and TV, has a law degree, too, I admire that," says Negrón. He notes that Blades was one of the first salseros to experiment: "He threw in disco, rock — he wanted to broaden the horizons musically."

Right out of high school, Negrón followed Blades into films with Boricua's Bond. "It was a good experience. It was an indie film. I got a script that wasn't a script. The whole movie was an improv." Negrón says that to this day, HBO still plays Boricua's Bond overnight, all the time. "People tell me, "Oh, I saw your movie!' I say, "Oh, I feel bad for you!'" But, he says, from that movie he got the shot to do Paul Simon's musical Songs From the Capeman.

Negrón says he's going to lay off the acting until he has time for classes. "I don't want to keep acting and do the acting world injustice."

More's the pity for his core audience, who love his looks. Negrón is well-aware of his appeal. "I have to know who my fan base is. I got a lot of the single girls, they are the first three rows in every concert. They help me bring home the bacon. It's a job, I separate them: I love my wife and I love my career, and I'm not willing to put either one in jeopardy."

Continuing to reflect, he shares, "Women are attracted to a man who is not afraid to be emotionally open, who is confident. That is who I am as a person, I'm very emotionally charged, I follow my heart more than my head."

Frankie Negrón will perform at the Feria del Barrio, Sun., Sept. 12, noon-6:30 p.m., free, North Fifth St. and Lehigh Ave., 215-223-3060, 215-426-3311.

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