Miguel Cruz Y La Orquesta Querubin

During the early 1980s, the Chicago Salsa scene was hot. Salsa bands were in abundance, particularly with the younger up and coming bands like Tipica 78, Tipica Leal, la Union, La Justitia, just to name a few. Some of the kids playing at the time flourished to become accomplished musicians and went on to work with the bigger more established names in salsa. Recently, I had occasion to come across one of these musicians. Miguel Cruz, a popular Latin Percussionist at the time, began his musical career in Chicago in a young salsa band. Simply known as ‘Chocolate” at the time he went on to play with some of the early Caribe bands then with guys like Hector Nunez, Charlie Burgos and many of the other young guys coming up at the time. He later worked with and became the percussion director of Chicago’s La Sonora Tropical before leaving to Puerto Rico to continue his musical endeavors. In Puerto Rico he joined Willie Rosario’s band and worked with Willie for several years. He filled in for the Fania All-stars groups on occasion and eventually formed his own band he named Orquesta Queubin. Orquesta Querubin is a Christian themed band that spreads the Lords message thru salsa. After hearing about this I searched Orquesta Querubin and was pleasantly surprised at their hard charging salsa style. These guys are great. Their arrangements and recordings are some of the best I have heard. Besides being a percussionist, Miguel Cruz added vocalist to his list of talents. He is now the featured vocalist on some of the more recent Orquesta Querubin’s albums. Miguel Cruz, during his years away from Chicago, went on to study the music Business, which included the field of music production. Today, Miguel Cruz produces many artists in Puerto Rico. He is someone I am really proud of and he is one of the original Chicago Old School salsa musicians that helped keep it alive. Check them out on Youtube and you will see what I mean.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8btfe-mxs5s