Mon Rivera is the common name given to two distinct Puerto Rican musicians (both born in Mayagüez), namely Monserrate Rivera Alers (originally nicknamed Rate, later referred to as "Don Mon", or Mon The Elder, and sometimes credited as Ramón in songwriting credits) and his eldest son, Efraín Rivera Castillo (referred to early in his career as "Moncito", or Little Mon, and later known by his father's moniker). This article refers mainly to Efraín, a popular band leader known in Latin jazz circles. Mayagüez (pronounced Mah-yah-goo-ehz) is the third largest city of Puerto Rico. ... Latin jazz is the general term given to music that combines rhythms from African and Latin American countries with jazz harmonies from the United States. ...

Efraín was specifically known for salsa, and a Puerto Rican style called plena. He is credited for a fast humorous style and introducing the sound of four trombones to Afro-Rican orchestra music. Rock Music article is a good example of actual music history ! Gives credit where deserved, Not biased oriented views on music !!! This article contradicts another Wikipedia article at this link under salsa !!! http://en. ... Plena is a traditional form of Puerto Rican music. ... A lip-reed aerophone with a predominantly cylindrical bore, the trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. ... Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Orchestra at City Hall (Edmonton). ...

'Rate becomes Mon

Don Mon was born in Mayagüez, and lived in the working class Barcelona barrio of the city. He was a janitor and handyman at the nearby University of Puerto Rico - Mayagüez for more than 40 years, and was well loved by the campus community. Known as "'Rate" by his closest friends, Don Mon gained a strong reputation as a composer of plenas, a musical genre considered the "musical newspaper of the barrio". Two of his most famous plenas, "Askarakatiskis" (sometimes referred to as "Karacatis Ki") and "El Gallo Espuelérico" (loosely translated as "The Spurless Rooster") were humorous takes on real life events. On the first one Don Mon told the story of Rafael, a gambler who loses all his money rolling dice and is then assaulted by his wife Luz María with a broomstick, while their daughters laugh the incident off (one of the girls' laughter is the basis for the song's name). "El Gallo Espuelérico" tells the story of Américo, a guy who brags boastfully about a gamecock he carried with him to a fight. The bird is killed soon after the fight starts, to the amusement of his friends, who tell him the gamecock would be more fierce as part of a chicken rice soup. Mayagüez (pronounced Mah-yah-goo-ehz) is the third largest city of Puerto Rico. ... Barrio is a Spanish word meaning district. ... The University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez (UPRM) —or Recinto Universitario de Mayagüez (RUM) in Spanish— is a state university located in the city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. ... Plena is a traditional form of Puerto Rican music. ... Typical role-playing dice, showing a variety of colors and styles. ... A gamecock is a strong, colorful, and territorial type of chicken, or fowl, bred for maximum aggression. ...

However, a plena standard to this day was born when seamstresses of a local handkerchief factory striked against the factory's owner, Lebanese industrialist William Mamary, and Mamary hired replacement workers (whom the seamstresses considered as scabs). Don Mon wrote "Aló, ¿Quién Ñama" (loosely translated as "Hello, Who' Calling?", sometimes referred to as "Qué Será") as a musical description of the strike. Since the seamstress' strike was organized by local labor leader John Vidal, and patronized by local assemblywoman Maria Luisa Arcelay, they are mentioned in the song. The seamstresses are reportedly calling each other as to raise mutual concern about the poor pay they're getting. Near the end, Don Mon breaks into what his son later called "trabalenguas" (tongue twisters), which in fact is a style of scat singing where the syllables of the actual song are slurred nasally and delivered quickly. The skill was passed from father to son; Efraín became so adept at using "trabalenguas" that he eventually was called "El Rey del Trabalengua" ("The Tongue Twister King") once he became famous. Plena is a traditional form of Puerto Rican music. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... Scat singing is vocalizing either wordlessly or with nonsense words and syllables as employed by jazz singers who create the equivalent of an instrumental solo using only the voice. ...

Efrain's biography

Efraín's mother died when he was a little boy, and Don Mon remarried a few years after. Since the family's economic situation was precarious, Efraín had to support and look after his younger brothers by taking various odd jobs. The one that he was most successful at, besides music, was as a second-baseman for the Indios de Mayaguez, the local winter league baseball team, for which he had been the bat boy at an earlier age.

In his beginnings as a musician, Efraín and a brother formed "El Dúo Huasteco", and sang Mexican folk songs that were popular in Latin America at the time (they even dressed the part). His talent moved Gilbert Mamery (who also happened to be William's son; Gilbert legally changed the family name's spelling to prevent mispronounciations) to feature him as part of musical reviews staged at Mayagüez's San José Theater. He became singer with various local bands, working with bandleaders "Moncho Leña" and William Manzano, both of whom he persuaded to have some of his father's plenas arranged for a full orchestra.

Efraín also began to write his own plenas soon after.

By 1964, Efraín was an accomplished bandleader and singer in Puerto Rico, but since the island is rather small, he did as many other local performers and emigrated to New York City, as to guarantee a living playing music, given the sizeable Latino population there. Flag Seal Nickname: The Big Apple, The Capital of the World[1], Gotham Location Location in the state of New York Government Counties (Boroughs) Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Geographical characteristics Area    - City 1,214. ...

By the mid 1970's, Willie Colon recorded and produced an album with Efraín, named "Se Chavó El Vecindario/There Goes The Neighborhood." This essentially revived Efraín's career and made him famous in a few Latin American countries, particularly in the Dominican Republic. The album had three smash hits, a semi-autobiographical plena named "Ya Llegó" (written for him by fellow Puerto Rican composer and singer Felito Felix) and another called "Julia Lee", the story of a bully who terrorized San Juan's Barrio Obrero neighborhood. A third hit was a medley of "Qué Será" and "Askarakatiskis". Willie Colón (born 28 April 1950) is a Puerto Rican-American salsa musician. ...

He died in 1978 in Manhattan, New York City. He was eventually buried in Mayagüez's Old Municipal Cemetery, gathering the second largest funeral crowd assembled in the city, second only to that of Benjamin Cole, the longest serving mayor in the city's history. An impromptu plena band played his plenas during the walk between the religious service and his burial place. 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ... The Borough of Manhattan, highlighted in yellow, lies between the East River and the Hudson River. ... Flag Seal Nickname: The Big Apple, The Capital of the World[1], Gotham Location Location in the state of New York Government Counties (Boroughs) Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Geographical characteristics Area    - City 1,214. ...

Efraín's son is the percussionist, Javier Rivera. Percussion instruments are played by being struck, shaken, rubbed or scraped. ...

External links

• Plena Libre site mentioning him
• Shopping site mentioning his work