MEET VISUAL ARTIST CHARLIE ROSARIO

I want all Latin musicians, vocalists, labels, and designers to know about Charlie Rosario, a great artist who designed some of the great album covers for salsa back in the day (think Eddie Palmieri's "The Sun Of Latin Music" for instance). Charlie is alive and well, working on fabulous paintings, sculptures, and collage art. He's still designing, and also is well versed in photography. His specialty - as far as the subject matter for his art - is the roots of the Latino experience - African rumba drumming, Aztec and Mayan imagery, and Taino themes. He knows his colonial and Pre-Columbian (B.B., as in Before Columbus) history as well, so his paintings and sculptures are very accurate and evocative of exotic times in the past. Charlie is also engaged in modern art making as well, working with an ongoing experimental, abstract vision that uses color and geometric shapes to evoke the energy and spice of Latin music. Charlie thinks outside the box - just check him out in my book, "Cocinando"! If you are a Chicano rock artist, check out the Aztec and Mayan 'sculpture graphics' on this page. If you are a salsero, you can commission any scene you like, from portraits to island vignettes, from musicians playing to El Barrio, from psychedelic and surreal to folkloric - he has many styles. If you are in jazz or Latin jazz, Charlie has the image for you. And, if you are in any 'típico' or folkloric music - Santería, rumba, jibaro - Charlie knows all about those subjects and will blow your mind with his creativity. he has been around musicians his whole life - his father was in a group with pete "Conde' rodríguez in the 60s, and his brother is a famous percussionist who has played with all the greats, from Harlow to Willie Colon, Mongo to David Bowie. Charlie has soaked up all this musical goodness (and is a poet and musician in his own right too!), so when you are dealing with him, you are dealing with an experienced master, a great soul who has been there, done that, seen it all. Stay tuned for many more postings of Charlie's artwork over the coming months. Please do not steal these images. If you are seriously interested in contracting with me or Charlie to do album design with his artwork, please contact me through the blog. Gracias — DJ Bongohead, January 2009