Rolando Sanchez was a teenager when his grandmother completed the paperwork required to bring him and his family to join her in the United States. San Francisco was a long way from Nicaragua, but Sanchez had already acquired the basics of English by listening to Beatles records. He soon found junior high school classmates who shared his interest in music.
Sanchez bought himself a set of timbales and taught himself to play. A neighbor invited him to join a band and Sanchez was on his way. He worked with various musicians, formed his own group, worked side jobs as a studio musician, made his first recording under his own name, and made it his business to also learn the business side of the record industry.
Sanchez approached music with the same attention to detail when he came to Hawaii in 1980. He founded his namesake group, Rolando Sanchez & Salsa Hawaii, in 1985.
Sanchez, 68, had planned to celebrate both anniversaries this weekend. Instead he is anticipating the reissue of his 2016 single, “Aloha Mambo,” on Aug. 29, and the reissue of his first Salsa Hawaii cassette album, “Rhythms of the Islands,” in modern formats later this year.
Congratulations on your anniversaries and the upcoming reissues.
It’s kind of exciting for me to be celebrating so many years. When you’re playing you don’t realize how influential your music can be. I’m just a regular guy here in Honolulu.
Looking back, you recorded “Rhythms of the Islands” with an all-star group of musicians — some Latin, some not, but all excellent — with vocalist Lin Brown stealing the show with her dancing upfront.
She was a maniac dancer, very sexy, very professional, and the band that we had at that time was super clean. Lin was going to come back for the anniversary show and we’re still going to do it. If not this year, it will be next year to celebrate the “35/36 year.”
When you came to Hawaii there were two separate Latin music scenes. One was the folkloric jibaro music played by members of Hawaii’s kamaaina Puerto Rican community for the local Puerto Rican community. The other was the contemporary salsa music deejays played for Puerto Rican military personnel on the bases. You brought contemporary Latin music to mainstream nightclubs. How did you do it?
I took my time. I worked as a pedicab driver and did a Latin music show on KTUH before I decided to put a salsa band together. I was (playing) at Aqua in the Hawaiian Regent (hotel) and then the lambada (dance craze) came out. When the lambada and the “Macarena” came out the whole dancing thing came out (as a pop fad). Everybody was doing it or wanted to do it. I started having dance instructors (teach where we played) and having dance contests.
Is there something about you that might surprise people?
I love poetry. I’ve written some poetry that got published. I love drawing, and I also have a bunch of succulents.
Is there something that you would either like to be doing or to have done by the end of 2025?
I’m working right now on two songs that were previously recorded by many, many different artists, which is going to lead me to a little bit different style of Latin salsa — and then put the styling of Salsa Hawaii into those two songs. I’m also going to keep writing originals. I wrote one for the 35th anniversary, but with all these things happening it’s been sitting on hold. And I’m looking forward to a healthy, long (and) happy life with all my family and friends.
Reach John Berger at jberger@staradvertiser.com.
