Known as 'Maelo' and later 'El Sonero Mayor,' Ismael Rivera grew up alongside childhood friend Rafael Cortijo in Santurce and became the electrifying lead voice of Cortijo y su Combo in the 1950s, bringing Afro-Puerto Rican bomba and plena into the island's mainstream. After a prison term interrupted his career, he returned as a solo artist whose booming, playful soneo made him one of salsa's most revered vocal stylists.

the sound in question

1978

Las Caras LindasIsmael Rivera