The salsa band was 45 minutes on the first set at the Lula Lounge last Saturday when Charlie Montoyo appeared at the front door. The music club owner found Montoyo and led him and his group to the table reserved for them closest to the stage.
56-year-old Montoyo took off his jacket and waved to a band member he knew. After a while, Montoyo, the manager of the Toronto Blue Jays, one of the top teams in Major League Baseball, was there with the band and handed over the classic Latin American music Guiro. A smile remained on his face for the next two and a half hours.
“Tonight we are accompanied by a great Blue Jays manager,” his self-titled band lead singer Francisco Franco told the Spanglish audience. He signaled Montoyo to join him in front of the stage and continued. “This guy has a perfect job with our team. Please applaud.”
Montoyo stepped forward, hugged Franco, smiled and waved at the crowd. But he soon returned to his favorite position: in the instrument, with the band members.
Baseball may be the driving force of Montoyo’s life, but music is the underlying beat. His stadium office is full of bongos, conga, timbales, maracas and records. He plays salsa music to relax before the game. And sometimes he spends weekends with Giro with a nightclub band during the season. Guiro is an instrument that produces sound by rubbing a stick against a hollow gourd with a notch.
“Charlie’s jumping to the stage was the whole of our relationship,” Montoyo’s wife, Sam, said in a recent telephone interview. “I remember looking up during the wedding after talking to people. He’s on stage with the band.”
In the field, the Blue Jays are a diverse and vibrant group. After the player’s home run, his teammates hurriedly got him a blue jacket with the names of many countries represented by the team, from Canada to the Dominican Republic, Cuba and South Korea.
Montoyo is their noisy leader, but it took a long time to reach this point. After 18 years of highly successful management of Tampa Bay Rays minors and 4 years of coaching in Major League Baseball, he finally got the chance to manage Toronto in 2019.
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At every step of the road to Montoyo, the soundtrack was salsa.
“He was astounding,” said Ross Atkins, general manager of the Blue Jays, about Montoyo. “His experience has always been fascinating personally. His minor league experience, his playing experience, his cultural experience. He is exactly what we hire him and then some. I was hoping for that. “
From the small Florida town of Puerto Rico, Montoyo grew up around salsa and baseball. After four games at the Montreal Expo in 1993 and 1,028 games with minors, Montoyo retired and began his coaching career.
“I always wanted to be a baseball player,” he said sitting in his office at Rogers Center in Toronto. “I never thought I would be a musician. But I played more and more little by little. And I love salsa. But now that’s right, I want to be a musician.”
Unlike his brother, Montoyo did not take music classes or join school bands. As he grew up, he learned music organically. In a Puerto Rican tradition of parranda like Christmas carols at night, he helped play maracas, guiros and tambourines from door to door. At a beach rally, he saw others playing conga and picked it up himself.
Montoyo has a large collection of musical instruments in his permanent residence in Tucson, Arizona, and in the office of the Rogers Center, which is also a shrine in the same location as Puerto Rico and Salsa. His wife surprised him with an autographed painting by his favorite musician, Herman Olivera, and a new conga set for the office after being hired by Toronto.
Montoyo said meeting and acquainting his musical heroes, such as Roberto Roena, Oscar Hernandez, Eddie Palmieri and Olivera, is more meaningful than meeting many famous baseball players. ..
During Spring 2019 training, Montoyo hosted an instant performance at his office in Dannyden, Florida, with singer Marc Anthony, who has a baseball agency representing Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr.AguanileMontoyo, a classic salsa by Willie Colon and Héctor Lavote, dealt with the bongos. Other members of the Blue Jays coach staff from Puerto Rico attended.
(The night Montoyo recently visited Lula Lounge, he sent a text message to Anthony about his performance, “Wow,” Anthony wrote back.Papito.. I love it. Made my day. “)
Montoyo frequently holds jam sessions. He once invited several musicians from the club to his office and they played until 4am.
“We play a highly competitive sport. His position has attracted a lot of pressure and attention from the moment he walks in the clubhouse,” said Hector Lebron, an interpreter for the Blue Jays who played for Montoyo. (44 years old) said. Tampa Bay minor leaguer. “He thinks a little relaxed with music.”
Montoyo first performed in the Lula Lounge in 2019. During his pre-match batting practice in May, he met some of the club’s musicians who heard about his musical abilities through mutual friends. In their conversation, the famous local artist Luis “Louisito” Orbegoso told Montoyo that he knew what he was talking about and that he invited him to the club that night. Montoyo came and played, which started their friendship.
“Whenever he’s in Toronto, he calls me to ask. When will he go? rumbearBorn in Peru and immigrated to Canada at the age of 12, 51-year-old Orbegoso said: We are pure salsa. “
From 2020 to 2021, Montoyo was one of Toronto’s most missed ones when Canada’s pandemic border restrictions forced the Blue Jays to play most of their home games at spring training facilities in Buffalo and Florida. It was one.
“He has a house here,” said Jose Ortega, co-owner of the Lula Lounge, who began hosting salsa dance lessons in a Toronto apartment in 2000, a permanent restaurant he co-owned two years later. And grew up in a club. Jose Nieves. “We consider him almost another band member.”
Montoyo played in the ruler lounge a total of six times, including two this season after his home game on Saturday afternoon. He often went with team officials and coaches and brought his wife when visiting from Arizona. She stays with her youngest child during the school year. Montoyo was tired on the day of his recent visit — the Blue Jays were in the midst of 20 consecutive days of games — but the club is his escape.
“If I knew Sam was Saturday and lost a tough match and I was alone in the apartment, she told me to go there and have fun,” Montoyo said.
He was in the ruler lounge with Francisco Franco Worldwide Salsa Band after the Blue Jays defeated the Houston Astros, a game sent off in the fifth inning because Montoyo claimed to be called the third strike to Guerrero. ..
“We call it a swing,” said Alex Nar, 42, a band percussionist who lent Montoyo a guilloché and led him to a more contemporary arrangement. “He has a natural swing to music. He feels it in his heart. He has a rhythm.”
After the first set, Montoyo took pictures with a few fans. While the DJ was playing salsa and reggaeton classics, Montoyo rushed to an empty stage to play a conga with the song. And when the band returned for their second set, he joined them again.
“Baseball is very Caribbean,” said Ortega, who was born in Ecuador and grew up in New York. “It’s Puerto Rico, it’s the whole rhythm and style and panacea that Dominicans, Venezuela, and Latinos bring to the game. That atmosphere, it’s kind of going together. So for me, when Charlie was there, I thought, “Wow, this is an interesting, perfect marriage of all those things.”
Montoyo has sought to represent his island in every aspect of his life, from the field to the stage.
“It’s hard to reach this level,” he said of his work. “I didn’t really expect to reach it after so many years. So I have the Puerto Rican flag on my gloves everywhere. I’m in my hometown and music I’m proud. “
Shortly after midnight, Montoyo ended with a few songs left on the second set of his recent visit to the Lula Lounge. He returned Guiro to Nar, gave him a hug, and said goodbye. He didn’t want to leave, but the Blue Jays played a 1:00 pm match. He took his jacket and left with an employee of the team he was with. He will come back.