Alex Matos was a chemistry and biology teacher at a school for some time before finding the perfect formula for his tasty sauce, a rhythm in which he is now 15 years old and which he is now renewing with an album in homage to Anthony Ríos.
“Before music I was a teacher at the Emilio Prud’Homme School, I taught chemistry, computer science, English and biology,” he recalls.
In those days, an occasional methodology he used was to teach singing classes, causing laughter and ridicule to his students.
“The boys made fun of me, but I told them, ‘Don’t worry, you’re laughing now that one day you’ll have to pay to see me.’
However, until then he was not clear or determined about singing, because after finishing high school, he went to Apec University to study industrial engineering at Apec.
His first close contact with the music industry took place in a business he set up with a brother.
In the internet bar, located on the Mella road, there was also a karaoke, in which he began to give free rein to his role as a singer.
Soon, a cousin who had resources saw him singing and wanted to record a music production for him and contributed a few resources, but along the way he did not stay in the project.
He no longer counted on his cousin’s help, he looked for other horizons. A friend gave him the opportunity to sing in the tournaments he organized in hotels in Bavaro and Punta Cana.
+ A helping hand
During those trips to Punta Cana, he met the businessman Juan Carlos Payán, who suggested that they work together on an art project.
From 2006 to 2011, five difficult years passed, “with many vicissitudes, trying to place myself in the media” without major progress.
One day, he went to the house of the musician Víctor Waill (+ 1952-20019) to ask him to quote him “to see how much I can get and to pay for it while walking”, a musical arrangement.
There was born salsa that changed his destiny: “If you understood”, the song that Anthony Ríos had popularized in ballads decades before (+ 1950-2019). “Master Victor Waill did not charge me a penny for arranging that song that opened the doors of the world and gave me the opportunity to make myself known and get out of the artistic invisibility I was in,” he said.
The song, “If You Understood”, was delivered ready on December 31, 2010 and during 2011 was a musical success. There were times when Sexappeal, Michel el Buenón and José Alberto El Canario rose for salsa in the country.
+ New tribute
Just ten years after that event in the life of Alexis Suero Matos, his real name, he decided to pay homage to that eternal friend who now blesses him from heaven, Anthony Ríos. Thursday, March 4, is the second anniversary of his departure.
AJD Management, chaired by Amelfis Díaz, released the album “For You Anthony … Tribute”.
There are 11 songs that make up the novelty of the album “Salsero de Ahora”, as Matos is known.
The proposal “For you Anthony … tribute” are currently playing the songs “Fatalidad” (arranged in a ballad by DJ Sammy) and “La mancha” (arranged in salsa by Johan Minaya). Alex Matos has a deep admiration for Anthony Ríos, inherited from his mother, who always listened to his songs at home.
“In the last few days they have asked me if I am the son of a famous person, of whom I would be and I told Anthony Ríos; I say I could have been his son because my mother was a fan of his, my mother loved him, “Alex said Tuesday afternoon during the audiovisual presentation of the new album, in room 16 of VIPs in Caribbean cinemas. Plaza Downtown, in Santo Domingo.
And you wouldn’t like to imitate him in the number of children (Anthony was 26 years old? He was asked during the press activity. His answer, amid laughter: “No, my time is up, I’m left with one, I have to am 25 ”).
Songs.
The album includes “Understand More and Love Yourself Less” (arranged by Noah Cid Santana); “The Z” (arranged by Wilbert Taveras); “Like Yesterday” (arrangement: Edwardo Sarante / Yiyo); “You will be left alone” (arrangement: Enmanuel Frías (Manuel Piano); “Imagination” (arrangement: Joan Minaya).
Likewise, “If You Knew the Lady” (arrangement: Wilbert Taveras); “If One Day You Feel Alone” (arrangement: Henry Jiménez), “Drug” (arrangement: Noah Cid Santana) and “Goodbye Song” (arrangement: Wilbert Taveras).