Sheila E.: The music icon and legend releases first-ever salsa record, ‘Bailar’

I wanted to do it a long time ago. I grew up as a Latin jazz artist, and then when I became Sheila E., I signed as an R&B artist. But growing up, I’ve been listening to salsa my whole life, and it’s challenging music to play because it’s specific beats that you have to play in sections. I wasn’t raised to play music in that way. Latin jazz is a little more free, but salsa is all about the clave. So if you don’t know the clave, then you’re in trouble. So I waited, and I said, “One day I’ll maybe be able to do a salsa record.” I met Tony Succar. He was doing a PBS special for Michael Jackson, and I was a part of that performance, and his band was killing it. And I was like, “Oh my God, you’re so young. You would be the one to do the record with me. You get it; you understand it.” I said, “Let’s just do the salsa record. I would love for you to co-produce the record with me, and let’s get the musicians together.” And he talked about the repertoire, and I said, “I have a lot of songs that I’ve written already, and maybe we can flip some of those songs in the salsa.” And that’s exactly what we did as well. So for Tony and me to speak about it, it took two years, and then another two years went by.

So it’s been a minute since we’ve been talking about this project, and it’s finally here. It took almost two years to finish this project because of scheduling. And I have a couple of other bands as well, and getting artists to perform on it and getting the right musicians to play, I think it was really important for me to get this done now since I’m getting older.

I believe that by doing this with Tony, I want young people to understand how important this music is. And it’s now because I see on social media so many young people learning instruments now and singing and playing, and it’s like, you guys, you have to go back and listen to Celia Cruz and Tito Puente and all the greats that have played and that have passed away, but this music needs to live on. And it’s like, now is the time. Now is the time.

I used to call him grandpa, and he got mad at me and said, “Don’t ever call me grandpa.” I was like, “Okay, godfather. Okay.” Yes, he was my godfather. He was so inspirational, especially to my dad as well, them hanging out together so young and for so many years which influenced my dad to play percussion as well. My father’s first instrument was saxophone, and he played a little bit of percussion, but after seeing Tito and Mongo, he’s just like... And Ray Barretto is like, “I want to play percussion.” But Tito came around the house and hung out with us, and we would go see him perform. And the thing about it, again, hearing his music and being able to sit in with his bands in New York when I was 17, 18 years old, it was insane because I knew a lot of the songs by heart. But to play those specific parts, Tito was like, “I want you to come play.” And I was like, “But Grandpa, I mean, godfather, Theo, whatever. I don’t know the parts.”

He goes, “It doesn’t matter. You just go and you play and you be you. Forget about those guys that you’re not playing the right part. You just play who you are and it’s okay.” And that was what my dad would do as well. It’s like, just be you. And that was really important because I didn’t realize how many women musicians there were as far as percussion players. We didn’t know very many. Maybe one, maybe two.

So the first person as a woman playing drums and percussion was Karen Carpenter and her brother. They had a television show, and I was really young and I said to my Dad, I was like, “Oh, look, she plays drums. I play drums. Well, how come me and my brother don’t have a TV show?” I just thought of us as equal. And it was like I was young and I thought, well, I could do that. How come I don’t have a television show? And she was one.

And then the other one, I remember hearing about a lady named Bobbye Hall, and I think she played with Bob Dylan, I’m not sure. And she was a percussion player, but there weren’t many percussion players as far as women that we knew of. I grew up listening to my Dad. My Mom plays a little bit of percussion, but born and raised in the Bay Area in Oakland, you’re used to having a male and female coming together outside in the park.

We would just jam and everyone would pick up an instrument and play. So it didn’t seem so off until I left the Bay Area and noticed that, I guess I’m the only one in the building right now. I was the only woman in a lot of the bands, and it was different.

It’s interesting because I knew I wanted to do three cover songs on this record. I could have done a whole record of covers because there are so many bands and artists that I loved growing up listening to. And of course, I did one for Tito. But Celia, she’s the queen. There was no one like her—not a one. I can’t even compare her to... She’s not to be compared to. And she was it. She’s the only one.

And when I was able to meet her in my teens, I just liked, oh my God, Celia Cruz and I don’t speak Spanish. And we had conversations. They were short, but we had conversations, and she was fine. But to be able to perform with her was ridiculous. It was me being able to sit in at this one show with Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, and Cachao. It was incredible. You don’t take those times for granted, but knowing how strong she was as a woman and going through what she went through to come here to this country to pursue her career and be who she was and sing her music and her passion, I looked up stories about her, and I saw every documentary or remake of her and her story and all of it.

I love bringing people together. I love reaching out to, especially the young women who are up and coming musicians, not just percussion players and drummers, but women in general playing instruments, even vocalists. And I reach out to people from all over the world at least a couple of times during the week and just texting them and saying, “I just want to let you know keep doing what you’re doing. I’m a fan and I love that.”

And they’re freaking out. It’s like, this is the next generation. I’m encouraging you to keep moving. We want to find the next Sheila E. We want to find the next Celia Cruz. We want the new music to come. We’re looking at the young people to bring this to us, the new model business wise, as far as the industry, please somebody come up with a new model because this model in the industry as far as what’s going on now with the streaming is hurting us. It’s killing us.

And I think that we’re the only entity in the world that does not get paid for their services. And it’s unfair because it’s like you coming to me, “Hey, Sheila E, can I borrow your car?” And I give you the keys to my car and you never come back. That’s what streaming is. You’re stealing my works, something that I put my heart and soul into, and then you want to pay me less than a half of a cent.

And so then how do these up and coming artists pursue their career when they’re not sure how they’re getting paid? And it’s the same for us. So we’re looking for all of these things. And for me, it’s like I just want to learn. I want to figure out, I want to help create the new model for the music industry to help better the industry so that everyone gets their part in financially what they’re owed and deserve, and deservingly making sure that they’re being taken care of and all of those things. It is just really, for me, it is a community. It’s not about me. It’s just helping others is what I love to do. Yeah.

Of course. I’m nervous, which is a good thing. I’m excited, you have to be. Never doing a salsa record ever before, it had to be authentic. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have done it. And anything that I do, I want to make sure that I win in a way that is really just being transparent and truthful with who I am and letting people know this is my first time ever doing a salsa record.

This is a different thing, and I hope that people like it. I love it. And I can say I’m really proud of this record because of all the musicians and the artists that put everything into this project. This is the best record I’ve ever done, hands down. And that’s emotional because it took forever to get here to this point, musically, to be able to do this. And people, they just don’t understand how hard that is. It’s crazy. But I did it. That’s all. I did it.