In Honor of the Legendary Pepe Castillo

Jose “Pepe” Luis Castillo of W 50th St. in Hell’s Kitchen passed away on Monday, April 3, 2023 at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City at age 79. He is survived by his wife Nuris (Rodriguez) Castillo, his four children Marítza, Jose “Pepito”, Diola and Alejandro, and seven grandchildren; Randy, Luke, Estrella, Yasmín, Joseph, Solomon, and baby blue (To be named soon!), and four great-grandchildren. Pepe, as he was known by many of his friends and family, was born originally in Guayama, Puerto Rico on October 11, 1943 to Jose Luis Sr. and Maria Concepcion Diaz. He started making music as a young man in Puerto Rico, but had dreams to become a more prominent artist around the world. He traveled for some of his younger years as a performer in a circus and later as a budding musician with a band called The Joeking Birds, before becoming a prominent figure in the cultural, artistic and political movements of Puerto Rican artists in New York. He attended the Conservatorio de Puerto Rico for some years, showing such a talent that he would often assist the teacher during class. After meeting his first wife, Millie, and joining Cortijo in the 1970s they relocated to the Edison Hotel in NYC. His first born daughter, Marítza, was lovingly raised by Pepe’s parents and he would reconnect with her some years later. Pepe’s neighbor downstairs, Don Gabriel Oller, recommended an apartment to him and Millie, and they moved into the small apartment on W 50th, where he would start creating music that drew from his Puerto Rican roots and also brought together people from all walks of life.

Although far from the first music he composed, in 1973 Pepe got invited to record Rafael Cortijo’s final album originally called “La Máquina Del Tiempo'' or "The Time Machine” At the time Pepe was a pianist and had collaborated with Cortijo on a commercial for WKDM radio. He only had three new arrangements at the time, but the music was something different from salsa and Cortijo was very interested in creating something with him and the cuatro player Edgardo Miranda. So the idea was brought to Harvey Averne, a prominent recording artist for CoCo records at the time, and the album “Cortijo and His Time Machine y su Máquina del Tiempo'' was recorded and released in 1974. While the album was seen as a masterpiece by many musicians at the time, the release of the album did not gain wide-acclaim because it was promoted with traditional Latin dance music, like salsa, but was a sound completely separate as a fusion of Latin folklore and jazz. Promoting the album by traveling around the U.S. and Latin America provided Pepe with the opportunity to work with many prominent Latin artists of the time, like Ismael Rivera, Héctor Santos, and Robert Roena to name a few. Pepe felt that the name “Time Machine” was symbolic since he knew that this new sound wouldn’t be understood until later in the future. Two years later his son, Jose “Pepito”, was born in NYC as Pepe started to look more to his future in music.

After his work with Cortijo Pepe went on to form a group with Edgardo Miranda called Estampa Criolla and they released an album of the same name in 1984 with Budda Records along with “Banana Land”, one of his best known albums. They came out as a Puerto Rican folklore band and combined all different types of Latin music, including merengue, salsa, plena, jazz and folk. The two albums they produced provided some fame to Pepe as a prominent Latin composer, poet and musician and he traveled with the group for years promoting their brand new genre in the United States and Canada. His work was heralded and he even gained keys to the city of New York in the late eighties for his prominent work as a musician.

Throughout his years Pepe continued to explore his role within his community, creating artwork and working with prominent Puerto Rican figures in New York City, including José E. Serrano, former member of the US House of Representatives for New York. He became an activist for movements to unite all Puerto Rican people to come together as one people, including speaking out about the diaspora that many Puerto Rican, and other cultures, experienced in order to be accepted into the American ways of life. He was one of the first men to organize a Three Kings Day parade in the city in the 1970s that included wild animals and performers from all around the area, a tradition that carries on still today through El Museo del Barrio located on 5th Ave. He even sent some of his drawings and letters to the former president, Barack Obama, but never did receive a response. He divorced and remarried in the late eighties to his second wife, Gladys, having his daughter Diola and son Alejandro. He spent many days and nights in upstate New York with his wife’s family, leading him to even purchase a house upstate later in life where he would find peace in the mountains, free to enjoy the outdoors away from the city of iron. In the early nineties he taught part-time at the Johnny Colón School of Music in East Harlem, teaching Latin music theory to younger generations, then some years later at the Berklee College of Music for the jazz drummer, Bobby Sanabria. Since he had only worked as a traveling musician for years, Pepe decided to get his certificate to become an interpreter for Spanish speaking families. This started his career working for the NYS Bronx family courthouse in 2005 as their Spanish interpreter and he worked with the courts up until he fell ill in 2022.

It wouldn’t be until the winter of 1999 that Pepe would release his final album in life, a documentary-theatrical-musical concept titled “Jolope! A Christmas Fiesta” with Cuatromania of Yomo Toro and Luis Rodriguez. The album consists of 10 songs that are meant to be uplifting and celebrate Puerto Rican Christmas, with a focus on the cuatro as the primary instrument. While working as a teacher and later as an interpreter he continued to produce artwork and compose music for other artists, even obtaining royalties for his music and gaining more prominence as a composer. He also had his artwork displayed in galleries around NYC in the later 2000s, continuing to be an activist and cultural pioneer of Puerto Rican artistry. In the early 2000s he remarried for the last time to his wife, Nuris, and they lived a life between New York City and Newburgh, NY for the remainder of his years. In 2022 Pepe was taken to urgent care in NYC because he caught the COVID-19 virus, which caused irreparable damage to his kidneys and would force him to go on dialysis for the rest of his days. Despite this, at 79 years old, he was still making music and even had a few songs recorded, to hopefully be released post-mortem.

Jose Pepe Castillo was a Puerto Rican, musician, composer, poet, artist, comedian, father, brother, friend, and cultural icon with ties to so many that he has left behind. He will be missed and cherished for his legacy as a pioneer of Latin jazz and as a cultural icon of Puerto Rico. The family is planning to have a large celebration of his life in the coming weeks or months and will announce a date and location soon in New York City. They ask that donations be made to El Museo del Barrio in his name. En el words de Pepe Castillo: “Pa’lante nunca pa’trás”.

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