Draco Rosa is one of the few artists in any genre who achieve artistic credibility and immense commercial success, which continues with the Sony Latin release of his new album, Draco: After its first week on sale, the recording landed at #4 on Billboard's Latin Pop albums chart and #11 on the overall Latin albums chart.
The New York Times has dubbed Draco "Latin music's most successful anomaly." He has managed the balancing act by assuming numerous guises over the course of his storied career. (He even produced one artist's album under a female alias.) His aptly eponymous new album, however, is a transparent document of the last few years of his life: In the time since his Latin-GRAMMY-winning crossover album, Mad Love, Rosa has been farming with his wife, children and friends on their plot of land in Utuado, Puerto Rico, where he has immersed himself in regional music as well as styles from around the world. Though the move was largely a turn away from the music business, songs have come to him more organically and quickly than ever before.
Though Rosa has proven himself capable of lushly layered productions and hook-laden pop songs, much of the beauty of Draco, his first studio album in five years,lies in its effortless simplicity. Whereas Mad Love was sung mostly in English, Draco is entirely in Spanish. Although previous albums have taken him two years to make, Draco came together in just six months. Ironically, he wasn't really intending to make the album. Instead, he has been planting and tending some 8,000 trees on his farm, Hacienda Horizonte, and developing his own brand of organic coffee, Café Draco. And so, while publicity photos from Mad Love that show him impeccably groomed and dressed, his hands now appear rough and worn from working the land for food.
All of this is a dramatic shift for Rosa, who has garnered countless accolades as a pioneering Latin rock artist and a composer and producer of other artists' enormous pop hits. His 2004 album Mad Love won a Latin GRAMMY, entered the Billboard Heatseekers Chart at #2 and earned vast acclaim, including a performance on "The Tonight Show." Rolling Stone called Mad Love a "bi-cultural album that reflects both [Rosa's] Puerto Rican heritage and his weakness for arena rock, and added, "The hooks...are massive and addictive." Blender wrote that Draco "has the skills to make hits but longs to make art." Rosa's 1996 album Vagabundo, produced by legendary Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera, has been named by Spin Magazine one of the Ten Greatest Rock en Español Records of All Time." Entertainment Weekly included Draco on a list of the 100 most creative people in the entertainment industry. Last month, he won his most recent Latin GRAMMY for the live album El Teatro en Vivo.
Rosa is probably best known to English-speaking audiences for his role in Ricky Martin's career. Under an alias, Ian Blake, Rosa co-wrote and co-produced the majority of the songs on Martin's breakthrough album A Medio Vivir, including the hit single, "María." Under his own name, Rosa went on to co-write "Livin' la Vida Loca" and "The Cup of Life."
A first single from Draco, "Paraiso Prometido,"is available now. Draco will tour internationally in support of the new album, including a major concert March 12 at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico. An itinerary will be announced soon.
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