Ramon y su Son

Don Ramon, it’s a character from the popular Mexican TV show El Chavo del Ocho, popular in the 70s in Latin America and Spain. Thinking that Alexander Betancur was having a lot in common with this lazy and smooth talker guy characterized by his big ears, his friends started to give him the nickname of Ramon. A few years later, just after he arrived in Montreal in 2005 and tired of playing with those cheesy Latin bands that sounded all the same to him, Alexander decided to start his own musical project. Thinking of the nickname that stuck to him while he was growing up in Medellin, he decided to call his new project Ramon y su son.

The fusion of sounds, rhythms and languages that characterized Ramon y su son comes from his Colombian roots, where the Afro-Colombian rhythms of cumbia and champeta mix with salsa, and his nomadic and adventurous mind that grasps everything around him. After being surrounded by the flavors and colors of Colombia, Alexander leaves Medellin for Miami at the age of 19, and then, looking for new inspirations, moves to New York where he stays for a bit before moving to Ontario, and finally Montreal where he lives since now seven years. After he arrives in Montreal, he discovers by coincidence the son cubano, a musical genre from the Cuba of the 20s, with a Cuban band playing in the Old Port of Montreal. He joins the band with his maracas, and immediately falls in love with the son, which he learns to master and blends to his musical range. To those traditional Latin rhythms that are cumbia, champeta and son, Ramon mixes a little bit of reggae and ska, which makes a fusion that still keeps the essence of roots music.

The activist spirit of his Latino American roots and of the Québécois people comes out through the lyrics of his songs. Wearing the red square of the student struggle and calling for change and social justice, he sings for the respect of north and south indigenous communities and Mother Earth. But as a good Latino Americans, he can’t stop himself from singing some love songs between his socially committed songs.

Ramon is a self-taught guy. Starting to play percussion at the age of 12, he then learns guitar, bass and singing. It’s with the same dedication and willpower that after 4 years of playing every Sundays at l’Escalier, a small bar on Saint-Catherine street in Montreal, he gained a loyal public coming every week and filling up the small place. This opportunity gives him the chance to experiment new sounds and develop his ease on stage and his capacity to improvise with his band.