That trip to LA introduced him to other artist one being Coyote of Ponce, Puerto Rico. " Vamos A Bailar" was a song written by Alejandro, the group used to win with. In 1992, Valentino performed on Buscando Estrellas, the Latin version of the American show Star Search, and won in the band category. Traveling to LA, they worked with producers Michael Sembello, and Preston Glass, on demos pursuing a record deal. They performed original bilingual pop songs recorded at Sugarhill Studios in Houston. Valentino continued to perform, but making the crossover to more Latin American pop music market. These relationships would lead to further collaboration many years later. Albert "Tiger" Diaz, another singer in the group, recorded a solo project and he too hired Alejandro for arranging and keyboard programing. Tony Guerrero of La Sombra from Chicago, asked Rodney to sequence and program sounds for their projects, and a solo project by the lead singer Gavino Guerrero. Quintanilla III asked Rodney to come work with Selena contributing arrangement and production services on her song "Amame", on the Entre Mi Mundo project. During these travel he connected with many great musicians and began to collaborate on other projects. Valentino toured in the Tejano circuit with great artist like Little Joe y La Familia, Groupo Mazz, Selena y Los Dinos, La Sombra, and La Mafia to name a few. But the calls came to help other artist in their quest to incorporate electronic instruments. Rodney's reputation grew as a skilled music programmer, and he continued to work on his performance technique. The band would perform concert using these various technologies, midi sequencing backing tracks, triggering audio samples, and blending electronic pop sounds with the tradition Tejano arrangements. Valentino was known throughout the state as the most electronic band in Tejano, in a genre where traditional instruments of drums, bass, guitars, and accordions were the norm. His keyboard arsenal grew to include an E-mu Emax, Roland R-8 drum machine and a Yamaha C1 music computer, one of the first MS-DOS computers made to run music software. Technology was fast becoming the norm in music and Alejandro took the opportunity to learn about MIDI, sequencing, sampling, and other digital technologies available at the time. Texas musician Joel Guzman gave him lessons not only on technique but playing in the Tejano style. He quickly mastered the synthesizer and its capabilities, but his music technique was limited. Alejandro joined the band on keyboards, having taught himself after saving a year to buy his first keyboard, an Ensoniq ESQ-1. Valentino was led by David Flores, who departed another Houston band called La Mafia. From an early age music was all around, and his diverse influences only help broaden his music appreciation and creative palette.Īlejandro's professional career began as a senior in high school, with the co-founding of Tejano-pop band Valentino. Attending schools in Houston's 5th ward, he was heavily influenced by the sweet sounds of soul, intimacy of jazz and hard hits of hip hop. Living on the east side, he tasted all the spices of Salsa music, Tejano and life lessons told through Mariachi music. A product of Houston's inner city neighborhoods, Alejandro grew up in the barrios and ghettos that would enrich his consciousness. Rodney Alejandro is an American musician, composer, arranger, producer and audio engineer raised in Houston, Texas.
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