Jorge Luis Piloto was also among the Latin Grammy nominees

November 24, 2023

At the 24th annual Latin Grammy Awards ceremony, held on November 16th, lovers of Cuban music celebrated the awards won by Omara Portuondo, Camilo Valencia (alongside Venezuelan Richard Bravo), Rafael Valencia, Yadam González (with Fonseca and Yoel Henríquez), Chucho Valdés, Paquito D'Rivera and Arturo Sandoval.

Furthermore, alongside those accolades, the nominations of Septeto Santiaguero, Orquesta Faílde or Renesito Avich were also applauded, as well as another, although indirectly, dedicated to Jorge Luis Piloto Alsar, a son of this Island considered one of the most successful Latin composers of recent decades.

Although he was not pre-selected in any category, Piloto's name was present at the gala in Seville, Spain, thanks to Septeto Acarey directed by Cuban Reynier Pérez, which was nominated in Best Traditional Tropical Album for the recording En Tiempo de Son, Homenaje a las canciones de Jorge Luis Piloto. This production, released in May 2023 by the company ONErpm, consists of 16 songs authored by José Luis.

But the Latin Grammys are not new territory for this islander, who between 2002 and the present has accumulated 23 nominations and one award, the latter obtained in 2009 in the Best Tropical Song category for Yo no sé mañana, a successful salsa hit co-written by him and his friend Jorge Villamizar (of Bacilos, a Colombian band discovered by Piloto during his time at Warner), and included on the album Ciclos by Nicaraguan Luis Enrique.

From Cárdenas to Miami, with a stopover in Havana
Jorge Luis was born on January 15, 1955 in Cárdenas, Matanzas, and shortly after turning 16 years old he came to Havana with his brother and his divorced mother. The three of them together shared a small dwelling in the El Pilar area, located in the municipality of Cerro.

In those years, the teenager dedicated himself to wandering through the capital guitar in hand, making his music purely by will. "Havana gave me foresight, it taught me that there was a world beyond Cárdenas and as I fell in love with my new city, I began to dream of another," he stated in 2013.

Between that and constant visits to Estadio Latinoamericano, time slipped away, until military service called him. With the group Habana 75, made up of members of the Youth Army of Labor (EJT), he participated in the International Festival of Youth and Students in those years.

After returning to civilian life, Jorge Luis began making his way through the complex and twisted artistic landscape of the era until a song of his, Decir tu nombre, orchestrated by Paquito d'Rivera and sung by Bobby Carcassés, achieved success in the Adolfo Guzmán competition and gave him the first recognition of his young career.

Despite that happy moment, Jorge Luis recounts that he did not receive opportunities to grow as a musician and so he became clearer than ever that he wanted to leave Cuba. After working for a period in a mineral coal factory, he finally achieved his goal in 1980, when he left for the United States. His trip to Miami was made from Mariel.

After a long stormy night aboard a shrimp boat carrying more than 400 Cubans, Piloto arrived on the other side of the Florida Strait in a state similar to what he had when he arrived in the Cuban capital: without money, but with many ideas for new songs. He had to work several years loading suitcases at the airport before, driven by his wife, he decided to buy a new guitar and with it unleash his creativity once again.

Rapid and sustained rise
In 1983, in Puerto Rico, Cuban-American Lisette Álvarez recorded the single titled La noche, written jointly by Piloto and Ricardo Eddy Martínez. Later, they would continue their partnership with the singles A veces and Enamorado, the latter a duet with her husband, Willy Chirino.

Thanks to those collaborations with Lisette and Chirino, the reputation of this man from Matanzas began to grow and a couple of years later, together with Rudy Pérez, he created the song Por ella, which was sung by stars José José and José Feliciano. That hit would mark the beginning of his great rise.

In 1988 he was hired by Sony Music as an assistant in the Artists and Repertoire (A&R) division, where he worked until 1996. During that period, in the role of talent scout and composer, Jorge Luis signed and helped develop the careers of future stars such as Puerto Ricans Gilberto Santa Rosa, Jerry Rivera and Victor Manuelle.

Later, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) awarded him in 1993 its inaugural award for Latin Composer of the Year. Much later, in 2010, the same ASCAP gave him the Golden Note Award, "in honor of his songwriting and influence on Latin music around the world".

Piloto later worked at Warner Music Group and is currently on the roster of Universal Music Publishing Group, which makes him one of the fortunate ones who has been in the service of three of the world's largest recording companies.

During his extraordinary artistic career, Piloto has written more than 800 songs, both solo and in co-authorship with other composers such as Raúl del Sol, Gustavo Arenas or Claudia Brant.

"I write a lot. There is much pleasure for me in what I do. I don't do it with the aim of writing it just so someone has to record it for me. Some songs stay there tucked away for years and don't come out for years, until an artist appears," he said in August of this same year.

Among the hits that have his credit are Perdóname and No pensé enamorarme otra vez, by Gilberto Santa Rosa; Que le den candela (Celia Cruz), Fabricando fantasías (Tito Nieves), Falsas esperanzas (Christina Aguilera), Quítame ese hombre (Yolandita Monge, Pilar Montenegro), Cómo olvidar (Olga Tañón), No me acostumbro (Rey Ruiz), Cómo se cura una herida (Jaci Velázquez), Tú no le amas, le temes and Mi mundo, both credited to Luis Enrique.

He has also worked with other artists and bands such as Oscar D'León, Luis Miguel, Chayanne, Marta Sánchez, Cheo Feliciano, La India, Isaac Delgado, Lolita Flores, David Bustamante, Carlos Vives, Ednita Nazario, Myriam Hernández, La Mafia, Dyango and Mariah Carey, for whom he made the Spanish version of Hero.

Among his recent works are the song Como en Las Vegas, by Olga Tañón and Chyno Miranda; Enamórate bailando, by Septeto Acarey and Gilberto Santa Rosa; and Nos fuimos lejos, by Enrique Iglesias, Descemer Bueno and El Micha.

On his creative process, he has said: "many composers do the lyrics first and that is not my case; I make the music completely, and that becomes a map that speaks to me and suggests to me what I should talk about and what to tell".

Although he has traveled the world, Jorge Luis Piloto has been established in Miami for 43 years, a city he considers his true home. Eventually, he managed to reunite there with his mother and brother, both now deceased. At present, he lives with his wife Zoraida and his son, who was born with an autism spectrum disorder. He has never returned to Cuba.