" Albert Cabrera "
by: Ivan Diller
"Ivan Diller writes a monthly column, "Ivan's Den," for the
New York-based club guide "Twist Magazine."
Contact Ivan Diller at: IDiller@aol.com

Raised on New York’s upper east side, the young Albert Cabrera had a general love of music and began DJing at an early age, making tapes for local neighbors. "A lot of them were loyal customers," says Cabrera of the first people to purchase his masterpieces. "They would want new tapes every two weeks and I would sell them for $10 each." It was from his hobby that Cabrera was first introduced to his future partner Tony Moran, an employee at Downtown Records, a haven for DJs who were looking to break the next big dance record. Cabrera soon started playing his mastermixes for Moran at Downtown Records, and on one such occasion, an on-air radio personality from New York’s original WKTU, Carlos DeJesus, overheard one of Cabrera’s mixes and expressed interest in using it at the station. "I did everything off of cassette tapes," recalls Cabrera. "Of course I needed a reel to reel to get it played. Tony had one and we did an even exchange. I gave him credit for doing me the favor, and he dubbed the tape onto his reel to reel."

And so the union of the Latin Rascals was formed, and their mixes were heard on WKTU for several years before the duo moved over to another local New York station Kiss-FM. During their tenure at Kiss-FM, their mixes caught the attention of Arthur Baker, who produced "Planet Rock" and "I.O.U." amongst many other hits of that period. It was Baker who gave the Rascals their first editing job on the song "Breaker’s Revenge." A short while later, Aldo Marin from Cutting Records hired the duo to edit "B-Boy’s Break Dance" and paid them for their work.

"We didn’t want any money," says Cabrera of his first paid gig, "we just wanted the opportunity. We did a really good job, and he surprised us with $200." More remixing and editing work came through from Arthur Baker’s camp, including work on recordings by Diana Ross, Brenda K. Starr and Hall & Oates.

Before too long, the Latin Rascals were a hot commodity on the dance music scene. Just as break dancing and its music was waning in popularity, a new form of dance music, later dubbed freestyle, was evolving. Perfectly positioned on the ground floor of that movement, the Latin Rascals were greatly responsible for the hits of early freestyle artists TKA, Safire and the Cover Girls. Capitalizing on the success they had achieved as producers, Cabrera and Moran released their own material as the Latin Rascals.

"We did an instrumental classical album," attests Cabrera. "We just jazzed the classical music into a dance thing." The two albums, Macho Mozart and Bach To The Future produced several surprise hits for the Rascals. Originally recorded as an instrumental, "Arabian Knights" did so well that Cabrera and Moran decided to go into the studio and lay down a vocal track, with Moran as the frontman.

"’Arabian Knights’ was the record that put us in demand for shows," recalls Cabrera. "The crowds used to cheer to it and sing along. And that was all we did, shows after shows after shows."

Touring took the Latin Rascals all over the country, and at the same time Cabrera’s wife Safire was achieving major success with "Boy I’ve Been Told." The conflicting schedules and outside influences took their toll on the marriage and the celebrity duo eventually split. "We were both young," recalls a melancholy Cabrera, "and it was hard on the two of us."

As the popularity of freestyle rose and fell, so did the union of Albert Cabrera and Tony Moran as the Latin Rascals. "Tony and I just grew apart," says Cabrera of his partner. "Tony was into singing and I was into freestyle." While many creative unions split amid controversy, the Latin Rascals wasn’t one of them. "Tony and I had a very healthy breakup," boasts Cabrera. "I’m totally grateful to Tony because he made a lot of great decisions for us. I look back and say wow, this was truly meant to be."

While Cabrera attempted to stay involved with freestyle, well beyond the point when it had achieved its greatest popularity, eventually he did move on and offers no apologies for doing so. "Freestyle had moved on, and I moved away from it because things change," he offers. "If freestyle were still in demand, I think we would all still be doing it. I think it died out like disco died out. I have a feeling that a lot of people who loved disco were trying to hang onto it when it was dying, but it was dead. Same thing with freestyle. I don’t think I have to fight for freestyle the way people say. Freestyle happened to fade away and it’s nobody’s fault." Not to be misunderstood, Cabrera never turned his back on his freestyle roots and attempted to take freestyle to another level with his album Trip Hop Dance 2000. "It was an experiment," says Cabrera of the album. "It was taking a lot of the freestyle artists and doing a trip hop album with them." Judy Torres, Corina, Lil’ Suzy, Joey Kidd, Sam Savon and Brenda K. Starr all lent their vocals to the project, while former partner Tony Moran came in to re-record an updated version of "Arabian Knight."

It was this album that led Cabrera into a different musical direction. "In the beginning as a Latin Rascal, I was an artist, a producer, but always by ear. We used to hire musicians, engineers, that was our job. Once Tony and I went our own ways, I started getting involved in keyboards and programming, and I went to school to study for five years." That education, his production work on Trip Hop Dance 2000, and his background in freestyle, led Cabrera to producing "bass" music. "I did about thirteen albums in a year," he states. "I got into bass because I looked for the closest thing to freestyle."

Recently Cabrera re-teamed with another freestyle legend "Little" Louie Vega and Masters at Work, doing editing work for them, and creating "Rascal Dubs." Of his foray into house music, Cabrera credits Vega. "Louie Vega called me to edit a George Benson record. When he came over to hear it, I did a really complicated edit and made it work, and he was excited about it. That was my whole entry into house music." Since then calls have been coming in from overseas for Cabrera to put his "Rascal Dub" touch onto house remixes.

In addition to his work with Masters at Work, Cabrera has also been remixing for Rhino Records, recently re-working fourteen KC and the Sunshine Band tracks for a new album. "They are a group that I grew up with, so when I was hired to do the project, it was an honor," says Cabrera of the effort. Soon to be released is another continuous mix album called "Absolute Dance" that contains both classic and new dance songs. "The magic of that album is that they did the sequencing without me," he says. "They had already done the artwork without me knowing it and I got a call to finish the project. I couldn’t put the tracks in my own order, so it put me on the spot to be creative. The bpm goes from 105 to 122. I had to break the songs up and play instruments in between, slow it down without being recognizable, and use moods for the segues so it blends perfectly."

For the future, Cabrera no longer wants to be viewed as a producer. "I want to be viewed as an engineer/technician," he says, "because I’m into making sounds and releasing sound effects through machines. I love the whole technical part. My main thing is to be engineering records, to be taking other people’s records and taking them to another level." Continuing, he adds, "The engineer makes it happen. Remixing and editing puts me in a position to make the producer happy, which is what I love to do." Currently, Albert Cabrera is working on an album with recent Grammy winner David Morales, and his editing and engineering expertise can be heard on Mariah Carey’s "Honey," The Face’s "Needing You," Tori Amos’s "Spark," and M People’s "Dreamin’."

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