Gerardo “Pachangara” Araujo

Producer, writer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist Gerardo “Pachangara” Araujo was born in New Brunswick, Canada to Venezuelan parents. After his father graduated from UNB they returned to Venezuela where Gerardo was immediately exposed to the culture and musicality of the region through his family. His very early influences were basically the soundtrack of his youth. Oscar D’ Leon, Fania All Stars, Ruben Blades and Grupo Guaco recordings were always present in family gatherings and parties and there was never a lack of musical instruments in these celebrations. At age 15 he began learning to play timbales as this was the percussion instrument that caught his attention while attending his first Oscar D’ Leon concert. Mostly self-taught, Gerardo was able to start developing as a timbalero trough videos and records that helped shape his style of playing. Timbaleros such as Tito Puente, Luisito Quintero, Ralph Irizarry, Marc Quinones, Julio Rivera, Tito De Gracia and Chago Martinez among others, set the blueprint that he would follow to develop as the timbalero he is today. At age 17 Gerardo moved back to Canada to study music in Concordia University and began playing with local groups in the city of Montreal. He was able then to connect with the Cuban culture that helped broaden his style of playing and arranging as he dove also in the music production aspect of Latin American and Cuban music. Producer / Mult Instrumentalist and singer song writer Jesus “El Nino” Alejandro brought him to the recording studio for the first time and taught him the principles of music production through his first recordings as a percussion player with Fania artist legend Camilo Azuquita.

Later relocated to Houston, Texas where he has continued to tour and play with grammy award winning artists such as Oscar D’ Leon, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Jose Alberto “El Canario”, India, Jose Jose, Jerry Rivera, Charly Aponte, Andy Montanez, Cristian Castro, Tony Vega, Tito Nieves and many others. Also, as a producer Gerardo was able to have one of his compositions and arrangements recorded by RMM record label great, Jhonny Rivera, and this song broke in the Billboard tropical charts at number 22 in May of 2020. This song is titled “Se Me Olvido”. More recently Gerardo has pursued a very ambitious project. “Pachangara’s Big Band” has featured in its first recordings Grammy Award Winners Jose Alberto “El Canario”, Alain Perez from Cuba, Marcial Isturiz from Venezuela and many other legends in the genre are in line to record in this new voyage that brings the sonority of the mambo era trough his daring arrangements with studio recording musicians from all over the world. “Negro Bonito” is featured in Jose Alberto’s Grammy nominated album earning Gerardo his first nomination as a featured artist and producer.

Gerardo recorded also “Pachangara’s Big Band” Live from Medellin, Colombia. In this EP video, Gerardo recorded and sang three songs featured in the first big band production. “After recording and producing my Big Band project I have found the road that will define my legacy in music. I feel that it is my essence in these recordings. My timbales and my pen leading the orchestra is what I have dreamed of ever since I started playing music.”