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Victor Hugo Salsa
Victor Hugo Rivas Toro, best known as Victor Hugo (Salsa) is a performer, composer and producer of music in the Latin and Tropical genre.

He was born in Caracas, Venezuela to Maria Luisa Toro, jazz singer and actor. His early years were spent between Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago.

He engaged with music and theatre in Caracas, singing in a Blues/Rock band and performing in Acuario (Hair) and as Judas in Godspell in which he was assistant director to Levy Rossell director and founder of Arte de Venezuela.

After graduating in Artes Escenicas, and with the support of Levy, Victor secured a bursary to travel to London and study Film Direction at the London Film School. After just on year of study, and with political change in Venezuela, the bursary was withdrawn and he left school to concentrate on his music career. He went on to co-found King Salsa in London with percussionist Robin Jones and recorded tracks on Samba de Verano with Acid Jazz Records, including his composition Adivina featuring Chucho Valdés.

in 1985 Victor formed No Way Jose and achieved chart success with Mambo Tequila accompanied by a video featuring members of the cast of The Supergrass

In the summer of 1988 King Salsa backed Charlie Palmieri in London and it was then that he invited Victor to join his European tour as vocalist alongside Ángel Canales and Héctor Lavoe. Palmieri passed away shortly after in September of that year and the tour was never realised. However, inspired by Charlie, Victor went on to form his own Latin band, Victor Hugo con Picante, a 7-piece live band performing mainly his own compositions on the London Latin scene which played regularly at HQ Camden Lock, Bass Clef, Club Bahia in Stockwell, The Jazz Cafe and Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club. Victor recorded a live studio album Oye Latino and toured the clubs and jazz festivals of Europe. He also appeared on British TV for Soul Train, 01 for London, Going Live!, Top of the Pops and in Barcelona on the Ángel Casas Show.

A collaboration with respected pianist Armin Keil (composing for Cano Estremera and for Connexion Latina in Germany) resulted in an innovative production of Salsa Jazz, ''Latinoamerica. He appeared on Pebble Mill at One providing the music for 14-time World Professional Latin Dance Champions Donnie Burns and Gaynor Fairweather.''

In 1990 Victor wrote for and featured on Snowboy's House of Latin and in 1997 he recorded vocals for a Spanish House project achieving dance chart success with Latin Thing - Latinos del Mundo. In 1998 he performed a folkloric inspired composition with a small number of his band at the thirteenth Lambeth Conference for 749 international Anglican bishops in Canterbury and in the presence of Prince Charles. His music featured on the soundtrack to British film Janice Beard (1999), he co-wrote and featured on the Bacardi Advert 'Available behind bars' with the song Cuanto Tiempo

Between march 1999 and December 2000 Victor composed music for several children's musicals (including Basket Wallah, Bike, Emperor's New Clothes) for the company Tutti-Frutti directed by Niladri

After a fortuitous meeting in London during the Grupo Niche tour in 1999, Victor started working with Niche's virtuoso pianist Julio Cortes in 2000 and went on to record five albums under the directorship of Cortes along with members of Grupo Niche/Son de Cali, in Cali, Colombia. In 2006 Victor appeared in a BBC Special documentary about his career.

In these years Victor Hugo toured extensively across Europe and the Far East with his own band and was also invited to guest with Kachimba in Tokyo and Okinawa, playing his own compositions. He has shared the stage with many of the Salsa greats, including Oscar D'Leon, Celia Cruz and Tito Puente.

Victor Hugo currently resides in Valencia, Spain where he records and produces Latin music at his studio, Studio 212. He continues to compose; travelling to Cuba (2017) to record Salsa in Havana and to Bambu Studios (producer/director Hector Aguirre) in Lima, Peru (2019) for Salsa Wonder - a tribute to Stevie Wonder, both recordings featuring master percussionist Diego Camacho (of Grupo Niche/Son de Cali/Tony Succar) in Miami.

Discography

 * 1997 Oye Latino


 * 2000 Tropicalísimo
 * 2002 Salsa de Oro
 * 2004 Latino America
 * 2005 El Niche Soy Yo
 * 2006 Salsa Pa'America
 * 2007 Que Pasa
 * 2008 Salsa Power
 * 2009 Salsa Perfecta
 * 2015 New York Salsa
 * 2018 Salsa in Havana
 * 2019 Salsa Wonder

Videos
Deja

La Mujer Perfecta

Lambeth Conference

Oscar D'Leon London