Chino Rodriguez

Chino Rodriguez is an internationally acclaimed music producer, band leader, musician, manager, booking agent, record company executive, business consultant, and record label owner, specializing in Latin music, most notably Salsa and Latin jazz. He is recognized as one of the top impresarios of the Latin music industry.

Chino was born James Mui in New York City on February 2, 1954 in the Little Italy / Chinatown area of Manhattan to a Chinese father (Chueng Mui), who obtained U.S. citizenship by joining the Merchant Marines during World War II, and a third-generation Puerto Rican mother (Gloria Figueroa Rodriguez). He was raised by his Italian uncle in the Mulberry Street area of Little Italy and grew up listening to a constantly changing mix of international music. With such an interracial family background and the influence of a multicultural, multilingual urban environment, Chino is the poster child for America's cultural diversity.

Chino returned to working full-time in the business side of the music industry in 1991, becoming Senior Vice President and General Manager of the newly formed Hidden Faces Records. Chino said in 2010: "I was made an offer to head up a record company call Hidden Faces and produce two of the artists signed. So I did it, I sold my company and went back to the music business with my eyes wide open." As General Producer, Chino streamlined the recording process for the label, choosing projects, music producers, songwriters, arrangers, budgets, and studios personally.

It was immediately evident that while some of the featured artists in Latin music were new, the same business people he had met working behind the scenes in the 1970s were still there. This network was advantageous when Chino decided to start his own businesses. After organizing business operations for Hidden Faces he opened his own artist management company, Chino Rodriguez Management (C.R.M.), and booking agency, OMNI Latino Entertainment (OLE), in 1992-93 with partner Angel Rodrguez, a former New York City councilman (Brooklyn District). He opened his offices in Brooklyn, New York and began signing the surviving original pioneers of Salsa: Joe Cuba, Larry Harlow, Ismael Miranda, Pete "El Conde" Rodriguez, Adalberto Santiago, the Lebron Brothers, Joe Bataan, Bobby Valentín, and Angel Canales, anyone who was still left from the Fania All-Stars. Some of these artists had not worked in years.

With the renewed interest in early classic salsa recordings throughout the world, Chino's two albums were re-released in 2004. In January 2010 he began a hybrid record label / distribution company / publishing company under the umbrella name Oriente Music Group. OMG immediately signed internationally acclaimed Puerto Rican salsa artist Giro Lopez. Giro Lopez, a former member of the Puerto Rican teen-idol boy band Los Chicos, has had several decades of experience navigating the shark-infested waters of the music industry. It is remarkable that he found a kind-hearted and trustworthy but sharp-witted business associate in Chino, who enjoys teaching younger proteges about the industry. Giro says, "Chino is my mentor. In this business there are a lot of cold, heartless people, but Chino has a good heart. He is very intelligent, very professional, polite, a perfectionist, but is another artist also. He is a good friend. He encouraged me to start my own business, and has been teaching me all the details of how to start my own business. He believes that I should have my own company, which is very big for me. He didn’t have to do that; he could have just signed me. But he told me ‘You can do it. You can do it yourself.’"