By way of explanation....

Both Ralph Duque and I are working musicians. As such, most of you who are, know that there are those who would take advantage of your talent to enrich themselves. If you haven't faced that situation then more power to you. This being the case, we feel that it is necessary to put everyone at ease as it pertains to their images appearing in the videos shown on these pages. Our pledge is simple. The videos, photographs, and text have two purposes. We want to first and foremost entertain those who visit us. Secondly, we want to educate the public. If any artist appearing in any way finds their image objectionable, please contact us and we will discuss a solution up to removing the video, photo, or text in question. We further pledge that no monetary considerations which may be offered to us will be entertained and those making such requests will be instructed to seek out the artist of interest.

As it pertains to STREET LEVEL PRODUCTIONS, we realize that the word "production" carries with it connotations that can be misconstrued as having to do with business. SLP was formed by Alfie Alvarado and I to promote a cable access TV show for Manhattan Neighborhood Network. The show was called CLAVE CITY and ran for several years. Alfie and I spent hour after hour in both pre and post production as well as attending every musical event we possibly could to build up an archive of material to present on our show. There was absolutely NO monetary compensation for any of this. We were solely motivated by our passion for the music.

The history of SLP is an interesting one. Both Alfie and I found ourselves attending a class entitled "The History Of Latin Music" at CCNY. The professor was none other then the truly GREAT woodwind player Ray Santos. Ray is one of a few lucky musicians that can say he played with the Big Three, Machito and both Titos, Rodriguez and Puente! Needless to say I was in 7th heaven. Several of us in the class became buddies. Alfie, Mike Mena and I began to hang after class at places like Gonzalez and Gonzalez. One day Alfie approached me about taking a video production class and it sounded great. However when I read the syllabus, students were required to attend Saturday morning class down on Hudson and Franklyn streets. Not only did I live in the Bronx, I was working full time, carrying several other classes, had family obligations and time was extremely precious. I balked at the prospect. Then Alfie said the magic words...the class was worth 8 credits. We signed up immediately. As a musician I can't tell you how many times I was playing and had several camcoders pointed at me and I would always ask the people filming to please sell me a copy. I can count on three fingers the number of times I got a positive response to my request. Here was an opportunity to not only document some of my own performances but to do it right. I was able to provide other musicians with copies of their performances as well. Alfie has gone on to become a professional and has had some of her work shown on both HBO and The History Channel. The footage depicts the events at the WTC. She was an eyewitness to the horror. Willie "el Ruso" Everich

*You can read this anytime you like under the "Disclaimer" link on the label tab