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Edwin "Nepy" Maldonado

Edwin "Nepy" Maldonado: Percussionist, Arranger, Producer and Vocalist.Edwin "Nepy" Maldonado was born and raised in Trenton, NJ, Nov. 15, 1976. He was the first child born to Eddie & Mille Maldonado. As a child, he always had an interest for music. Banging on pots and pans, whether the music was on or off, his father knew his son would become a musician. At the age of 8, Nepy, as everyone know him, made his debut playing the bongo with a band his father played rhythm guitar with, Estrellas Del Caribe. By the time he was about 11 or 12, he joined the family band led by his father Eddie and musically directed by his uncle Nelson Maldonado, Conjunto Familia, as a percussionist playing congas, timbales & bongo alongside his uncle Albert Maldonado. Later on the band was switched around and new musicians, who were either cousins or close friends, joined the band. He then shared percussion duties with now known Christian salsa singer, Puchi Colon. In his teens, still with Conjunto Familia, he left the percussion and learned how to play piano. But what he picked up on the keys was how to play the horn parts to songs. He became the piano-synthesizer player as they brought in new percussionist and other new members to the band. They then changed their name to El Nuevo Conjunto Familia. In junior high school, he met with new friends who were musicians through Puchi Colon. They made a band for a talent & fashion show at their junior high school. They called themselves, "The Latin Boyz", musically directed and led by 9th grader Tony Ruiz. They played the hit song of Willie Colon, "El Gran Varon", and won first place. Nepy played timbales for The Latin Boyz and was indeed the youngest in the crowd, the only 7th grader in the show. A year later he was called upon to play timbales for Tony Ruiz's new band, "Orquesta Sabor Latino", a band of all teenagers from high school including Puchi Colon on bass. About a year later in high school he joined a band at the same time his father did called, "Conjunto Sabor". He became the timbale and conga player for the group. He played percussion with the band for 2 years then became the synthesizer-piano player for the group. With a few new members to the group, they changed their name to "Luis Diaz y su Nuevo Sonido".

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