Cecilio Negrón, De La Buena co-founder and Milwaukee music teacher, dies at 47

The first time she saw percussionist Cecilio Negrón Jr. teach children music, Meaghan Heinrich said her "jaw hit the floor."

"My eyes opened wide," said Heinrich, a music teacher at Neeskara Elementary School who met Negrón in 2015 when they both worked at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. "I come from a standard Western classical music background. … This was very different from anything I had ever seen, and it works. He never used notation in his teaching. Everything was by vocalizing, by demonstration. … It was a way of making music so everyone could access it. You didn't have to be able to read music. All you had to do to participate is listen to the rhythm in your body and feel the pulse and listen to the people around you."

"Parents were always amazed," she continued. "When kids would start on the first day, some of them had never touched a djembe (a west African drum). At the end of a two-week camp, they would perform full-fledged west African rhythms in an ensemble. Watching parents see their kids participate in this, they were blown away."

Negrón blew people away, and made them smile, across Milwaukee and around the world.

Negrón died overnight May 24 from a heart attack, said David Wake, who co-founded the popular Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz group De La Buena with Negrón 20 years ago. Negrón was 47.

He died a few days after Jesse "Black Wolf" Bilal, who like Negrón was in the Milwaukee soul band Kings Go Forth. Bilal died in a house fire at the age of 68.

With Kings Go Forth, Negrón toured the country and Europe in 2010 and 2011. The band released an album on David Byrne's Luaka Bop label, and was praised by The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Public Radio and other major media outlets.

"Nobody could pop like him. … He would make your head turn and grab you, it was so infectious," Wake said. "When Kings Go Forth was at the Bumbershoot (music festival) in Seattle … this guy who was obviously very seasoned and worked for the festival … (told me), 'I have seen just about every percussionist. I have never seen anybody play the congas like that before.' And that happened wherever we went."

"One of the biggest things that inspired me was to see him do what he loved for a living and pour all of himself into it," said Negrón's oldest daughter Jecilia Negrón, 26. "I am now a business owner and chose to pursue what I loved, and I learned that growing up and seeing him build his empire and build his community and build his impact. …

"He just had a lot of love to give."

"He had an impact on so many people's lives," said Negrón's oldest son Giovanni Negrón, 25. "It's not just our pain. It's shared collectively."

Music was 'always' in the Negrón house

Growing up in a large musical family in Milwaukee, "music was always in the house," said Negrón's father, Cecil Negrón, a musician himself. He said his son started playing piano, his first instrument, when he was just 3, moving on to percussion three years later and jamming in his father's bands at rehearsals. And Negrón Jr.'s uncle's Milwaukee band, La Chazz, ended up having a major influence on the sound and style of De La Buena, his father said.

Eventually, father and son would play side-by-side in Latin music band Cache. And in the last 10 months, Negrón Jr. was taking his father's place in a resurrected iteration of traditional salsa group Septeto Charambo, a band that his father originated in the 1980s alongside his brother-in-law, Negrón Jr.'s uncle.

"He's an ass-kicking drummer," Cecil Negrón Sr. said. "I'm a more conservative player, and right on point and traditional. Playing with him was exciting. He would connect new rhythms. … He took it to a whole different level. It makes me proud."

His curiosity never satiated — "He wanted to learn the whole depth of whatever instrument he was learning," Jecilia said — Negrón Jr. was "really hungry to make music," Wake said.

And he did it across a wide variety of styles. In addition to playing in Latin bands, Negrón was in long-running Milwaukee reggae group Urbanites, and after high school, spent time in New York as an aspiring rapper, producer and break-dancer. It’s where he began using his affectionate nickname, Cee Loe.

"He brought all the scenes together," said Wake, who immediately "hit it off" with Negrón when the two of them met in 1997 as members of musical collective One Drum, and grew to become "like brothers."

"He was in the jazz scene, he was in the Latin scene, he was in the reggae scene, he was in the hip-hop scene," Wake said of Negrón. "Anytime he would go somewhere he knew somebody from every walk of life and every niche in the city. … He had this way of bringing people together."

When it came to creating harmony, Negrón's talent went a long way.

"His musical instincts were so incredibly pure," Wake said. "He could feel anything and knew exactly where to put his part and it was just perfect."

A 'goofball' personality

But Negrón's personality was equally infectious and inspiring.

"He was just a goofball," Wake said. "He always had jokes, to make some sarcastic humor and get everyone laughing and take the air out of a tense situation."

Even with his showstopping musical skills, "he never really made it about 'me, me, me, me, me,'" his daughter Jecilia said. "He was really encouraging of other people."

"He enjoyed life. He loved talking to people," his father Cecil said. "It didn't matter what color you were, or how old you were. What mattered was you were a human being. You breathe like me, you have blood like me, you have a heart like me."

"It was one of his greatest strengths as a musician and a person," Heinrich said. "He could make everyone feel so loved and a part of his community. You were never on the outside with Cecilio."

A teacher who got 'magical' results

That made him an effective teacher, teaching percussion with the Wisconsin Conservatory for 16 years, most recently through its "Conservatory Connections" outreach program that went into local schools, and helping fellow conservatory instructors adjust to virtual teaching when the pandemic hit, Wake said.

"I've been in sessions with him (whose students) ranged from incarcerated youth to middle-aged suburban folk," Wake said. "He would quickly establish that, 'You give respect, you get respect.' The results were always magical and transformative."

Heinrich said Negrón inspired her to adjust her own teaching style.

Students "saw someone they could relate to on so many levels," she said. "If it was a school with a lot of Black or Latino kids, they saw someone that looked a lot more like them. … He was someone that listened to the same music that they listened to. He was always well-versed in whatever hip-hop or R&B was popular and would say, 'Hey, this rhythm, this bass you're listening to? That comes from Mother Africa.'"

Negrón's teaching legacy will live on.

In 2017, he developed the conservatory's world drumming curriculum with Heinrich and musician and teacher Mitchell Shiner that has been used in some Milwaukee Public Schools. And in the last few years, he played a role in establishing a youth outreach program through Neighborhood House of Milwaukee that will continue to grow, Wake said, "teaching drumming, life lessons and deep insights into African and Boricua cultures."

Negrón's musical legacy will continue, too. Wake said some live De La Buena recordings will be released in his honor, and the band will still play its previously announced summer shows — including a Summerfest show July 1 — in tribute to its co-founder, with some of his students filling in, Wake said.

"My father's love reached so far and the community that he built and he helped build is so important to him," Giovanni said. "We want to continue for that to grow."

Negrón is also survived by his mother Carmen; two other children, Ayan Acosta and Cariña (ages 11 and 3, respectively); his partner Venessa Martinez; and other relatives.

The family is planning a private service with a public celebration set for 2 to 5 p.m. June 18 at McKinley Marina in Veterans Park. Fundraising efforts also have been established for Negrón, with more details at the De La Buena Facebook page.

Contact Piet at (414) 223-5162 or plevy@journalsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter at @pietlevy or Facebook at facebook.com/PietLevyMJS.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Cecilio Negrón, De La Buena co-founder and music teacher, dies at 47