PICASSO - Arranged by: Hector Máximo Rodriguez Produced & Directed by: Hector Máximo Rodríguez - Maxbajo Productions Executive Producers: Geneva Productions Vocals: Marlon Steven / Piano: Arturo Ortiz / Bass: Hector Máximo Rodríguez / Congas & Bongo: Little Johnny Rivero Timbales: Luis 'Luisito' Quintero / Trumpets: Richie Viruet / Trombones: Doug Beavers / Maracas & Guiro: Ray Castro Coros: Ray Castro & Maximo Rodriguez Orchestra Recorded at: Harlem School of Urban Music, NYC. Engineer: Doug Beavers All Vocals /Timbales/ Guiro & Maracas Recorded at: DB Studios, Bronx, NY. Engineer: Angel Vazquez Mixing & Mastering : Skylight Recording Studio, Union NJ. Engineer : Guido Diaz About Marlon Steven.. On a damp and muggy morning, March 9th, 1970; in the impoverished country of Guatemala, Central America, Marlon Steven was born. Like many other infants of this city he lacked the basic necessities to subsist in a healthy environment. At the age of three he was left behind by his mother, who at the time is fleeing from her own turmoil. From a very young age, surrounded by hardship and hunger, he displayed a natural gift for music. Among his first experiences, was arriving in Chicago illegally at the age of six to be reunited with his mother. He grew in the Northeast side of Chicago, an area notorious for drugs and gangs. With no time to waste he created a world of havoc of his own. Within the criminal spiral he was living he discovered music, and began to dabble with such rythyms as bomba, plena, guaguanco, y mambo. In his late teens he spent time in Puerto Rico thus giving birth to his love for Salsa. Through the early and late 90’s he polished his natural singing abilities, he did so by playing with such bands as “La Distinguida”; “Jambo”; “Fuego”; and “Samuel de Real” and many others. Among his many experiences with these bands they opened concerts for celebrities like Frankie Ruiz, Tito Nieves, Lalo Rodriguez, and many more. Through his twenties having very little maturity he found himself in and out of jail. During the times he was deprived of his freedom, he discovered that he wanted to live within the freedom of his music, thus flourishing and projecting the singer that he is today. After forty-three years of hardship and economic hurdles, he finds himself returning to his roots and his true love, in his own words, “Dream it, Think it, Make it happen”!