Timen cruz

Manuel De Jesus Cruz Reveron (Timen) is a Puertorican musician best known for his Cuban / Puertorican style of play the Cuban Tres. Timen was born in Isabela, on Deceber 26 1951 to Santa Reveron Perez and Manuel Cruz Maldonado.
Early Life
The Cruz- Reveron family moved to the united states when Manuel was a toddler following the massive puertorican migration to the united states of the 1950's-60's. By the mid 1960's Manuel returned to Puerto Rico to attend the Manuel Corchado Juarbe elementary school in Isabela. By the time he was on middle school Manuel started to develop his talent for the music joining the marching band of the Luis Munoz Rivera middle school under the expert direction of Mr. Ismael Rabasa. Even though Manuel played the sax on the band he developed skills for playing the guitar. By the time he reached High School Manuel had played in various local rock bands with the most famous of them being The Tiny Tops.
Professional musical career
In 1970 Manuel graduated form high school, shortly after joined the United States Army, this was a major turning point for experiencing different musical styles and for developing his unique style of playing. During this period of uniformed service , Manuel had the opportunity to travel to Europe and play with diferent Jazz, Rock bands. This was a major influence for him to develop his unique playing style. Playng the hit songs from that time, Manuel had the made himself a fan of the masters of the rock music style like , Jimy Hendrix, Carlos Santana, The cream just to name a few. By 1975 Manuel returned to Puerto Rico with a stronger character for music. Quickly assimilating the Salsa movement of the 1970's Fania, Manuel started to practice with the Cuban string instrument the Tres. In this case his playing style was influenced by musicians like Yomo Toro who was a tres player (tresista or trecero). Manuel continued to play the tres ever since. In 1977 Manuel married his girlfriend Mabel Gomez Velez who became a school teacher shortly after.
The 1980's
The 1980's was a major turning point for all music styles, especially for the rock music style. Manuel quickly adopted the new sounds of the digital synthesizers and co-founded the band Sunrise which played covers from the different rock bands like Motley Crue, REO Speed wagon , Journey and many other mainstream bands of the time. In 1983 his wife gave birth to his first son Manuel Roberto. Some years later Manuel and two of the band members from Sunrise formed Triada, they chose that name because the musical chord of triada and the also because band consisted of three members.
In this case Manuel developed the skill of playng utilizing a MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) instrument. Being masterful with his Ibanez XING guitar that inccorporated an analog and digital capabilities. It is known that Manuel is the owner of one of the two Ibanez XING in Puerto Rico with Guitarist Jorge Laboy being the owner of the second guitar (in gray color which is the most common version ,Manuel owns the black version). In 1984 his only daughter Zahira Mabel was born. By 1985 Manuel started to take the tres to the stage and combined the sound of synthethaizers with the salsa melodies playing mostly salsa, merenge and pop styles. By 1986 his son Roberto Manuel was born.
The early, mid and late 90's
By this time Manuel was long ago an expert in playing the tres. And by 1994 formed a group called Septeto Borincano. The main reason for the group formation was to record an album with and for the local eldest musicians in Isabela. The group rehearsed on a weekly basis for approximately four years until Manuel as the director was comfortable to take the group to the studio. The group was formed mostly by musicians with a average age of 70 years that had never been able to record an album in their musical careers. Finally by 1999 the album titled Septeto Borincano was released. It featured cover songs from major puertorican composers from the 1930's- 1950's like Pedro Flores, Rafael hernandez. The album was considered a success and was able to served the purpose of giving the musicians a chance to express their talent in the album. Not yet finished the album Manuel was approach by a renown business man from Isabela interested in recording an album with original songs written by a locally known singer called Antonio Cordero. Manuel accepted and started to work with Cordero in the album production. For this album Manuel made all the musical arrangements for the songs written by Cordero, with Cordero singing all the songs.
Late Career
By the year 2003 Manuel was approached by the renown Cuban musician Pupy Santiago that needed a new man to play the tres in his orchestra. Manuel accepted the invitation and joined the group. By this time Manuel was working on the production of his third album. The album was a carefully planed and was going to be a gift to a local child's orphanage. The record was to be titled “ La Promesa” the name comes from the devotion of Manuel and his wife for the Tree Wise Men (Los Tres Reyes Magos).The album is considered to be a master piece, with all the songs written mostly by Manuel, it was recorded by the renown virtuous cuatrista Edwin Colon Zayas in his studio. The album featured renowned professional recording artists like Jerry Medina on the vocals and trumpet, Edwin Colon Zayas on the cuatro, obviously Manuel on the tres, guitars and vocals, and many other local guest musicians for every song. The album featured a cover art masterfully crafted by emerging multi talented plastic artist Omar Velazquez. The album is considered to be the the most successful creation from Manuel. More than 3 songs were aired on the puertorican radio and was featured on a full page article in the Nuevo Dia newspaper. It is known that the album was so well accepted that his songs were a hit ranging from
local Christmas parties in Puerto Rico the United States, to Europe in Spain and Germany, and it is also known that at least 5 albums made it to various military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan introduced by puertorican soldiers stationed in those countries.
Quick Facts
Manuel (Timen) Cruz is know to own more than 20 string instruments of which he plays them all with masterful skill. Of those 20 plus instruments there are more than 7 electric guitars of those 7 is a 1970 Fender Stratocaster that is in excellent collectors condition, it is believed that this guitar is the best preserved example in Puerto Rico and he only plays it using his Fender Super Twin Reverb also a collectors piece, more than 4 Cuban tres, at least half a dozen acoustic guitars. 1 violin , 1 Russian Balalaika, 1 Vihuela and various other instruments like requintos.
Manuel currently lives in Isabela, Puerto Rico, is father of three children , all currently attend graduate school in Medicine and Humanities respectively, of those 3 only the 2 youngest developed advanced music skills with the flute and with the guitar respectively.

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