Alfonso Noel Lovo

On May 20, 2016, Lovo performed at the Teatro Nacional Ruben Dario with an all star Nicaraguan Band, Alfonso Lovo Band, which included Chepito Areas, and a 12 piece band. An anthology of all his music was presented, and there was a documentary made of the event.

At the present time, December 26, 2016, Alfonso Lovo Band is # 1 in the Blues Category in the Miami FL Reverb Nation.

Lovo, was also featured in Relix Magazine, in 2 occasions, on 2015 and 2016, in the magazine's CD sampler.

On June 14, 2014, Lovo was invited to perform at the Rio Loco Festival, in Toulouse, and drew 28,000 fans, performing an updated version of his La Gigantona, his well-known album, with Jose 'Chepito' Areas of Santana Band fame, and a group of Cuban and Venezuelan musicians, and appeared in the French press, as his style, considered a fusion of psychedelic rock and Latin Jazz, is gaining popularity in Europe, Asia, and also in the USA.

The Chicago-based record label The Numero Group released Lovo's La Gigantona album to the public, in the fall of 2012. The reissue was sourced from a rare acetate and includes extensive liner notes on Alfonso Lovo, including historical photos of his musical background.

Since its re-release, La Gigantona has been a success and Lovo has been the subject of many reviews and interviews worldwide, including praises from BBC music critic Gilles Peterson radio personality in London, Relix Magazine, Dusted Magazine, Radio Nacional de Colombia, and many more international stations, and several TV shows. La Gigantona has become a well-known name, and in November 14, it reached # 4 in Billboard, Tropical music category. A new version of Wolf and The Pack has been formed in Miami, with Latin jazz players, and new performances have been seen up to the end of 2012, of La Gigantona, considered a dormant hit record, that has been awakened by Numero Group, the reissue label from Chicago.

Lovo released La Gigantona, privately, in 2010, featuring acid Latin jazz music, with an all-star Nicaraguan band, including percussion by Areas.

He is one of the original exponents of Nicaraguan Latin Rock. He recorded an album, Terremoto Richter 6.3 in 1973, in New Orleans, while going to school at L.S.U., Baton Rouge, LA. It is a fusion of Nicaraguan-style classic Spanish guitar with New Orleans Jazz and Gospel. His main instrument is guitar, but also plays bass, and keyboards, as well as harmonica.

In Managua, he produced the first Rock Concert, Concierto Idolo, at the Teatro Nacional Ruben Dario, in 1972, with an all star band, the members of the best known rock and jazz groups, in Nicaragua. The photo taken at the opening act, playing Mazurka in guitar, appears, as front cover of his album La Gigantona, widely acclaimed, in the tropical jazz category, in Billboard, on November 2012.

He collaborated in his home town with Chepito Areas, the original percussionist with Santana Band. This connected him with that band. Together they produced the Managua Earthquake Relief concert featuring Mario Moreno AKA 'Cantinflas' in October 1972.

He started playing in a rock band, with Ricardo Palma, and Adan Torres, as co-founders of Los Rockets in 1963 and then co-founded Los Juniors, with Emilio Ortega, in 1965. Both Palma and Ortega, were the top lead guitar players of the Nicaragua rock movement in the 1960s. He also played with Edmundo Guerrero, a local guitar master of the Bossa Nova Brazilian jazz style.

The accordion was left alone when he picked up the guitar, that he learned from his home gardener, and guitar player, Adan 'Bienvenido' Jaime, then called the Nicaraguan Elvis, who showed him how to play Elvis Presley songs, Nicaraguan and Mexican rock ballads, popular in the early 1960s. He got his first guitar from his uncle 'Chalito', in his native town of Leon, and he learned songs from Enrique Guzman, and The Teen Tops, and from Polidecto Correa, and Los Polimusic, one of the first Nicaraguan Rock Bands. This band featured as drummer, Jose 'Chepito' Areas, future founding member of the Santana Band, famous for opening the Woodstock Rock Festival.

Professor Julio Max Blanco, started trying to teach him music theory, back in his native Nicaragua, in January, 1957. Lovo learned to play songs before he could read the notes. And Professor Blanco said, "He can play by ear alone, I give up." Lovo started playing accordion at the Colegio Calazanz, grammar school, at church functions. He learned to play harmonica with Father Caudelli, with the Cub Scouts, an instrument he still plays, in blues style.

Alfonso Noel Lovo (born August 12, 1951 in León, Nicaragua) is a Nicaraguan composer and guitarist.