Born on January 30, 1959 in Newark, NJ salsa specialist Herman Olivera began his professional singing career with Manny Oquendo's Conjunto Libre, a group with which he went on to record five albums. He performed regularly with Ray Barreto, Bobby Rodriguez y La Compania, The Machito Orchestra, the legendary Fania All-Stars and Jimmy Bosch, among others. Olivera’s unique vocalization and rhythmic stylizing  takes salsa to higher level - that of a “sonero extraordinaire”. 

In 2001, singer Herman Olivera received long overdue props as featured vocalist on three tracks of the Grammy-winning CD, Masterpiece/Obra Maestra (RMM) by Tito Puente and Eddie Palmieri. Since his days with Conjunto Libre, Herman has honed a style gleaning from the great soneros of Palladium-era in New York City like Tito Rodriguez, Machito, Santos Colón and others. With a smooth resonate high tenor voice, the self-taught vocalist has contributed great interpretations and metaphorically rich inspiraciones (improvised verses) to an array of tunes such as Que Humanidad, Café, and Palo Pa' Rumba. His stints with Eddie Palmieri and the Machito Orchestra have helped Olivera ascend as a world class salsa singer. Greatly influenced by Fania Records and stellar performers like Cheo Feliciano, it's that salsero spirit nourishing him with historical depth and nuances that adhere to the details of intonation, articulation, dynamics and singing in clave. In early December 2001, I caught up with Herman at his home in Newark, New Jersey (where he was born and raised) as he was preparing to go in to the studio to finish up lead vocal chores on Eddie Palmieri's latest album. Latin Beat Magazine; 2/1/2002; Varela, Jesse

For the last six years Olivera has been the lead vocalist for Eddie Palmieri.  His vocals on the Grammy winning Obra Maestra (Masterpiece), recorded by Palmieri with the great Tito Puente... are pure magic! 

In between gigs with Palmieri, Olivera performs with "his amigos", an all star ensemble of heavyweights. Herman Olivera y sus Amigos promises to turn March 11, 2006 at the Conduit Music Club to yet another unforgettable experience!