Isaias Gamboa (music producer)

Isaias Gamboa (April 21, 1963) is an Afro-Costa Rican-American music producer, songwriter, musician, arranger, author and filmmaker. Born in San Jose, Costa Rica to parents of Spanish and Afro-Caribbean ancestry. His mother, Carmen Gamboa Beckles, was born in the coastal Costa Rican city of Puerto Limon and his father; Danilo Gamboa Mora, from the interior province of San Ramón, Costa Rica.

A music industry veteran, Gamboa has written, performed, produced and arranged more than 200 songs for recording artists including, Shalamar, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Tavares (group), The Brothers Johnson, Dynasty (band), The Pointer Sisters and five albums for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame recording artists The Temptations. Three of these include, For Lovers Only (The Temptations album), Phoenix Rising (The Temptations album), which received a Platinum certification and the Grammy Award winning CD Ear-Resistible, which won the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Traditional R&B Performance. In 1994 he produced the remix of "Pain" by the late, Tupak Shakur for the Multi-Platinum, Above the Rim (soundtrack)

Isaias Gamboa grew up during the turbulent 1960's and 70's in the primarily African American community of West Adams, Los Angeles. He was first introduced to piano by his mother at age 5 and by age 11, was accomplished in several musical instruments. By age 12 he was playing Honkey tonk guitar and a particular style of West Coast blues called, Jump blues. At the age of 13 he was asked to accompanied Los Angeles-based Blues singer, Ernie Andrews on the blues guitar; having been schooled in the genre by noted Jump blues guitarist, Edgar Rice of the Alexander Nelson Trio. At age 17, Isaias was discovered by hit R&B producer, Leon Sylvers III, who mentored for many years. While still in his teens, Gamboa was signed by legendary music industry executive, Clive Davis as a member of the 1980s R&B band, Real To Reel (Arista Records). Notably, after having met Leon Sylvers III at a celebrity basketball game in Los Angeles, five-time Grammy Award-winning music producers, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis produced their first ever recordings as professional music producers, "Can You Treat Me Like She Does" and "Don't Keep Me Hangin' On" for Gamboa's band, Real To Reel". Isaias Gamboa was also a founding member of the 1990s neoclassical R&B singing group, "Double Action Theatre" (Polydor Records). In the 1990s, Gamboa was discovered by legendary music producer, Richard Perry, who mentored him and with whom he would become close friends. Gamboa and Perry worked closely with artists such as the The Pointer Sisters and The Temptations.

In June 2010, Gamboa released a solo CD entitled, "Don't Lie To Me". Featuring his own vocal and instrumental performances, the 12 song collection was written, produced, performed and arranged by himself. The CD also includes performances by famed guitarist, Larry Carlton, The Temptations; drummer, Trevor Lawrence Jr., singer, Vida Jafari and saxophonist, Donald Hayes.

Gamboa is a licensed Christian minister with a diverse religious heritage--his mother being a Baptist and his father, Catholic. He also strongly identifies with his Jewish ancestry through his Jamaican maternal grandmother, Louise Teitelbaum. This background, along with his musical expertise has inspired and informed several important projects in his life. Notable among them is his 2012 book, We Shall Overcome: Sacred Song On The Devil's Tongue.

Published in 2012, We Shall Overcome: Sacred Song On The Devil's Tongue is the biography of Louise Shropshire (1913-1993). Shropshire...a hymn writer, civil rights activist and close friend of the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr., Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth and Rev. Thomas A. Dorsey, played an important role in the creation of the iconic freedom song, “We Shall Overcome.” The song, adapted by Pete Seeger and others, has been credited to “Unknown” for more than half a century, however newly uncovered facts presented in Gamboa’s book trace Shropshire’s uncredited involvement with the freedom standard to her hymn, “If My Jesus Wills”, more commonly known as "I'll Overcome" from which prima facie and other evidence indicates “We Shall Overcome” was derived. The book was featured at the Author's Pavilion at the 2015 NAACP National Convention. An abridged, dramatized audio book version of the book, also named, We Shall Overcome: Sacred Song On The Devil's Tongue was released on Plum Recordings in 2011. Narrated and produced by, Isaias Gamboa on his own music label, the four-hour collection features slave narratives and negro spirituals. A documentary film regarding this subject, written and directed by Isaias Gamboa was scheduled to be completed by fall 2016.

Through the efforts of, Dr. P. Eric Abercrumbie, Director of Ethnic Programs and Services and the African American Culture and Resource Center at the University of Cincinnati, Louise Shropshire's papers and artifacts were acquired in 2014 by the University of Cincinnati and are preserved in the Rare Books Archives.

According to the University of Cincinnati, The Louise Shropshire Family Papers collection includes photographs, family memorabilia, letters, sheet music and other documents. The collection is held in UC’s Archives and Rare Books Library, located on the eighth floor of Blegen Library.

In April 12, 2016, the We Shall Overcome Foundation (WSOF), a group led by Gamboa, filed a lawsuit seeking clarification of the copyright status of "We Shall Overcome". The Richmond Organization and Ludlow Music (TRO-Ludlow) had asserted copyright on the song based on copyrights registered in 1960 and 1963, but the suit alleged that only specific arrangements and alternate verses, and that a version published in 1948 under the title "We Will Overcome" had expired due to lack of reneweal. In September 2017, a judge issued an opinion that there were insignificant differences between the first verses of the 1948 and registered versions for copyright to exist in it.