Calypso from Costa Rica's Caribbean province, Limon, is in an attempt of renewing itself and Manuel Monestel has been responsible of finding the keys of this renovation. In One Pant Man, he interprets themes written by calypsonians Walter Ferguson and Lenkí, along with his own songs, which more closely related to Latin American song.
Manuel Monestel was born in San Pedro, the university district of San José, Costa Rica, son, grandson and nephew of musicians and singers.
At the age of 17, he began to play the hits of the 1960's and 70's in his guitar: Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Joan Manuel Serrat and later, South American folk singers Atahualpa Yupanqui, Violeta Parra, Daniel Viglietti, Alfredo Zitarrosa, Silvio Rodríguez , Pablo Milanés, Chico Buarque y Caetano Veloso.
In 1974, he founded his first band, Erome dedicated to Latin song and later, he becomes part of Tayacán a band directed by Nicaraguan folk star Luis Enrique Mejía Godoy.
He was the co-founder of the Costa Rica New Song movement with Luis Enrique Mejía, Rubén Pagura, Bernal Monestel, Dionisio Cabal, among others.
He was part of various festivals and concerts in different countries in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia, by the side of figures like Pete Seeger, Roberto Carlos, Silvio Rodriguez, Mercedes Sosa, Pablo Milanés, Tito Rodríguez "El Temucano", Daniel Viglietti, Chico Buarque, Paul Kantner.
Since the 1980's, he researches and reinvents Limonese calypso, a genre of the Afro Costa Rican culture where the music of Walter Ferguson is particularly important.
After recording a dozen CDs with his successful band Cantoamérica, he recorded his CD One Pant Man with Papaya Music and from there e began a research voyage that took him all the way to the Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans, by the side of Manuel Obregon and La Orquesta de la Papaya.
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