Music credit: The Jazz on the Tube podcast theme song is “Mambo Inferno” performed by The Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra conducted by Bobby Sanabria from the CD ¡Que Viva Harlem!
Jack Costanzo started out as a dancer but self-education which included three trips to Havana in the 1940s made him a bongero (bongo master) and he was in instant demand both with jazz and Latin orchestras.
His first exposure to the instrument came when he was 14 years old at a ballroom dance concert in his home town of Chicago.
Costanzo probably did more to introduce the bongos to North American music than any other single artist.
Here’s a short list of some of the artists he collaborated with over the years:
Charlie Parker, Dizzie Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Fats Navarro, Frank Sinatra, Desi Arnaz, Rene Touzet, Stan Kenton, Nat King Cole, Peggy Lee, Danny Kaye, Perez Prado, Charlie Barnet, Pete Rugolo, Betty Grable, Harry James, Judy Garland, Patti Page, Jane Powell, Ray Anthony, Martin & Lewis, Frances Faye, Dinah Shore, Xavier Cugat, Tony Curtis and Eddie Fisher.
Some excerpts from an excellent article on Costanzo by George Varga that appeared in the San Diego Union-Tribune:
“I had to learn on my own, which is good, because I developed my own style. It seemed like it came natural. I listened to a lot of music. (Noted Spanish bandleader) Xavier Cugat was big. And, many years later, he hired me.”
“(An) aneurysm did not keep the tireless “Mr. Bongo” from headlining concerts periodically until as recently as late 2015. Nor did it deter him from practicing his drumming at home, nearly every day, until just a few weeks ago.
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
P.S. Our unique programming is made possible by help from people like you. Learn how you can contribute to our efforts here: Support Jazz on the Tube
Thanks.
What do you do if you’re a composer and can’t get your work recorded? (A very common scenario by the way)
You start your own record label of course and that’s exactly what composer/songwriter/educator Randy Klein did.
And the music world is a richer place because of it,
Among other gems, Jazzheads.com is the label for Bobby Sanabria’s “West Side Story – Reimagined.”
Note: Due to some truly epic logistical problems, I had to record from an unfamiliar location and the sound quality on my end of the conversation is not up to par.
Don’t let it daunt you. This is a fascinating “behind the scenes” look at how musicians are making their own opportunities in the 21st century. Very inspiring.
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
Music credit: The Jazz on the Tube podcast theme song is “Mambo Inferno” performed by The Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra conducted by Bobby Sanabria from the CD ¡Que Viva Harlem!
Jazz on the Tube’s Ken McCarthy discusses the work of drummer/percussionist/healer/martial artist/philosopher Milford Graves with Jake Meginsky, maker of the documentary “Milford Graves Full Mantis.”
Also available via pay-per-play on Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
Music credit: The Jazz on the Tube podcast theme song is “Mambo Inferno” performed by The Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra conducted by Bobby Sanabria from the CD ¡Que Viva Harlem!
Chano Pozo (left) and Dizzy Gillespie (right) patron saints of Afro-Cuban jazz
I recently heard that the Manhattan School of Music plans to discontinue its semester-long world class Afro-Cuban Orchestra program under the able direction of master musician and educator Bobby Sanabria and replace it with a two week program taught by visiting instructors.
This news hurts my soul on so many levels.
Here are just three that stand out:
#1. The Manhattan School of Music’s existing Afro-Cuban music program is arguably the best of its kind in the world.
What else would one expect when you combine some of the world’s most talented and dedicated music students with one of the great living masters of the tradition in the lineage of Mario Bauza and Tito Puente in the birthplace of Afro-Cuban jazz, New York City.
#2. The Latin influence is essential for learning, playing, understanding and appreciating jazz. The Latin contribution to jazz is not a sideshow. It’s as close to the music’s essence as blood in the veins. For jazz to thrive, this connection needs to be maintained, appreciated and honored.
#3. We live in an era when our Latin population is under attack. The disgraceful abandonment of the US citizens of Puerto Rico after their 2017 hurricanes is just one example. The legal kidnapping of the children of Latin migrants at the border, without adequate plans to care for them or reunite them with their parents, is another.
By maintaining this one-of-a-kind cultural resource – its Afro-Cuban music program – The Manhattan School of Music provides a strong, moral counterbalance to current socially negative trends.
I recently sent this letter to the School’s president.
I encourage you to send your own well-though-out and polite comments to President Gandre, or you can copy my letter and send it to him with an endorsement of its sentiments.
– Ken
James Gandre, President
Manhattan School of Music
120 Claremont Avenue
New York, NY 10027
Dear President Gandre,
To start, let me just say that I can’t imagine the challenges you must face keeping a conservatory open and thriving in one of the world’s most expensive cities in this most economically challenged time.
The ongoing task of balancing important legacies with practical necessities must be wrenching at times.
One of the School’s most impressive legacies is the number of graduates whose work has been and continues to be essential to the development and preservation of jazz.
The School’s alumni list in this field is populated with giants of the music and is nothing short of staggering: Donald Byrd, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, Yusef Lateef, Herbie Mann, Hugh Masekela, John Lewis, Max Roach, Don Sebesky, Phil Woods, and many others.
One of the essential elements of jazz – starting in its formative days in New Orleans and continuing straight through to the present day – is the influence of Latin American rhythms, genres, sensibilities, and artists on the music.
Jelly Roll Morton, a jazz pioneer of Creole heritage, made this point most clearly when he stressed that to play jazz correctly one must include a “Spanish tinge.” He was referring to the “tresillo” and “habanera” rhythms of Cuba, then an active commercial and cultural trading partner with New Orleans.
Later, in the 1940s and 1950s when jazz underwent a major creative explosion centered in New York City, Latin composers, arrangers, band leaders and musicians again played an essential, if not properly heralded, role.
Because of this, I’ve always thought that the dedication the Manhattan School of Music has shown to giving Afro-Cuban jazz a full and secure home made it one of the most authentic and sophisticated conservatories in the nation.
For this reason, I request as a fan, a producer, a lifelong student of jazz, and a lover of mankind’s musical impulse, that you continue the semester long Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra with Bobby Sanabria, who has led it so masterfully, at the helm. His ongoing dedication and accomplishments speak for themselves and make him the ideal person for this most important cultural work.
Thank you for you consideration.
Sincerely,
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
P.S. Our unique programming is made possible by help from people like you. Learn how you can contribute to our efforts here: Support Jazz on the Tube
Thanks.
One of the great shining episodes of American music history came to an abrupt end in 1993 when the Village Gate could not maintain in the ferocious Manhattan real estate market (such is the fate of so many creative venues in NYC.) .
When exactly it started is hard to say, but in the early 60s “Symphony Sid” Torin and Jack Hooke teamed up with Art D’Lugoff’s The Village Gate for a series called “Monday Nights at the Gate” that presented straight Latin music performances.
Then in 1965 the Tico All Stars made the scene at the Gate producing one of the greatest Latin jam sessions every recorded – and the rest, as they say, is history. With this crew, how could it fail? Israel Cachao Lopez, Ray Barretto, Johnny Pacheco, Cándido Camero, Joe Cuba, Jose “Cheo” Feliciano, and the Palmieri brothers (Charlie and Eddie.)
Finding good info about this important but little documented series has been tricky.
Then in a recent conversation with Bobby Sanabria I discovered the marvelous web archive work of artist and photoprapher Francisco Molina Reyes II.
P.S. Our unique programming is made possible by help from people like you. Learn how you can contribute to our efforts here: Support Jazz on the Tube
Thanks.
