First come the musicians. Equally necessary is the audience. Also included is everyone who contributes to the creation and education of the audience – and that’s where our jazz journalists come in.
Author, producer and veteran jazz writer with over 40 years in the trenches, Howard Mandel is the president of the Jazz Journalists Association.
In this wide ranging conversation, we talk about Howard’s work including his books “Future Jazz” and “Miles, Ornette, Cecil: Jazz Beyond Jazz” and the pleasures and challenges of being a jazz writer in the digital era.
Jazz heroes
Among the many intriguing initiatives the Jazz Journalists Association is involved in their annual Jazz Heroes awards is one the most impressive.
Every year, community members nominate “advocates, altruists, activists, aiders and abettors of jazz” who work to help jazz flourish in their local communities.
If you’re a writer or documenter of jazz with video, audio, photography – on the web or via broadcasting – or if you just appreciate these arts and want to support them and follow some truly interesting work check out the Jazz Journalists Association.
– 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!
Composed by Leonard Bernstein for Broadway 60 years ago, West Side Story has proven to be one of the 20th century’s most durable musical creations.
This March 17, 2018, Bobby Sanabria’s Multiverse, made up of some of the finest musicians working in New York City today, will be performing a “reimagined” version of the work’s timeless melodies using the rhythms of Puerto Rico, Brazil, Venezuela, the Dominican Repubic and other Latin American countries.
Sanabria explains. In the reimagined version…
“…Puerto Rican bomba xicá, yuba and plena are omnipresent. Dominican merengue, Venezuelan joropo, Brazilian bossa nova and samba, funk, New Orleans second line, Cuban bolero and son montuno are now included alongside the show’s original use of Mexican huapango, Cuban mambo, cha-cha-cha, jazz, swing, European waltz and orchestral music.
It represents in full force the rainbow that is our collective Latino and African American culture in New York.”
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.
Jazz on the Tube’s Ken McCarthy interviews John Ernesto of Berks Jazz Fest.
Berks is a world class, community-supported jazz festival that takes place every spring in southeastern Pennsylvania. One commentator has called it the “biggest jazz festival in the world.”
With over 100 performances spread out over ten days it may well be.
For ten days, jazz takes over bucolic Berks county, with Reading, Pennsylvania (about 60 miles northwest of Philadelphia) at its center.
Music first
Unlike some commercially oriented jazz festivals that hire big stars from the popular music world to generate maximum revenues, Berks, which is operated by the Berks County Arts Council, keeps the focus on jazz in all the flavors and shapes in takes.
Now in its 28th year, the festival offers student musicians educational and performing opportunities and professionals with unique creative set ups while making a major economic contribution to its community.
The festival is popular among the musicians themselves who like the laid back atmosphere that’s all about the music.
A very short list of this years headliners includes Randy Brecker, Maceo Parker, Deedee Bridgewater, and Gerald Veasley.
“I’ve been to a lot of jazz festivals around the world and none of them compares to Reading (Berks.)” – Michael Tozzi, veteran Philadelphia jazz DJ.
If you’re a jazz festival lover, this is one that should definitely be on your radar Berks Jazz Fest.
In 1985, on his second trip to Havana, Dizzy Gillespie was accompanied by a documentary film crew.
The resulting film “A Night in Havana: Dizzy Gillespie in Cuba” captures Dizzy’s spirit like few other films.
The film includes beautifully shot concert footage of his performance at Havana’s Fifth International Jazz Festival, his adventures touring Havana and his reflections on Afro-Cuban and Afro-American culture.
As everyone knows, Dizzy liked to kid around.
He was also deep and not afraid to speak his mind as the film shows.
Featured musicians include: Nasyry Abdul Al-Khabyyr, drums; Sayyid Abdul Al-Kabir, reeds; Walter Davis, Jr., piano; John G. Lee, bass; Danny ‘Big Black’ Rey, congas; Gonzalo Rubalcaba; piano, and Arturo Sandoval, trumpet.
The city of Matanzas has a population of about 140,000 people, about 7% of Havana.
It’s about an hour and a half east of Havana by car along a very well-maintained highway.
It’s one of the most important centers of Afro-Latin music and religion in the world, yet as the subtitle of Miguel Bretos’ excellent book on the city says, it’s “The Cuba Nobody Knows.”
More accurately, it’s the city casual tourists don’t know. Everyone who is knowledgeable about Afro-Cuban music and religion knows all about the city.
Jazz on the Tube took David Amram there (it was his first visit to Cuba outside of Havana) to visit Los Muñequitos de Matanzas.
David Amram jamming with Los Muñequitos de Matanzas in front of their headquarters.
A Los Muñequitos rumba to celebrate the birthday of the young daughter of one it its members.
There are three varieties of rumba: Yambú, Guaguancó and Columbia. You’re looking at Yambú.
Los Muñequitos de Matanzas in concert in Matanzas.
A friend makes us Frituras De Malanga
Alturas de Simpson. It’s a neighborhood in Matanzas, Simpson Heights, and also the title of an iconic danzón (1879) written by Miguel Faílde who was a pioneer of the genre.
This is the view from Ermita de Monserrate. On one side of the ridge is the city and bay and on the other is this.
Everyday transportation in many parts of Cuba including Matanzas: Self-replicating; runs on locally produced, non-toxic fuel; produces organic fertilizer; and environmentally sound
I judge countries on how well they take care of their children. In that category – and many others – Cuba is #1
Matanzas: Those who know, know. Those who don’t, don’t.
Great news!
You can now watch this video – and all Spanish-language videos – with English subtitles. It’s free!
“Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a singing bird will come.” – Chinese proverb
Reunited in Havana with the help of Jazz on the Tube, Cuban drummer and singer Gilberto Valdés (89) and US composer and instrumentalist David Amram (87) work through the rhythms of a score together over lunch.
Jazz is an art of innovation, but it’s equally an art of memory, history, and tradition.
Gilberto and David know what it was like when there was a free flow of music and musicians between Cuba and the United States and what a positive impact that had on the people and music of both countries.
They also know the jarring effect of having that free flow cut off. (This was David’s first trip back to Cuba in forty one years.)
At Gilberto’s home, David and Gilberto talk
about the fine points of Cuban percussion.
Gilberto’s son is in Sao Paulo working as a filmmaker and when he visits he brings his Dad Brazilian instruments like this flute and pandeiro (tamborine.) Gilberto and David took them down off the wall where they were hanging and gave them a try.
At La Zorra and El Cuervo – the club in Havana where you can consistently hear great jazz seven nights a week – David and Orlando “Maraca” Valle on flute jam.
That’s New York’s Robby Ameen sitting in on drums. (If anyone recognizes the other players, please let me know.)
After we’ve paid the light bill and sent out the daily videos, this is an example of some of the the “behind the scenes” work Jazz on the Tube does to help make unique musical things happen in Cuba and elsewhere.
If you’re inclined to pay a voluntary user fee for your daily subscription and access to over 2,500+ classic jazz videos, we can always use the help and guarantee the money will be well used. Support Jazz on the Tube here.
Great news!
You can now watch this video – and all Spanish language videos – with English subtitles. It’s free!
