Blog
It’s a new world at Jazz on the Tube starting today January 15, 2018 (and we didn’t pick this day randomly.)
Earlier this year we asked our supporting subscribers if they would like:
1. A bigger video screen size and
2. To receive less email but the same number of video choices – with many more new videos
67% said YES – make the change
22% said NO – keep things the way they are
11% said “Heck, I don’t know”
Based on this we’ve been quietly making big changes to the site and now we’re ready to show them to you.
How will things change?
Instead of getting different birthday emails throughout the day, you’ll get ONE email with all the birthdays of the day and all the birthday links in it. Less mail in your mailbox, but all the videos you’re used to. (We mail that email at 9 AM eastern)
Then we’ll mail ONE featured video of the day ten hours later (We send that email at 7 PM Eastern.)
The second video of the day will be mostly BRAND NEW selections, things you’ve never seen on Jazz on the Tube before – or music so good, we can’t share it just once.
Of course, we might slip in an extra mailing now and then if there is important news, but now there will be a whole lot less in your mailbox with a whole lot more new music. (We will be mailing the “non” mailing every day for a while still.)
I hope you like the new look and the new mailing schedule. As we come into our tenth year, we felt the music deserves a better look than something I sketched on the back of an envelope ten years ago.
As always, thanks for your support.
Thanks to you tens of thousands of people all over the world who are experiencing jazz in a whole new way.
P.S. It’s free to you, but not free to us. Supporting subscribers make this unique service and all the other things we do to support jazz possible.
P.P.S. If you’re like me and don’t like new interfaces (!), rest assured, the old site with everything on it is being maintained. Just go to the upper menu bar on any video page and click on “Legacy Site” and you will be whisked back to the old site.
P.P.S. Did I mention that all this costs money? Your support is needed and welcome.
Blog, Cuba, Travel to Cuba
Interview
Download the mp3 here
Go to Cuba with Jazz on the Tube as your guide:
Click here for details
Disclaimer
I am not a lawyer. I am not pretending to be a lawyer. I am not selling, offering or giving away legal advice.
Check everything I say with your own research, common sense, and your own attorney.
Travel journalists and tour companies which charge $300 to $500+ a day for $100 worth of services (or less) aren’t going to do your research for you. They would like you to believe that you can’t visit Cuba legally without their “assistance.”
This audio explains the other side of the story
First, read the law. You might want to print it out and carry it with you.
Click here for: Report published in the Federal Register
Here’s the law:
Title 31 Subtitle B Chapter V Part 515 Subpart E Section 515.574
§ 515.574 Support for the Cuban People
(a) General license. The travel-related transactions set forth in §515.560(c) and other transactions that are intended to provide support for the Cuban people are authorized, provided that:
(1) The activities are of:
(i) Recognized human rights organizations;
(ii) Independent organizations designed to promote a rapid, peaceful transition to democracy; or
(iii) Individuals and non-governmental organizations that promote independent activity intended to strengthen civil society in Cuba; and
(2) Each traveler engages in a full-time schedule of activities that:
(i) Enhance contact with the Cuban people, support civil society in Cuba, or promote the Cuban people’s independence from Cuban authorities; and
(ii) Result in meaningful interaction with individuals in Cuba.
(3) The traveler’s schedule of activities does not include free time or recreation in excess of that consistent with a full-time schedule.
Go to Cuba with Jazz on the Tube as your guide:
Click here for details
What does this mean in the real world?
1. To my non-attorney eyes, the law permits individual American citizens to travel for the purpose of providing “Support for the Cuban People.”
Support for the Cuban people is defined as activities intended to “promote independent activity intended to strengthen civil society in Cuba.”
2. The law prohibits and provides a list of entities you, as an American citizen, may not do business with.
Click here for the list of forbidden companies.
3. The law requires that you engage in activities in support of the Cuban people on a full time basis (practically speaking six hours a day, five out of seven days a week) and specifically forbids things like laying around on the beach drinking daiquiris (unless it’s your “time off.”)
Here are two credible sources that attempt to define what this vague language means in practical terms:
Source #1 – Cornell Law School
Source #2 – Viahero
4. The law requires that you keep records of your trip for five years in case some bureaucrat shows up at your door someday asking you why you went. Records would be a simple diary and receipts.
That’s it.
Based on my ability to read simple English – and to avoid being flimflammed – it appears to me that if I follow these guidelines I can travel to Cuba legally.
Does that mean that you or I can do this without hassles from U.S. government functionaries?
We may or may not avoid hassles coming back into our own country, but as you probably know there are U.S. government functionaries ready to hassle you about virtually everything – including coming home from countries like Canada, Mexico, the UK and Switzerland.
To defuse potential hassles coming back into the “Land of the Free” (the US):
1. Bring a copy of the law
2. Bring a copy of the forbidden entities to show you are aware of the law and to assure whoever that you avoided transactions with them
3. Bring a diary with receipts that records your daily activities
Listen to my audio. Read the resources I’ve linked to. Forewarned is forearmed.
If, after you’ve done your own research and thinking, you want to go to Cuba as an independent traveler, we can help.
Click there for details
Go to Cuba with Jazz on the Tube as your guide:
Click here for details
– 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.
Afro-Cuban culture, Blog, Cuba, The Cuba-US connection, Travel to Cuba
David Amram, Pete Seeger and Dizzy Gillespie
Interview
Download the mp3 here
“Decían que yo no venía y aquí usted me ve” (They said I wasn’t coming and here you see me!)
– Benny More
In 1977, David Amram visited Cuba for his first and only time with Dizzy Gillepsie, Stan Getz, and Earl “Fatha” Hines.
Now 40+ years later, this lifelong student of the music is returning to Havana where he’ll be featured at the Havana jazz Fest.
Jazz on the Tube helped make this possible. Thanks to all the supporters who help make Jazz on the Tube possible.
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
Go to Cuba with Jazz on the Tube as your guide:
Click here for details
Afro-Cuban culture, Blog, Cuba, Cuban Jazz, The Cuba-US connection, Travel to Cuba, Video and audio
The album that resulted from Amram’s
last trip to Cuba over 40 years ago
Interview
Download the mp3 here
40 years later David Amram returns to Cuba….
In 1977, the Carter administration gave permission to a group of US jazz musicians to travel to Cuba the first such trip in the fifteen years after the Revolution there.
Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Earl “Fatha” Hines, Ray Mantilla, and David Amram landed in Havana for a 36-hour musical whirlwind.
Now, forty plus years later, Amram is making a long-awaited return trip, this time for a week to perform at the Havana Jazz Festival – an invitation facilitated by Jazz on the Tube.
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
Afro-Cuban culture, Blog, Cuba, Cuban Jazz, Latin Jazz, Puerto Rico, The Cuba-US connection, Video
Cándido de Guerra Camero was born April 21, 1921 in Havana, Cuba, which makes him 96 and half years old (and one day) on the day of this recording.
Cándido is the most recorded conga player in the history of jazz having appeared on well over 1,000 albums.
Perhaps even more remarkable – and this is something many people have trouble wrapping their minds around – he is the first person to perform with multiple congas at the same time.
It may seem like an “obvious” idea, but as for all obvious ideas, someone had to go first and that somebody was Cándido de Guerra Camero.
Here’s the story straight from the Maestro’s mouth…
When Cándido first visited the US in 1946, in addition to being a percussionist, he also was a master on the bass, guitar and tres.
The rabbit hole goes even deeper…
Everyone is aware that Afro-Caribbean music was created from elements of African music. What fewer people are aware of is that the creative contributions have flowed both ways.
The practice of a single drummer performing with three or more drums first appeared in Senegal in the 1970s.
According to the liner notes of “Bougarabou: Solo Drumming of Casamance” (Village Pulse Records) the Jola of Senegal played just one drum, adding two later, then finally graduating to three or four in the late ’70s.
What stimulated this sudden innovation in an already well developed musical tradition?
Believe it or not, the evidence points to the influx and popularity of salsa records in the region.
Yes, salsa.
So we come full circle…From Africa to the Caribbean to New York City and back to Africa.
And who was on those records that changed the way the Jola of Senegal approached the drums? Almost certainly Puertorriquenos
Hanging around at home, Bacary Olé Diedhiou, Senegalese master of Bougarabou, gives an informal demo.
OK, we’ve informed you and hopefully entertained you.
Over forty musicians donated their time and talents to create the material we’ve shared with you in this series.
Over $10,000 in donated video production and post-production and web services were donated to bring you these highlights.
If you haven’t given yet, now’s the time. Thanks.
– 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.
Blog, Puerto Rico, Video
Composition “La Cartera” by Arsenio Rodriguez.
Featuring Gerardo Contino (vocals), Larry Harlow (piano), Eddie Montalvo (congas), and Gabrielle Garo (flute) with Bobby Sanabria’s Multiverse Big Band live at Le Poisson Rouge.
Video production and post production services contributed by Jazz on the Tube and Guava Records. Additional footage provided by Alfie Alvarado.
And for people who think conga drumming is just random banging on skins, here’s a lesson from Eddie Montalvo on just a little of what’s involved.
All these greats came out and donated their time and talents to help Puerto Rico. We invite you to do the same. The need is urgent. Thanks.
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
