Gilberto Valdés is eight-eight years old this year. We had the wonderful opportunity to meet him and spend some time talking jazz.
Jazz drummer, singer, band leader, producer and educator. Gilberto’s life tells the story of post-war jazz in the United States and Cuba and bridges Cuba’s pre and post-Revolution jazz history.
Havana-born, as a five year old he was introduced to American jazz by his young uncle, Raul Zequeira, who was just nine years older than him. During his childhood Gilberto accompanied his uncle to many parties and social gatherings where American jazz and pop music was au courant.
Later as a young man, Gilberto made frequent trips to New York City where he stayed with his step-father, Humberto Gelabert, a former sideman with Benny Carter and the bandleader of his own Cuban orchestra. Humberto also owned a popular barbershop in East Harlem.
During these trips, Gilberto went to the Savoy Ballroom, Minton’s (where he sat in one night), Birdland, and the Palladium Ballroom.
What he learned, he brought back home and among other things helped pioneer bebop on the island.
In 1957, while his vocal quartet “The Cavaliers” was performing at San Souci, the preeminent nightclub in Havana, he met Roy Haynes who at the time was the drummer in Sarah Vaugh’s Trio. Haynes gave Gilberto a set of drum sticks as an encouragement to take up the drums, which he did.
He spent the first half of the sixties in Europe where he reconnected with his Uncle Raul who had moved to Paris after World War II and had his own band.
When Gilberto returned to Cuba he became the country’s jazz ambassador hosting Dizzy Gillespie’s historic 1977 visit, bringing the Cuban super group Irakere to the U.S. and representing Cuban jazz musicians internationally.
As the last picture in this series shows, he’s a beloved figure in Havana’s jazz scene where he’s been an educator and mentor to countless young jazz musicians.
Along with pianist and bandleader Bellita, he played a key role in saving Cuba’s most important jazz club El Zorra y La Cuarva from being turned into a pizzeria!
Photos
Gilberto’s step-father Humberto Gelabert (on the left) was
proprietor of a barbershop in East Harlem
Gilberto’s step-father and his Cuban jazz orchestra
He’s on the far left with a trombone
Gilberto’s step-father talking with Stan Kenton
Gilberto’s band brought modern North American jazz to Cuba.
That’s Gilberto on drums on the upper right
Gilberto started as a professional singer in high school specializing in Harmonical Vocal Quartet music and continued with singing groups his entire career. Gilberto is on the far right.
Gilberto on drum kit
A television pioneer in Cuba. Gilberto on the far right
A publicity shot from the White Elephant in Paris in the 1960s.
Gilberto on timbales
Gilberto on drums with Bebe Valdés in Sweden in the 1960s
Sammy Davis Jr. on congas and Gilberto on timbales
Gilberto (with tie) brought Irakere to New York City and the world.
Chucho Valdés on the left. The President of CBS’s Record Division Bruce Lundwald on the upper right. Conga player Oscar Valdés (no relation) on the lower right
In front of Casa de la Cultura de Plaza, the birthplace of the Havana Jazz Festival, Gilberto with youngest son of Jorge Varona, who played with Irakere during Irakere’s visit to US
Gilberto with special friends – March 2017.
Up front, to the left of the man in yellow, Waldo Nelson Cárdenas
of the Havana jazz club El Zorra y La Cuerva
To find out who these special friends are, click here.
– 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.
“Has the Times relegated jazz coverage in the interest of reallocating resources to subjects that attract more web traffic?” – Max Cea, Salon Magazine
For decades, the New York Times has been one of the world’s key outlets for jazz news and reviews.
No more.
In an era when clickbait is valued more highly that news, the New York Times has abdicated its role as a leader in jazz reporting and education.
“…By December, the number of once ample weekly New York jazz listings were condensed to the single digits and lumped in with the paper’s pop and rock listings.” – Max Cea
While you’re reading this, think about what Jazz on the Tube has been doing to try to pick up the slack:
All jazz festivals worldwide listed, all jazz clubs worldwide listed, all jazz education programs worldwide listed, an in-depth free course on Cuba and its influence on jazz and American music, book profiles, artist profiles, curated videos of classic videos every day etc.
Meanwhile, the great writers have left the Times and the new guy splits his time as the Times’ TV comedy critic and so far appears not to know – or care – much about New York’s proud role as center of the jazz universe.
If you haven’t participated in supporting Jazz on the Tube yet, this article is a good reason to considering doing so if you love jazz and want to see it survive and thrive.
Jazz has been in Cuba for almost as long as jazz has existed. In fact, Cuban music was one of the contributors to the formation of jazz in its earliest years. (See Jelly Roll Morton’s comment on the essential role of the “Spanish tinge” in achieving the jazz feel.)
In spite of this long history, being a jazz musician in Cuba has not been easy for the last 55+ years since the free flow of audiences, musicians, records, and scores was cut off.
Cubans have extremely limited access to the Internet and the world market price of a single CD is the equivalent of a full week’s salary for them. Books, scores, and travel are correspondingly expensive and difficult to arrange.
While Cuba has an outstanding system for education in classical music (one of the best in the world), jazz education is carried out largely outside the academy and with little to no financial support.
How then does Cuba manage to produce so many world class jazz musicians?
Individual initiative and the passion and dedication of the country’s jazz community.
Growing the next generation of Cuban jazz musicians
Fledgling jazz musicians need the chance to learn their instruments, play with others, and master the theory that underpins the music.
One of the key figures in making these opportunities available to young people in Cuba today is Camilo Moreira, a friend of Jazz on the Tube.
A fine guitarist who has shifted his focus to education and composition, Camilo is a summa cum laude graduate of the Cuba’s top performing arts school University of the Arts (ISA) where he was recognized by the faculty as the best student-teacher of his graduating class.
Since 2010, he’s been teaching harmony, composition, computer music and ensemble practice at the country’s top conservatory for secondary students, the National School of Music (ENA). He also directs the school’s jazz band which was recently invited to perform at Jazz at Lincoln Center in April of 2016.
This year (2017), Camilo has taken on the important task of reviving and directing ISA’s Jazz Band. This is easily the most important jazz education initiative in the country.
How you can to help
As you can see from the picture above, Camilo likes books on composing, arranging and theory. They’re treasures to him.
For any of us, getting books on any subject is a simple matter of going to Amazon, spending a few bucks, and clicking send.
But there is no Amazon for Cubans and even if there were, a single music text can cost Camilo the equivalent of a month’s salary or more.
Up until now, that’s how he’s gotten his books, painstakingly saving his money and acquiring them catch-as-catch-can.
No more.
Jazz on the Tube has asked Camilo to give us his shopping list of the books he needs to continue his work as a teacher, arranger and composer.
We’re also on the lookout for scores and charts from, especially but not limited to, Machito and Mario Bauza, Tito Puente, Pérez Prado, and others who brought Cuban music into big band settings.
If you’re a promising young musician in Cuba, as a secondary student, you’re in ENA and as a university student, you’re in ISA. In both places Camilo is the face of jazz and we want to help him in his mission every way we can.
The power of positive leverage
It’s rare in life that such modest inputs (books and other support) have the potential to have such an oversized output.
If you’d like to be part of this project, please include a note to that effect with your next contribution to Jazz on the Tube and we’ll make sure the money you send is used for the purpose of supporting jazz education in Cuba.
By the way, in addition to being a first rate educator, Camilo is also an accomplished composer and arranger.
Using the old “sneaker net” method – flash drives passed from hand-to-hand instead of the Internet which as stated before is not easily accessed in Cuba – we’ve put some of his work online for you to enjoy.
Camilo wrote the score for the Cuban-made feature film “La Isla de Corcho” (“Cork Island”)
A Camilo Moreira composition and arrangement sung by Luna Manzanares: “Dejo Una Cancion”
Camilo Moreira wrote this one too: “El Trapezio de La Luna” Performed by friends and classmates from ISA. (A first reading.)
– 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.
More information about Steve Coleman is available at M-Base.com including a detailed biography, upcoming gigs and projects, music (which you can download for free), scores, essays and interviews.
You can register here for free at m-base.net and watch the trailer for the film “Elements of One” that Steve and I talked about.
The complete film is also available for online streaming from the site for $18.00 and is well worth it.
Mongo Mangue, the piece Steve and I discussed in the interview that features Charlie Parker playing with Machito and his Afro-Cubans
– 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.
I say our beloved Bronx because the Bronx is a cultural treasure that all Americans can be proud of.
In this wide-ranging and fascinating conversation, Bobby Sanabria talks about the state of jazz education, the historic and ongoing contribution to jazz by Latin music and musicians, and the history of the Bronx, one of the most important centers of musical innovation in the modern world.
“The soul of the people of the Bronx is one of resilience, resistance, and pride,” Mr. Sanabria said. “It really is a majestic history.” (New York Times)
BMHC just broke ground last month, on January 13th, on what will be a 300-seat theater as part of a massive housing complex of over 300 apartments on E. 162nd St. and Elton Ave in the Melrose section of the South Bronx. It will open in December of 2018. This will be the permanent home of the Bronx Music Heritage Center.
From Mambo to Hip Hop
Before the Fires: An Oral History of African American Life in the Bronx from the 1930s to the 1960s by Mark Naison and Bob Gumbs Info about the book “Before the Fires”
The Clave – The Key: Africa, the Caribbean and New Orleans
What New York City sounded like when Bobby was 15. The Puerto Rican community gathers at at the Bandshell in Central Park.
Giovanni Russonello shines a light on two things we’ve been writing about a lot in recent years:
The sublime pleasures of Latin Jazz and the incredible new generation of players and composers who merit a lot more attention than they are currently getting.
This appeared in today’s (February 11, 2017) New York Times:
Latin Jazz is Booming. Look Beyond the Grammys to Find It.
By Giovanni Russonello
When the Grammy Awards eliminated the category of best Latin jazz album six years ago, an outcry arose quickly. Musicians and advocates argued that the move cut off a rare source of institutional recognition for a genre at the commercial fringes. And the academy listened. The next year the category returned.
In the years since, the importance of that recognition has become even clearer: Latin jazz is experiencing a kind of creative bloom, with musicians diversifying their work at an uncommon clip. It’s generating some of the most invigorating improvised music around.
So maybe it is a bit disappointing that the Grammy nominations this year don’t fully reflect those developments, focusing instead on older musicians. Every nominee up for best Latin jazz album this Sunday is over 60.
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.
