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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.
As the son of Afrojazz pioneer Bobby Carcassés, he might have made a decent living by keeping his head down and following in those famous footsteps. But Roberto, sometimes known by the diminutive “Robertico,” pursued a musical path all his own and now he’s on his way to becoming a legend in his own right, a standard-bearer for a young generation taking Cuban music to new heights.
Roberto Julio Carcassés Colón was born in 1972 in Havana’s Playa district and today he lives in Marianao, not far from the Tropicana where his father used to perform five decades ago.
Bobby Carcassés, now 81 years old, has always liked to play anything he could get his hands on – congas, bass, flugelhorn, trumpet, saxophone – in addition to singing. His son, from an early age, leaned towards piano.
Roberto studied percussion at the Escuela Nacional de Arte. He says “I’m in love with the piano, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think like a percussionist. I think a lot about rhythm. For me rhythm is the most important thing. Not rhythm as a genre of music, but as a way of life.”
He also sings but says, “the voice takes time to educate and I’m still in the process of learning.”
Bobby and Roberto have played with renowned musicians such as Chucho Valdés, Wynton Marsalis, George Benson and more. Both are bandleaders, Roberto of the seminal Timba Funk band Interactivo collective, which has featured great international artists like Cimafunk, Melvis Santa and Telmary Díaz, among others.
Roberto Carcasses Jazz Quartet features his father as a very special guest.
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
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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
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A carnival group from Santiago de Cuba (“Conga de San Agustin”) rehearses.
So much power indoors you think they might blow the roof off.
Taking the practice to the streets with the dancers
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
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Pedro Nolasco Jústiz Rodríguez, better known as Peruchín (January 31, 1913 – December 24, 1977)
We don’t seem to have any video of him so we’ll have to content ourselves with these three cuts.
Pa Gozar, La Mulata Rumbera, Redención
Note: On “La Mulata Rumbera”: Con Pedro Peruchín Jústiz, Orlando Cachaito López, Guillermo Barreto, Gustavo Tamayo, Yeyito Iglesias, Tata Güines
Some of the pianist influenced by Peruchín include Charlie Palmieri, George Shearing, Eddie Palmieri, Papo Lucca, Chucho Valdés and Alfredo “Sabor” Linares. Famed pianist Bebo Valdés was his disciple.
He was the greatest pianist in Cuban music, and there were some very good pianists around in those days: Lilí Martínez, Jesús López, Lino Frías. But what Peruchín could do in one phrase was without equal. And what he did harmonically, rhythmically, was so modern. He was 30, 40 years ahead of his time. Every important Latin pianist I know … has copied or been influenced by him. – Paquito Hechavarría, 1995
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
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Stan Getz