Right to left: Jesús Ricardo (trumpet) with Hector Gagnet and Craig Jackson (both from Dayton, Ohio) and Philip Norris on bass (Wake Forest, NC.)
Will jazz survive?
The answer to this question, which lives in the hearts of all serious jazz fans, depends on two things:
Will the new generations embrace the music?
Will the established generations give the younger guys and gals a hand up?
Here’s the story of one young man’s path
Jesús Ricardo grew up in the Vedado district of Havana, Cuba.
He got his first exposure to music education when his fourth grade teacher suggested to his father that Jesús abundant energy, then used to beat rhythms on his school desk and other surfaces, might be more constructively channeled in a music program for kids. His father, a non-musician, said: “Sure, let’s give it a try.”
The focus of the training was classical, as is all institutional music education in Cuba, but the school also had as an elective a jazz big band. Hearing the band opened Jesús ears and captured his imagination. In jazz, he heard a music that would allow him not just to play, but to also express himself.
Bringing the US jazz tradition to Cuba
When he was in seventh grade, Jazz at Lincoln Center and Horns to Havana brought instructors to the island for performances and workshops. Jesús was one of the students who received training from Wynton Marsalis, Victor Goines, and Mike Rodriguez.
Students in the program were invited to sing solos and Jesús stood up and gave it a try. He along with the other students were encouraged to get that same singing feel with their instruments. When the Jazz at Lincoln Center group performed at Havana’s Teatro Nacional, Jesus was invited to come on stage and take a trumpet solo on Night in Tunisia.
In the ninth grade, Horns to Havana arranged for Jesús to spend a month in New Orleans.
Last year with help from Horns to Havana, he attended the Stanford Jazz Workshop and this summer he qualified for Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Summer Jazz Academy.
Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Summer Jazz Academy
Designed by Wynton Marsalis, who is also one of the instructors, and led by Dr. Michael Albaugh, the Academy is a two week residential program which this year was held on the campus of Bard College.
This year’s faculty included Wynton Marsalis (trumpet), Marcus Printup (trumpet), Ted Nash (saxophone, flute), Vincent Gardner (trombone), Helen Sung (piano), James Chirillo (guitar), Rodney Whitaker (bass) and Ali Jackson (drums).
(If any of these names are unfamiliar to you, get thee to Youtube, Spotify and/or the iTunes store and dig in. You won’t be disappointed. The faculty played a set as an octet and individually and as a group they were splendid.)
The program is open by audition to high school jazz students from all over the world. Only only 42 are accepted.
In addition to his growing jazz chops, Jesús is at home in Cuban idioms like Son, Guaracha and Rumba and draws inspiration from the music of Cuban trumpet greats like Chapotin and Florecita. He’s performed with the Septeto Habanero, an esteemed interpreter of the island’s classic Son repertoire.
A serious student of the tradition
When I asked Jesús who his favorite trumpet player was, he responded: “All of them. There’s something important to learn from all of them.”
As part of their training, the students worked in small groups – eight different octets in total – and at the end of Week One they offered a public performance of standards ranging from George and Ira Gershwin to Ornette Coleman.
The octet Jesús played with was tasked with King Oliver’s “Dippermouth Blues.” At first he says he worked the changes like a bebopper until Marsalis, who coached the unit, explained Oliver’s syncopated style which had been perfected by countless parades and funerals.
With Marsalis’ guidance, Jesús adapted and you could hear – and even see – the New Orleans flowing through him as he marched in place when he took his solo.
Will jazz survive?
At the start of this article I said that the answer to this question depends on two things: the younger generation’s interest and the established generation’s caring.
Things seem to be on the right track in both these departments.
If you want to learn more about groups that are helping make the next generation of jazz possible, here are two excellent places to start.
Jesús (right) with fellow students at the Lincoln Center Summer Jazz Academy
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
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Everywhere on earth music flows from the human voice and the drum.
In Cuba, with its long and direct connections to Central Africa’s incomparable polyrhythmic virtuosity, the drums take on an especially prominent role.
The bass, the piano, even the horns have at their aesthetic root the sophisticated sounds and rhythms produced by Cuba’s percussionists.
Contrast this with northern music (Europe and North America), where drummers, percussionists, and even the issue of rhythm itself tends to be shunted to the back of the bandstand.
As a result of this hierarchical skewing, the details of drumming appear far off the radar for the person trained with a northern ear, if in fact they make it onto the radar screen at all.
Your appreciation, understanding and enjoyment of Cuban music will grow massively as you learn what the congueros (conga players) are doing and how they produce their magical sounds.
In this video two masters talk shop.
Dig in.
If you love music, I can guarantee that watching and re-watching this video will change your ear for the better and produce a lifetime of enjoyment that will surprise and delight you.
Note: The conversation is in Spanish. Reading the well produced subtitles makes for an excellent and enjoyable Spanish lesson.
Background
This masterpiece of educational video, “Evolution of the Tumbadoras”, was produced in 1996 in New York City by a company called DCI Music Videos.
The two percussionists are Changuito (José Luis Quintana) and Giovanni Hidalgo.
Changuito was born on January 18, 1948 in the Casablanca district of Havana.
By 8 he was already playing professionally at the legendary Tropical with his musician father in the thriving Cuban music scene of the 1950s.
In 1970, he joined the Cuban super group Los Van Van. Among many other accomplishments (including three Grammys) he’s known for popularizing the “songo” genre, the forerunner of the “timba” form.
Grammy award winning Giovanni Hidalgo was born on November 22, 1963 in San Juan Puerto Rico to a musical family. His father José Manuel Hidalgo “Mañengue” was also a renowned conga player.
In 1981 he traveled to Cuba as a member the Batacumbele Band where he met Changuito and 15 years later the fruit of that relationship was captured by this video.
MORE: Highlights reel – Just instruction, no conversation
Tata Guines gives a lesson
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
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From the point of view of record sales “Manteca”, composed in collaboration with Cuban percussionist and composer Chano Pozo (1915-1948), was Dizzy Gillespie’s greatest hit.
Though it was not the first fusion of jazz and Cuban music, it was the first to have a nationwide impact on US jazz musicians and it opened the floodgates to all sorts of jazz/latin collaborations and experimentation that are continuing to this day
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Cándido de Guerra Camero (“Candido”) was born April 22, 1921 in Cuba.
At the time of this writing (June 22, 2016) you can still see him perform.
If you get the chance, do not miss it.
At 95, he needs a little help to get to his seat and drums, but from the first slap the power resonates from him and fills the room.
In the 1940s like so many Cuban music masters he moved to New York City where he has had an incalculable influence on the world of percussion and in fact is the most recorded conga drummer in the history of jazz.
Candido shows his prowess on the bass and the cowbell. No one sets a better groove!
Candido swings with some young cats…
The band is Unity. Recorded by Congahead .
Candido Camero-conga
Axel Laugart-keyboard
Amaury Acosta-drums
Max Cudworth-alto sax
Mike Rodriguez-trumpet
Chris Smith-bass
Michael Valeanu-guitar
Mauricio Herrera-percussion
Composed by- Candido Camero
Arranged by Amaury Acosta/Mike Rodriguez
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
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TECHNICAL NOTE: It’s not your eyes. This is an hazy, old piece of video.
It’s one of the great mysteries of music history.
Israel López Valdés (“Cachao”) was born in September 14, 1918 in Havana, Cuba.
Less than a month later, Jimmy Blanton was born on October 5, 1918 in Chatanooga, Tennessee. He died at twenty-four on July 30, 1942.
Before these two giants came along, no one played the bass this way. Cachao in Cuba and Blanton in the US completely revolutionized the instrument.
Blanton opened the doors for people like Charles Mingus, Ray Brown, Paul Chambers, and so many other great artists and Cachao changed the sound of Latin music.
Did they know each other? Did they ever have occasion to hear each other’s music?
From my analysis, while it’s possible, both artists had already created their respective styles before their recordings would have made it to each other’s countries.
What stars were in the sky when these two were born?
The interview video was copied off TV in Miami on the 1990s. Thanks goodness someone had the presence of mind to interview Cachao and thanks to Rick Camara for posting it.
Now Cachao in action…
Cachao & Paquito D’Rivera
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
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“Irakere” is a Yoruban word that means virgin forest, a wild place unspoiled by civilization.
Tracking this band, its history, evolution and personnel changes would take a web site all by itself.
A short version of their story:
Jazz was not smiled upon by the government in Cuba in the 60s and 70s. The powers that be felt it smacked of imperialism and capitalism.
However, in order to cater to visitors and their expectations, the government underwrote a group called Orquesta Cubana de Música Modern that played American music.
In 1973, members of the Orquesta broke away to form Irakere. The founders included pianist Chucho Valdés, saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera, trumpet player Jorge Varona, guitarist Carlos Emilio Morales, bassist Carlos del Puerto, drummer Bernardo García, and percussionist and singer Oscar Valdés II.
In 1977, the group performed at two “Iron Curtain” festivals, the Belgrade Jazz Festival and the Warsaw Jazz Jamboree where they had the chance to meet Betty Carter, Mel Lewis and Thad Jones.
Later that year Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Earl Hines and other American musicians visited Cuba on a “jazz cruise,” the first time jazz musicians visited Cuba since the break in diplomatic and trade relations in 1961. Gillespie and Getz jammed with the members of the band.
In 1980 with Gillespie’s help, the group won spots on at the Newport Jazz Festival in New York City and the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland and their international career was launched.
The recordings of those shows were packaged by both CBS Records (JC-35655) and EGREM (Areíto LD-3769) and won the Grammy in the 22nd Annual Grammy Awards for Best Latin recording.
The concert above was recorded at the Capital Theater in Jersey City, New Jersey on March 23, 1979 in the middle of their commercial break out.
(Make sure you watch through to the end when the group takes the music right into the audience.)
Personnel:
Carlos del Puerto, bass
Carlos Morales, electric guitar
Enrique Pla, drums
Jorge Alfonso El Niño, conga drums
Oscar Valdés, vocal and Cuban percussion
Armando Cuervo, vocal and Cuban percussion
Jorge Varona, trumpet, flugelhorn and vocal
Arturo Sandoval, trumpet, flugelhorn, valve trombone, vocal, arranger
Paquito D’Rivera, flute, alto sax, soprano sax, baritone sax, arranger
Carlo Averoff, soprano sax, tenor sax, flue, piccolo
Chucho Valdés, arranger, composer, keyboards, band leader
We have two more videos from this period.
One from Venezuelan television which we believe was recorded in 1979.
We also have one from 1977 when many of the cats were still in their twenties.
From Venezuelan television – c. 1979
Personnel:
Arturo Sandoval, trumpet
Jorge Varona, trumpet and vocals
Chucho Valdés, keyboards
Carlos Averhoff, saxophone
Carlos del Puerto, bass
Enrique Pla, timbales
Jorge Alfonso El Niño, conga drums, vocals
Armando Cuervo, percussion and vocals
Oscar Valdés, percussionist and vocals
Paquito D’Rivera, not on this recording
Filmed in 1977
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
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Stan Getz