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.
President Jimmy Carter thawed the freeze between the United States and Cuba a bit by allowing a boatload of American musicians to travel to Havana to perform with Cuban musicians, the first such officially sanctioned visit since 1961.
Check out the young, very serious and (very thin) Arturo Sandoval and Paquito D’Rivera.
Smoking hot!
Personnel:
Dizzy Gillespie, leader and trumpet
Arturo Sandoval, trumpet
Stan Getz, saxophone
Paquito D’Rivera, saxophone
David Amram, french horn
Ronnie Jones, guitar
Ben Brown, bass
Oscar Valdes, chekeres
Los Papinesm, congas
Mickey Roker, drums
If anyone knows other musicians not listed, please let me know.
Also, if anyone knows where the rest of the tape is, I’m all ears.
– 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.
Gilberto Valdés Zequeira was born in Havana on August 16, 1928.
Note: His mother was a milliner (hat), not a millionaire.
As a kid he listened to Chano Pozo’s rehearsals in the Colon neighborhood of Havana.
His vocal group had a weekly gig at the San Souci night club in Havana and he appeared on Cuba’s pioneering television channel twice a week in the 1950s.
Roy Haynes introduced him to American jazz drumming and gave him his first set of drumsticks.
He performed with his old friend Bebo Valdés when the two of them found themselves in Europe in the early 1960s.
He spent time as the #2 man at Egrem.
He was Dizzy Gillespie’s host when Dizzy visited Havana in 1977.
He introduced Irakere to Columbia Records and toured the world with them as their manager.
He helped save Cuba’s most important jazz club La Zorra y el Cuervo from being turned into a pizzeria.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of Gilberto’s remarkable life.
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.
Andy Gonzalez & Rumbajazz with Jerry Gonzalez, Pedrito Martinez, Perdomo, and Ivan Renta in Puerto Rico Heineken Jazz Fest 2008.
One of the great musicians of his generation Jerry Gonzalez passed away in accident in Spain. More information coming as we get it.
– 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.
Maria Hinojosa talks with Bobby Sanabria about “West Side Story Reimagined.”
This is our fourth article about this piece.
We did one before the premier.
One before the free streaming performance at Dizzy’s in New York City.
One before the release of the CD and the free outdoor show at Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park.
Why so much attention?
Because it’s going to be one of the cultural forces of the year, if not the decade.
And remember, you heard about it on Jazz on the Tube first.
– 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.
Jack Costanzo started out as a dancer but self-education which included three trips to Havana in the 1940s made him a bongero (bongo master) and he was in instant demand both with jazz and Latin orchestras.
His first exposure to the instrument came when he was 14 years old at a ballroom dance concert in his home town of Chicago.
Costanzo probably did more to introduce the bongos to North American music than any other single artist.
Here’s a short list of some of the artists he collaborated with over the years:
Charlie Parker, Dizzie Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Fats Navarro, Frank Sinatra, Desi Arnaz, Rene Touzet, Stan Kenton, Nat King Cole, Peggy Lee, Danny Kaye, Perez Prado, Charlie Barnet, Pete Rugolo, Betty Grable, Harry James, Judy Garland, Patti Page, Jane Powell, Ray Anthony, Martin & Lewis, Frances Faye, Dinah Shore, Xavier Cugat, Tony Curtis and Eddie Fisher.
Some excerpts from an excellent article on Costanzo by George Varga that appeared in the San Diego Union-Tribune:
“I had to learn on my own, which is good, because I developed my own style. It seemed like it came natural. I listened to a lot of music. (Noted Spanish bandleader) Xavier Cugat was big. And, many years later, he hired me.”
“(An) aneurysm did not keep the tireless “Mr. Bongo” from headlining concerts periodically until as recently as late 2015. Nor did it deter him from practicing his drumming at home, nearly every day, until just a few weeks ago.
– 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.
