Chano Pozo (left) and Dizzy Gillespie (right) patron saints of Afro-Cuban jazz
I recently heard that the Manhattan School of Music plans to discontinue its semester-long world class Afro-Cuban Orchestra program under the able direction of master musician and educator Bobby Sanabria and replace it with a two week program taught by visiting instructors.
This news hurts my soul on so many levels.
Here are just three that stand out:
#1. The Manhattan School of Music’s existing Afro-Cuban music program is arguably the best of its kind in the world.
What else would one expect when you combine some of the world’s most talented and dedicated music students with one of the great living masters of the tradition in the lineage of Mario Bauza and Tito Puente in the birthplace of Afro-Cuban jazz, New York City.
#2. The Latin influence is essential for learning, playing, understanding and appreciating jazz. The Latin contribution to jazz is not a sideshow. It’s as close to the music’s essence as blood in the veins. For jazz to thrive, this connection needs to be maintained, appreciated and honored.
#3. We live in an era when our Latin population is under attack. The disgraceful abandonment of the US citizens of Puerto Rico after their 2017 hurricanes is just one example. The legal kidnapping of the children of Latin migrants at the border, without adequate plans to care for them or reunite them with their parents, is another.
By maintaining this one-of-a-kind cultural resource – its Afro-Cuban music program – The Manhattan School of Music provides a strong, moral counterbalance to current socially negative trends.
I recently sent this letter to the School’s president.
I encourage you to send your own well-though-out and polite comments to President Gandre, or you can copy my letter and send it to him with an endorsement of its sentiments.
– Ken
James Gandre, President
Manhattan School of Music
120 Claremont Avenue
New York, NY 10027
Dear President Gandre,
To start, let me just say that I can’t imagine the challenges you must face keeping a conservatory open and thriving in one of the world’s most expensive cities in this most economically challenged time.
The ongoing task of balancing important legacies with practical necessities must be wrenching at times.
One of the School’s most impressive legacies is the number of graduates whose work has been and continues to be essential to the development and preservation of jazz.
The School’s alumni list in this field is populated with giants of the music and is nothing short of staggering: Donald Byrd, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, Yusef Lateef, Herbie Mann, Hugh Masekela, John Lewis, Max Roach, Don Sebesky, Phil Woods, and many others.
One of the essential elements of jazz – starting in its formative days in New Orleans and continuing straight through to the present day – is the influence of Latin American rhythms, genres, sensibilities, and artists on the music.
Jelly Roll Morton, a jazz pioneer of Creole heritage, made this point most clearly when he stressed that to play jazz correctly one must include a “Spanish tinge.” He was referring to the “tresillo” and “habanera” rhythms of Cuba, then an active commercial and cultural trading partner with New Orleans.
Later, in the 1940s and 1950s when jazz underwent a major creative explosion centered in New York City, Latin composers, arrangers, band leaders and musicians again played an essential, if not properly heralded, role.
Because of this, I’ve always thought that the dedication the Manhattan School of Music has shown to giving Afro-Cuban jazz a full and secure home made it one of the most authentic and sophisticated conservatories in the nation.
For this reason, I request as a fan, a producer, a lifelong student of jazz, and a lover of mankind’s musical impulse, that you continue the semester long Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra with Bobby Sanabria, who has led it so masterfully, at the helm. His ongoing dedication and accomplishments speak for themselves and make him the ideal person for this most important cultural work.
Thank you for you consideration.
Sincerely,
– 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
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One of the great shining episodes of American music history came to an abrupt end in 1993 when the Village Gate could not maintain in the ferocious Manhattan real estate market (such is the fate of so many creative venues in NYC.) .
When exactly it started is hard to say, but in the early 60s “Symphony Sid” Torin and Jack Hooke teamed up with Art D’Lugoff’s The Village Gate for a series called “Monday Nights at the Gate” that presented straight Latin music performances.
Then in 1965 the Tico All Stars made the scene at the Gate producing one of the greatest Latin jam sessions every recorded – and the rest, as they say, is history. With this crew, how could it fail? Israel Cachao Lopez, Ray Barretto, Johnny Pacheco, Cándido Camero, Joe Cuba, Jose “Cheo” Feliciano, and the Palmieri brothers (Charlie and Eddie.)
Finding good info about this important but little documented series has been tricky.
Then in a recent conversation with Bobby Sanabria I discovered the marvelous web archive work of artist and photoprapher Francisco Molina Reyes II.
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.
What do you get when you combine Broadway’s most complex score from one of America’s greatest and most jazz-friendly composers with some of New York’s finest musicians and most imaginative arrangers playing for one of the world’s hippest jazz orchestras?
“West Side Story Reimagined” by Bobby Sanabria’s Multiverse Big Band.
We’ve followed this project through its debut, its free live streaming from Jazz and Lincoln Center, and now – at long last – the recording is available to the public.
Among other things, it’s a master class in Latin rhythms.
Just get it.
I guarantee you’ll be playing it until the 0s and 1s wear out on the digital recording.
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.
Music credit: The Jazz on the Tube podcast theme song is “Mambo Inferno” performed by The Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra conducted by Bobby Sanabria from the CD ¡Que Viva Harlem!
Bobby started his music career as an opera singer, but switched to popular music working as a vocalist at the legendary Tropicana nightclub and dancing professionally as well.
As a sideline, in 1960, he was Cuba’s champion long distance jumper.
Along the way Bobby also picked up the trumpet, the bass, the congas and the drums.
In 1980, he organized the first “Jazz Plaza Festival”, better known now as the Havana Jazz Festival, which I can tell you without hesitation is today one of the great music festivals on earth.
Rumbibop
Over the years, Bobby’s been a mentor to countless young Cuban jazz musicians – multiple generations worth – and remains a tireless promoter of the music.
He continues to perform, record, create events to help showcase other musicians – and paint. (He just had a gallery show in Havana.)
P.S. Fans: Please write to Downbeat and Jazz Times and ask them to review this and other major albums from Cuba.
Cuba has a globally important jazz scene.
It would be good as a matter of policy for US jazz publications to recognize that due to the vagaries of history, Cuba lacks a well funded jazz music promotion machine and is unlikely to have one anytime soon.
In the meantime, American fans and readers of these magazines worldwide are being deprived of a wealth of great and important music.
At a private party in Havana circa 1993, Tata Güines felt inspired to sit in on timbales.
The band is Orquestra Sublime. Good name.
More informal Tata. Hanging out at home.
And finally, Tata Güines with Frank Emillo, Changuito, y Cachaito on the legendary, sublime, magnificent Jazz Festival Plaza stage – a place as close to heaven as you are likely to ever come on this earth.
Great news!
You can now watch this video – and all Spanish language videos – with English subtitles. It’s free!
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.
– Ken McCarthy Jazz on the Tube
