Interview

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Click here: The emergency in Puerto Rico is not over: How to help

Jazz on the Tube interviews music journalist Tomás Peña.

Peña is editor of JazzdelaPena.com and co-editor/contributing writer to the Latin Jazz Network. He also writes the monthly column “The Latin Side of Hot House” for Hot House Magazine.

In this call, we talk about the mostly unknown and little appreciated contributions of Puerto Rican musicians to the development of jazz from the art form’s very earliest days through its commercial peak and right through to our present era.

Here’s the tune that got Tomás started on Latin jazz.

Wes Montgomery – Bumpin’ on Sunset…

Other musical references

1919 recording of John Reese Europe & the 369th U.S. Infantry “Hell Fighters” Band: “The Darktown Strutters’ Ball.” The band included 18 musicians from Puerto Rico selected for their high level of musicianship

Juan Tizol performs his composition “Caravan” with the Duke Ellington Orchestra

Ray Barretto and band perform Thelonious Monk’s “I Mean You” at his induction ceremony as an NEA Jazz Master (2006)

Click here: The emergency in Puerto Rico is not over: How to help

 

– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube

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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!