LJC Community Conversation: East Coast Latin Jazz vs. West Coast Latin Jazz
LJC Community Conversations are designed to explore major ideas in the Latin Jazz world together as a community and inspire conversation through comments. My main motivator here is my belief that LJC readers hold a great deal of knowledge and passion around Latin Jazz, and I think that we can learn something from everyone. Whether you’re a seasoned Latin Jazz performer or a newcomer to the music, leave a comment and let your voice be heard!
This week’s Community Conversation takes a look at regional differences in Latin Jazz from coast to coast . . .
Being a musician based on the West Coast, I’ve often wondered about the secondary citizen reputation that the West Coast holds in both the traditional jazz and the Latin Jazz world. Regardless of the musical quality that you create, you always live under the stigma that you’ve got to go to New York to hear “the real thing.” I’ve heard Latin Jazz performed in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and more; I’ve seen both good and bad performances in each locale. I’ve thought about our dependence of history - just because the music originated in New York, does that mean that no one can ever perform it at an outstanding level? It’s been a discussion that I’ve shared many times . . . it always leaves me with more thoughts and questions.
East Coast musicians definitely established Latin Jazz and since then, there have been many innovations that were born on the East Coast. Bands like Machito and his Afro-Cubans and Tito Puente’s Orchestra defined the music’s essence and popularized Latin Jazz across the country. Dizzy Gillespie fused bebop with Afro-Cuban rhythms, providing a legitimate connection to the jazz community. Since then, numerous Latin Jazz giants have emerged from the East Coast scene - Jerry and Andy Gonzalez, Papo Vazquez, and Bobby Sanabria to name a few. The East Coast, especially New York, has existed as a hotbed of Latin Jazz from its early days of existence.
These fantastic musicians didn’t emerge from thin air - the East Coast created these bands for very specific reasons. New York became the center of cutting edge jazz in the 1940s, and it has remained the focal point of the jazz world ever since. Musicians have traveled to New York in droves, looking to expand their jazz repertoire and ingest all of New York’s diverse musical cultures. In close proximity, a significant Caribbean community planted their roots, looking for work and a better existence. This included a good number of musicians looking for work, both within the Latin dance world, and outside of it. The inevitable collision of these two musical ideas was meant to occur, for both artistic and economic reasons.
West Coast musicians have made their share of fantastic music, but in most cases, it’s hard to match the innovation found on the East Coast. Cal Tjader remains the most significant Latin Jazz musician emerging from the West Coast scene. He established the strength of West Coast Latin Jazz musicians, and in turn, influenced a wealth of musician from all over the country. A second generation of musicians carried the flame into the present - John Santos, Poncho Sanchez, Rebeca Mauleon, Bobby Matos, and more make sure that quality Latin Jazz lives on the West Coast. The cast of artists creating Latin Jazz on the West Coast is strong, but small in number compared to the east.
The West Coast lacked the organic development found back east, but the musical scene grew through the teachings of musical mentors. When Cal Tjader became inspired by Tito Puente’s band, he brought Mongo Santamaria and Willie Bobo back to San Francisco with him. More masters of Afro-Cuban music were soon to follow; Francisco Aguabella and Orestes Vilato settled into the West Coast scene, quickly finding high profile work. These musicians did more than perform on the West Coast - they taught the local musicians how to play the music authentically. Their teachings established a vibrant Latin Jazz community that never stopped growing. They spawned a group of followers that pursued even more education and brought that back to the West Coast.
At the risk of fueling the fire, I would like to look at the differences between East Coast and West Coast Latin Jazz. I’m not looking to establish that one Latin Jazz scene makes better music; I’d rather recognize the fact that they produce different types of Latin Jazz and then go from there. What musical differences do the West Coast and East Coast bring to the table and how do you envision them? Do you have a preference and why? I’d be very curious to hear everyone’s thoughts on this one.
This is a sensitive topic for many, but it’s one that we need to address. Let’s get the discussion going - LEAVE A COMMENT and make your voice heard. I’ve isolated a few major questions:
* How Would You Describe the Differences Between The East Coast Latin Jazz sound and The West Coast Latin Jazz sound?
* Would You Break These Into Smaller Groupings - maybe San Francisco and Los Angeles sounds (West Coast) - New York and Miami sounds (East Coast)?
* Has The West Coast Made Any Major Contributions to Latin Jazz?
LEAVE A COMMENT below with your thoughts - I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts; it would be especially insightful to hear from both coasts! Does East Coast Latin Jazz sound different that West Coast Latin Jazz? Do the differences even matter? Whatever your opinion, share it! Your comment will be appreciated!
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By the way, I’ve added a current releases tab at the top of the page. You’ll find links to recent Latin Jazz albums as well as upcoming releases. I’ll also be putting out a weekly post that summarizes news and releases relevant to that week. I’ve added a couple of performance highlights for this week as well - I’d like to create a larger section for performance listings, but that’s a pretty big project that will take some time to complete. Let me know what other type of information would be valuable to you - I’d like LJC to be a resource for fans, musicians, and more. Let me know how it’s working for you!
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Wazzup Chip! As always, an excellent and thought-provoking subject. One that I’ve pondered often. I’ll be back to address your points specifically but I’ll quickly say this; as fantastic and well-done the Latin Jazz documentary, ‘Calle 54′ was, they totally screwed the pooch by not mentioning the West Coast Latin Jazz scene. I’ve often wondered whether it was intentional or due to ignorance. Just because WE regognize the importance and vitality of the West Coast scene doesn’t mean everyone else does. Case in point, I recall a blindfold test done recently in one of the Jazz mags featuring Paquito D’Rivera. They played a cut from the Machete Ensemble and Maestro was very impressed but had no clue who it was. Even AFTER he was told, the impression I got was that he’d never heard of John Santos. To not know of John Santos is to not know of the whole scene, frankly, I was stunned. I’ve always wondered why the East Coast and West Coast haven’t collaborated on basically, anything. Orestes will play on various Salsa Dura recordings but I think this only happens when HE goes East! Wazzupwidat!!?? On ONE Machete record there’s ONE tune featuring Andy Gonzalez, currently Giovanni Hidalgo has done a few records with Rebecca Mauleon but he belongs to the WORLD;) I imagine that logistics and the distance thing plays into the equation somewhat but it doesn’t seem like enough of a reason. I’ve always felt that John Santos and Bobby Sanabria are kindred spirits that have similar approaches and have had somewhat parallel careers…where’s the record!!?? I’d pay cash money in a heartbeat to hear a collaboration between these 2 giants. There will always be a West Coast/East Coast divide, Standard Jazz, Latin Jazz, and even Fusion all have had historically strong, important music being created, but at least it ain’t as bad as the the RAP thing!!;)
That’s an interesting thought about “Calle 54.” I think that they were trying to create a documentary just about New York Latin Jazz, not an overall picture of Latin Jazz. That makes sense to me; it would be impossible to cover the whole spectrum of Latin Jazz in a couple of hours. At the same time, where’s the West Coast version? I’d love to see a movie like that spotlighting Los Angeles or San Francisco. I think we’d see some pretty exciting music.
I really like your idea about bringing the two worlds together - this should happen much more often. I think it does happen, just not on record too often. Mark Weinstein’s Con Alma featured the fantastic San Francisco pianist Mark Levine. I agree that Santos and Sanabria share some common ideals about the music - they are both based strongly in tradition and have a heavy academic background in the history. I imagine that a recording featuring the two of them would be stunning. We’ll have to hope . . .
Despite the fact that I spend a whole lot of time listening to East Coast Latin Jazz, I’d love to see more focus upon the great work done out here on the West Coast. That gives me lots of ideas for more LJC articles . . .
It’s funny,but getting into this music in the 70’s in Puerto Rico,I never established an East vs. West duality-To me it was good music no matter where it came from.
Maybe we should leave this East Coast vs West Coast stuff to the rap crowd
I think that you hit it on the head Luis - good music is simply good music no matter where it comes from. I would love to not even think about this whole thing. For me, I’m seeing so much great Latin Jazz from all over the country, I’d like people to hear it all. Maybe that’s not realistic, but I think that there’s enough good stuff coming out now that I’d love for it to earn attention. Having lived under the implied inferiority complex on the West Coast for a long time, I just hope that New York’s legacy as the “real thing” doesn’t get in the way. I would think that musicians from both sides of the country would agree - let good music be heard no matter where it comes from. I’m just not sure if that happens!