LJC Community Conversation: What’s Your Story?
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!
Today’s conversation lets us get to know each other a little better . . .
Music enters our life at various points and always carries different reasons. Some people are raised around music - their parents may be musicians or they might carry a burning love for a musical style. Others discover music later in life. School music programs expose children to a wide variety of performance options and popular culture often serves as a major motivator. Some people become attracted to musicduring their childhood. Their spouse might be involved in music, or they might need the creative outlet provided by instrumental study. Once music takes over our lives though, we always remember the milestones that drive us deeper into our passion.
My background left me as an unlikely candidate to become a musician, and it created an even more unrealistic transition into a Latin Jazz fanatic. I grew up without a strong exposure to music; Christmas records and 1970s A&R radio constitute my strongest childhood musical memories. I took piano lessons at a young age, but dreaded each one. When I became a teenager, 1980s rock stole my mind and drove me to guitar lessons. Looking for other musicians, I joined my high school band; California tax cuts had ruined arts education, but we had a small program. I switched to bass and performed with the school’s jazz band, intrigued with improvisation and the higher level of musicianship. I still had a lot to learn, but it inspired me enough to stay with music.
I continued music in college, eventually finding my way into Cuban music. Guided by suggestions from teachers and peers, I became a huge fusion fan. Chick Corea and Weather Report captured the majority of my attention, and I found the Latin influence the most exciting. At that point, “Latin” songs were all the same to me; the only thing that defined them was the lack of a swing rhythm. When I attended a concert by the school’s Latin Jazz Ensemble, that generic impression of Latin music changed. I quickly signed up for a class on Cuban music, and then a class on Brazilian music. I studied bass tumbaos and samba rhythms in my private lessons, building the skills to play the music. Eventually, I joined the Latin Jazz Ensemble, playing a variety of classic charts from Poncho Sanchez, Tito Puente, and more. It left me with a deep love for Cuban music, one that would guide my life’s musical studies.
Years of learning lay ahead of me, but my experience in my college’s Latin Jazz Ensemble really changed my musical life. I became determined to learn everything about Cuban music that I could. I read Rebeca Mauleon’s Salsa Guidebook
I’d be curious to hear how Latin Jazz entered your life . . .
We’ve all reached a common interest in Latin Jazz, but I’m sure that we all followed different paths to get there. Here’s a great opportunity for us to share our backgrounds and get to know each other a little better. LEAVE A COMMENT and let us know how you discovered Latin Jazz and what it has meant in your life. I’m looking forward to seeing how everyone found Latin Jazz . . . fill us in - what’s your story?
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Do you have an idea for a future Community Conversation? As much as I enjoy exploring my own interests with this weekly post, I’d prefer to have this forum address the overall interests of the entire community. Do you have an issue that effects Latin Jazz? Do you have an idea for a fun topic? Let me know so that we can throw it out to the whole community - Leave a Comment or e-mail me.
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Thanks for this opportunity to share my story. Let me start off by saying that I may not be a professional musician, but I am a musician in my soul.
I have always been surrounded by music. My dad started his life as a professional trumpet player, and although he quit the music business early, he would always be playing the turntable and his reel-to-reel at home. That’s how I got exposed to every kind of music, from Beethoven to Celia Cruz, and Miles in between…
When I was a young teenager,I did show some inclination towards playing an instrument, and being a musician, but I guess I was never encouraged to do so, probably due to my Dad’s bad experience as a professional musician. So there I was, going to College and trying to become an engineer. But I would always be listening to everything, from Beethoven to Celia Cruz, and Miles in between. I would even try myself many times at studying a musical instrument. Of course, with the realities of family and professional life, I did not have much time for this.
How did I become a latin jazz fanatic? Who knows??/ I guess it was a natural evolution. I listened to a lot of jazz music. and I loved dancing to latin (cuban) rhythms. I guess latin jazz satisfied both these tendencies in me. Now I have maybe 4000+ latin jazz (afrocuban to be exact) songs in my ipod, mostly emusic or itunes downloads. My favorites are at, what I like to call, the center between straight-ahead jazz with a conga in the rhythm section, and instrumental salsa. Eddie Palmieri , Poncho Sanchez, John Santos are some of my idols.
I am 50+ now, I still fool around with an electric bass, trying to play some tumbaos, while playing my ipod (evolution). My next gift to myself is gonna be an upright. I hope to find enough time to learn (more than) the basics. I dont expect to play at any jazz festival, jamming with a Great, but my secret goal is to be proficient enough to play in some community orchestra around town when I retire. Thus realizing the dream of my life.
I began as a kid growing up in N.Y., exposed to a broad genre of music as well. One example was Olatunji’s “Drums of Passion”. My father played some of the classic Latin albums of the big bands but didn’t have a wide selection. I got into drumming with folks I’d meet in Kingston Park, and Prospect Park, and of course Central Park on Sundays in the spring and summer, during the period of the height of the Civil Rights movement and the quest to rediscover our roots. Dance troupes and occasional jams on the A train (and a memorable protest at Lincoln Center once) were some of the other milieu’s I honed my chops.
I went to Boston for college and never left. While here, I’ve met/played with some remarkable musicians, including one of my heroes Giovanni Hidalgo (”Time Shifter” is one of my favorites). I loved the creativity so abundant in the 60’s 70’s and 80’s, and some in the 90’s. Eddie P., Brazil 66/77, Chucho Valdes, Los Munequitos…the range and variety is quite voluminous. It seems, to me anyway, that you have to really be on an “inside track” to learn of the innovation still occurring these days. Until my nerves are shot or I’m completely incapacitated, I’ll keep playing. And (as evidenced by finding this website) I’ll keep looking and listening too.