LJC Community Conversation: The Ultimate Latin Jazz Playlist
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!
Those of us that spent our youth in the 1970s and 1980s fondly remember the beauty of a self-made mix-tape. The empowering notion of pulling together all your favorite songs and then sharing them with family or friends was a theme for a generation. We would create mix-tapes by genre, giving us the rock mix-tape, the jazz mix-tape, the fusion mix-tape, the pop mix-tape, and more - ready to be popped into the cassette player when the mood struck. Mix-tapes sometimes held a theme, such as romantic music, sad music, mellow music, or rocking music, pulling the best from several artists to suit the moment. Many of us often sent a message with a mix-tape, telling a girlfriend of boyfriend about our feelings, a friend about our admiration, or a peer about our shared interests. The only limit to the power of the mix-tape was the length of the tape itself, forcing us into 30 - 60 minute blocks of music. It never seemed like a limit in those days though, the mix-tape was the ultimate freedom and a powerful means of communicating self-identity.
Fast forward a couple of decades - the cassette tape has virtually disappeared, but the concept of a mix-tape has morphed into the playlist. These days we can mix and match MP3s into an iTunes playlist instantly, name it, and then burn it onto a CD or transfer it onto our iPod. When we talk about an iPod, we’re no longer limited by 60 minutes; now we’re talking about gigabytes, which translate into hours, days, or weeks worth of music. We have access to this much music and more, making us sort through our music collections carefully to build the best playlists. We can easily share our music with friends - we can burn a CD for them or they can plug their iPod directly into our computers and load the music themselves. The internet even makes it easier to share playlists, as we display them on our MySpace pages, our Facebook accounts, and even our own webpages. The playlist has become the face for our musical identities, a self-structured piece of ourselves on display for the world to hear.
So if we want to know LJC readers, we need to check out their Latin Jazz playlists. We don’t want just any playlist though - we want your ultimate Latin Jazz playlist. Give us the best of the best, without any substitutions. Let us know which songs you would choose, the artist that performed it, and the album where you found it. It might be a collection of classic recordings - Puente, Machtio, Palmieri, and more. You may be focusing upon new recordings, giving us a bit of Arturo O’Farrill, Papo Vazquez, and John Santos. Then again, a combination of the two might be interesting, jumping from Cal Tjader to Elio Villafranca. Feel free to make your playlist any length - it might be five songs or it might stretch out over the course of hours. Let you imagination be your guide, just make sure that you only give us your favorites.
LEAVE A COMMENT and let us know what would be on your ultimate Latin Jazz playlist. I can’t wait to hear the responses!
Once you’ve left your thoughts here, don’t forget to visit our past community conversations.
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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 regular 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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My jazz list would be as follows:
Ray Vega: SQUEEZE SQUEEZE
Latin Giants of Jazz
Papo Vazquez and PIRATES TROUBADOUR [From The Badlands]: Yubadonbe
Jerry Gonzalez - Ya Yo Me Cure album: Caravan and The Lucy Theme
Jimmy Bosch: “Ergben on the Phone” from the Soneando Trombone cd
Cal Tjader: HURACAN cd: “Ritmo Caliente”
Manny Oquendo Y Libre: “Lester Leaps” from the On the Move! cd
Chris Washburne’s “Pink” from the Land of Nod cd.
Frank Villafane’s “Despechado” from the Punto de Vista [View Point] cd.
Ana - Great playlist! There’s definiately a New York edge there, I love it. There’s a couple here that I don’t have, I think that I’m going to need to add them to my iTunes - the JImmy Bosch cut and the Latin Giants of Jazz album. I”ve heard good things about both albums; on your recommendation here, I think that it’s time to dive in and pick them up! Is the Jimmy Bosch CD salsa, jazz, or a mix or both? I know that he’s recorded in both styles . . .
I’m inspired now, here’s my first (probably of many) playlist. This one focuses on current material; a lot of times, newer tracks stick in my head since I’m constantly checking out new stuff to review.
The Source In Between - Elio Villafranca, The Source In Between
Consejo - The John Santos Quintet, Perspectiva Frangmentada
You No Tengo Quien Me Quiera - Lucia Pulido, Waning Moon
Bailador - Puertorican Folkloric Jazz, Barriles de Bomba
Yo No Como Camote - Eric Kurimski, Replica
Descarga Pa’ Dos Flautas - John Calloway, The Code
Sayulita - Tumbao Bravo, Un Systema Para Todo
Bo Bo’s Blues - Steve Kroon, En Mas Alla
Pasar El Tiempo, Aunque Fugaz, Contigo - Edward Perez, The Year of Two Summers
Astor Changes - Adrian Iaies , Vals De La 81st & Columbus
Taking The Soul For A Walk - Dafnis Prieto, Taking The Soul For A Walk
Cumpling Cumpling - Venissa Santí, Bienvenidos
Happy To Be Here - Papo Vazquez, Marooned/Aislado
Nueva Vision - Chiemi Nakai & Emmanueal Bizeau, Bridges
Song For Chico - Arturo O’Farrill & The Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, Song For Chico
There’s probably more, it’s been a pretty good year for Latin Jazz . . .
I’ll be back later today with at least one more! There’s the classic playlist, the Bay Area Latin Jazz playlist, the East Coast playlist, the Cuban Jazz playlist . . . and the playlist goes on.
Wazzup Chip!
Another subject near and dear to my heart. I used to record comps off the RADIO when I was a kid. I have boxes of cassette comps and continue the tradition with CDR’s. I have a ’series’ of comp CDR’s titled ‘Contemporary Fusion’ that are discs of music from ALL genres mixed/fused to my liking. Last week I finished Vol. 53! THAN I have my Latin Jazz comps that are up to Vol. 27! PLUS comps of various genres PLUS the many, many discs I’ve made for friends, I guess you can see that my recorder is a vital piece of my stereo rig. Looking at the 1st CDR I ever recorded in ‘99 I only listed the artists on the cover, NOT the tune or album:
Johnny Almendra Y los Jovenes Del Barrio
Caribbean Jazz Project
Poncho Sanchez
Nestor Torres
Memo Acevedo
Cachao (Duet with Paquito)
Cachao
David Sanchez
Tito Puente Golden Latin Jazz All-Stars
Michel Camilo
Rebecca Mauleon
Mario Bauza
Giovanni Hidalgo
Being a student of LP’s, they always had a logical, linear progression from 1st song, 1st side to starting the 2nd side strong and ending the record even stronger. It’s all in the mix, and I been doin’ this for a long time!! What I’m trying to say is that I give great COMP!!;)