For many people, the history of San Francisco Latin music begins in the late sixties and seventies with the advent of Latin Rock. Carlos Santana’s impressive performance at Woodstock imprinted his stamp upon the burgeoning “San Francisco Sound,” which was spinning with elements of the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Janis Joplin. As more Latin Rock groups such as Malo and Azteca joined the fray, the style gained national approval, overshadowing the area’s contributions to Latin Jazz and dance music. While the jazz scene remained conscious of Bay Area Latin Jazz from Cal Tjader, most of the nation made an automatic association between San Francisco and Latin Rock. The work of San Francisco Latin musicians from the fifties faded into obscurity, with only the most conscious historians remaining aware of Carlos Frederico, the Duran Brothers, and more. Salsa exploded in the San Francisco during the seventies, with a number of working bands and an avid dance audience, but it remained known mostly to the locals. Time has moved forward, but for the most part, the greater world keeps San Francisco Latin music tied to the work of Carlos Santana and Latin Rock musicians.

Despite this overwhelming presence, a San Francisco Latin Jazz sound started to grow during the eighties through the hard work of percussionist John Santos and his band The Machete Ensemble. The group made a concerted effort to remain true to the roots of Cuban music while expressing a unique jazz personality. They created a strong body of recorded work that gained attention and critical acclaim around the world. They invited special guests to performances and recordings, working with Latin music legends such as Israel “Cachao” Lopez. They educated their audiences on a regular basis, holding clinics and workshops at colleges, universities, and community centers. They traveled abroad, sharing the new San Francisco Latin Jazz sound with audiences in New York, Cuba, Europe, and beyond. While any member of The Machete Ensemble would gladly pay their respects to the importance of Latin Rock, they actively separated themselves from it and made a powerful statement about the strength of Bay Area Latin Jazz.

Flautist John Calloway sat at the core of this Latin Jazz resurgence, both as an essential member of The Machete Ensemble and as an individual educator. His compositions and arrangements served as a large part of the group’s sound, integrating smart uses of jazz harmony and modern jazz melodicism. His performances on flute, saxophone, and for a while piano helped the group rise to a high artistic level. His journeys to Cuba brought a modern perspective into the group and helped stay in touch with Cuban roots. His work with countless young musicians spread the word about Latin music and educated a generation of future artists. As San Francisco Latin Jazz started to find a place in the world again, Calloway’s intelligent and creative work made sure that it wouldn’t be forgotten.

In the second part of our interview with Calloway, we step into the eighties and look at the progress of his music and the San Francisco scene. He talks about The Machete Ensemble, education, The San Francisco Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble, and more. Check it out below . . .

———-
LATIN JAZZ CORNER: Tipica Cienfuegos evolved into Batachanga – did that happen while you were in New York?

JOHN CALLOWAY: Batachanga happened when I was in New York, and they broke up when I came back. They recorded Mañana Para Los Niños as I came back while the band was breaking up.

LJC: Batachanga was more of a dance band, right?

JC: Yea and then the next version of the Santos/Calloway collaborations was a group called Machete. John started the band, and there were a lot of people in it. We were actually playing Latin Jazz, you know, non-dance music.

LJC: Who were the original members of Machete?

JC: Well, I would say that the main people were Santos, Rebeca Mauleon, and myself. And then Wayne Wallace came in, and Jeff Cressman came in. Bill Ortiz was in the group. Melecio Magdaluyo, Orestes Vilato, lots of different people, and the group just kind of came together. That was the nucleus.

Then it changed in the mid-nineties. Rebeca left, Jeff left, and other people joined. Orestes was in and out of the band, but mostly in.

LJC: You did a lot of the writing for Machete – was it you, Wallace and Mauleon that were the main writers?

JC: Yea, and when Rebeca left, it came down to me and Wayne. You know, in different amounts at different times; it varied depending on which year, but it was pretty much me and Wayne. Towards the last few years, John has been doing a pretty good job of just writing his own arrangements.

LJC: What was the band trying to accomplish? You said that you were trying to express yourself in a different way, but the band always reached back into the heritage of the music in a respectful way. Was that a conscious idea?

JC: Well, yea, but we weren’t making folkloric records. That’s a lot of what John does. He would reach back and pull out some traditional rhythms and we would write some jazz stuff on top of it. We all are a product of our era. The new era is a lot of odd meter and a lot of deceptive things around where the phrasing and pulse are, but we were doing something different. John would take traditional rhythms and then we would write contemporary or jazz grooves on top of it. That was our voice I think.

LJC: During that time, was that when you started going to Cuba? I know that you’ve been back and forth many times.

JC: I started going to Cuba in the mid-nineties, and you know, it was mind blowing. The level of musicianship and how they had their own sound for dance music number one. And number two, the level of the jazz musicians was just incredible. But I really didn’t start to totally change my sound, or the concept of the way that I wanted to hear things until the late nineties – even the way that I would think of Latin Jazz. The Cubans were the ones who were really taking Latin Jazz in different directions – to an avant garde and post-Jerry Gonzalez era of Latin Jazz – which is equivalent to the post modern jazz that you hear know with a lot of artists. So I think that they’re equal.

LJC: Who were some of the musicians down there in Cuba that caught your attention in that respect?

JC: Let’s see . . . of course Chucho Valdes, you’ve heard what they were doing. Yosvany Terry – even ten years ago, they were slammin’. And then the piano player Ernán López-Nussa, he used to play with a group called Afro-Cuba – not the folkloric Afro-Cuban group. Listening to those guys and where they were taking the music was incredible. Of course, you know, when you make a list like this, you’re always leaving out somebody. That’s important – there’s so many names; you just pick out a few and then later you realize, well, what about Emiliano Salvador? There’s hundreds of cats, you just can’t get them all.

LJC: During the Machete time, one of the things that I always thought was a big contribution was that you brought all these guest artists into the Bay Area. You worked with Cachao and musicians from New York, how did those relationships happen?

JC: Well, that was basically John Santos reaching out. Up until the mid to late eighties, Cachao was almost in obscurity. Musicians knew who he was, but he was kind of just a house musician in Miami; he wasn’t making any money. It wasn’t until people that had access to money and other stuff, realized, wow, there’s this master and he needs to be recognized.

LJC: So, it was basically someone just called up Cachao and asked do you want to do this, can we fly you out here?

JC: Yea, basically. Again, you can never just say its one person, but Santos had a lot to do with that. Santos was certainly one of the few that did it first.

LJC: If you were to throw out a couple of milestones during the Machete years, what would they be?

JC: Going to Cuba and playing at the Havana Jazz Festival in 1997. And then, in the mid-nineties, playing in New York and the Grammy nomination that came in 2003.

LJC: Was that for the album S.F. Bay?

JC: Yea, and I had a feeling about that record. I was in Cuba in 2002, and I remember sending an e-mail to John saying I think this is the one. There was something about the mix of tunes that sounded great. Those were the highlights for me. And then Machete broke up in 2006, John started a smaller group, and I’m still part of that.

LJC: You started teaching in the eighties and you’ve been involved in education ever since – from your work as a public school teacher, to the clinics and workshops that you’ve done with Machete, to college education at San Jose State University – how do you see the whole educational component?

JC: I think there’s two levels – if you’re talking about Latin music, I lead a youth group and that’s focused on trying to keep up Latin Jazz and Latin dance music. On a bigger level, I’m looking at it in terms of music education in general and how it goes through struggles and different perceptions. It’s very fluid and it’s very volatile – music and arts education is so different from how we view language arts, mathematics, or science education. It’s all well intentioned, but it’s just never thought of in the same light. That’s one of the things that I think as a society we’re struggling with, at least in education; if it was all good, then we wouldn’t be talking about music being the first thing cut.

LJC: It seems to me like the Bay Area and West Coast has been very influential in the education of Latin music.

JC: It could be, but it’s hard to say – we’re not on the East Coast living day to day and seeing what they’re actually doing. I just think of it that everyone, depending on the area and the influence, has a different spin on what Latin music is and how they want to educate it. You talk to the cats that came out of the 1950s and the outgrowth of that in the 1970s and they’re really into playing traditional Latin dance music – as it was created in the United States, not as it was created in Cuba. The sound is different. You can hear that the sound is different from the New York sound of the fifties, and sixties, and seventies, and eighties of the dance music and Latin Jazz, as to what came out of other places. And the guys that teach that in New York want to make sure that guys are schooled and the students know how to play straight time – and you can hear it, it sounds beautiful. The way those guys play time in New York, it’s hard to duplicate anywhere else. Conversely, there’s a lot more freedom and experimentation outside of New York. But it’s kind of hard – a lot of people don’t like the categorization of West Coast. You know, when people think of it, they think of Latin Jazz from the 1950s or Latin Rock, and that’s not what we are.

LJC: Can you tell me a little bit about how the Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble Of San Francisco got started and what you do with them?

JC: It got started in 2001 at the request of Arturo Riera to put together a youth all-star group to play at a tribute to Cal Tjader. From there, it just kind of morphed into a youth group that Arturo, Silvia Ramirez, and I run. It’s seen about 70 to 80 kids go through it. It’s not an extremely large group, but we’ve done a lot of great performances. Kids have gone through the group, and we try to teach them how to play Latin Jazz and Latin dance music. They’re not the greatest musicians at the beginning, but you watch them grow. It’s not about getting all the best players, and showing how the best players play, it’s not about that. It’s more of an educational group.

LJC: There’s been a lot of talk lately about a disappearing audience for jazz among young people lately – what do you think about that?

JC: Well, that’s part of it. Jazz is quite similar in terms of its numbers of its followers to what classical music is. In some ways, jazz has become the intellectual music of the educated middle and upper classes. It’s a “Look how the kid plays through the changes” type of thing. That’s works well for that group, but it’s a very small group too. Jazz used to be a dance music combined with other types of entertainment; the numbers have been small since jazz stopped being a dance music in the forties. When rock and roll came in, the numbers got smaller and smaller. It’s clear to me now that you see there’s a social or class demographic to it. There’s a very small number of people of color actually playing jazz.

———-
Make sure that you check out Part 1 of our interview, when Calloway talks about his time as a young musician in San Francisco during the seventies and his time in New York. You can read it HERE.

You’ve got to read Part 3 of our interview, when we discuss Calloway’s current role as a bandleader and educator. You can find it HERE.

———-
Check Out These Related Posts:
Album Of The Week: Perspectiva Fragmentada, The John Santos Quintet
Latin Jazz Conversations: Jose Madera (Part 2)
Latin Jazz Conversations: Mitch Frohman (Part 2)
Latin Jazz At The San Jose Jazz Festival: The Festival Within A Festival

———-
Click here to have these posts delivered via email. Or, click here to subscribe to the full text RSS feed and never miss another post!

Stumble it!