Latin Jazz This Week will bring you a weekly look into news from the Latin Jazz world. You’ll find new releases, recommended performances, web finds, and more. You can check out some current sounds in the Listening Center tab at the top of the page. Performance dates will be kept in the Live Latin Jazz tab at the top of the page.
NEWS
With Thanksgiving behind us, the year is quickly coming to an end, which means that the LJC Best Of 2009 Awards are right around the corner. I talked about some changes to this year’s awards in a post this past week – you can check it out in the links below. Voting starts on Wednesday so make sure that you come back and make your voice heard – let’s applaud the outstanding work from the Latin Jazz world in 2009!
This time around, December 31st doesn’t just signify the end of the year, it also means that we’ve reached the end of the first decade in the 21st century. This certainly is cause for reflection upon the past ten years of Latin Jazz – a lot has happened! We’ll be looking at the past decade later in the month here at LJC, but Felix Contreras has already pointed out some highlights over at NPR’s A Blog Supreme. He makes some great points around important figures like Jerry Gonzalez, Miguel Zenon, and Arturo O’Farrill – thought provoking stuff. Check it out HERE.
If you’ve never checked out Jason Crane’s outstanding podcast, The Jazz Session, now’s the time. Crane turns out a regular schedule of thoughtful interviews with the best of the jazz world, ready to download and put on your iPod for mobile listens. This past week, he has jumped into some great Latin Jazz interviews with some top names in the genre. You can check out interviews with Edmar Castaneda (HERE), Paquito D’Rivera (HERE), and Wayne Wallace (HERE). Check it out – a series of dream interviews that you can’t miss!
If you’re in CENTRAL AMERICA this week . . . DAVID SANCHEZ WHEN: Friday 12/4/09 WHERE:La Troje
Santa María del Obraje
Guanajuato, Mexico TIME: 8:00 p.m. TICKETS: $32 – $36
PONCHO SANCHEZ
Guadalajara International Book Fair WHEN: Sunday 12/6/09 WHERE:Expo Esplanade
Gudalajara, Mexico TIME: 9:00 p.m TICKETS: FREE
If you’re in SOUTH AMERICA this week . . . PABLO ASLAN
Buenos Aires International Jazz Festival WHEN: Sunday 12/6/09 WHERE:La Trastienda
Balcarce 460
Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina TIME: 8:30 p.m.
SOFIA REI KOUTSOVITIS
Buenos Aires International Jazz Festival WHEN: Friday 12/4/09 WHERE:Centro Cultural Recoleta / Terraza
Junín 1930
Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina TIME: 8:00 p.m.
If you’re in AFRICA this week . . . OMAR SOSA WHEN: Tuesday 12/1/09 WHERE:Alliance Francaise de Lusaka
Lusaka, Zambia TIME: 8:00 p.m.
If you’re in EUROPE this week . . . SAMUEL QUINTO WHEN: Wednesday 12/2/09 WHERE:B-Flat Restaurant
Rua Garcia Arosa 4450
Matosinhos, Portugal TIME: 11:00 p.m.
If you’re in CANADA this week . . . PAQUITO D’RIVERA WHEN: Saturday 12/5/09 WHERE:The Royal Conservatory, Koerner Hall
273 Bloor Street West
Toronto, ON, Canada TIME: 8:00 p.m. TICKETS: $20 – $60
If you’re on the EAST COAST this week . . . ANNETTE AGUILAR & STRINGBEANS WHEN: Friday 12/4/09 WHERE:Garden Cafe
4961 Broadway
New York, NY TIME: 7:30 p.m. TICKETS: NO COVER
ARTURO O’FARRILL
Sextet WHEN: Tuesday 12/1/09 – Sunday 12/6/09 WHERE:Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola
Frederick P. Rose Hall, 5th Floor
Broadway at 60th Street
New York, NY TIME: 7:30 p.m. & 9:30 p.m.; 11:30 p.m. on Friday 7 Saturday TICKETS: $30 – $35
CHEMBO CORNIEL WHEN: Thursday 12/3/09 WHERE:Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe
236 East 3rd Street
New York, NY TIME: 9:00 p.m. TICKETS: $7
WHEN: Sunday 12/6/09 WHERE:La Fonda Boricua
169 East 106th Street
New York, NY TIME: 7:30 p.m. & 9:30 p.m. TICKETS: $15
CHICO O’FARRILL’S AFRO-CUBAN JAZZ ORCHESTRA WHEN: Sunday 12/6/09 WHERE:Birdland
315 W. 44th Street
Manhattan, NY TIME: 9:00 p.m. & 11:00 p.m. TICKETS: $30
CHRIS WASHBURNE & S.Y.O.T.O.S. WHEN: Sunday 12/6/09 WHERE:Smoke
2751 Broadway
New York, NY TIME: 8:00 p.m., 10:00 p.m. & 11:30 p.m. TICKETS: $20 minimum
CURTIS BROTHERS QUARTET WHEN: Tuesday 12/1/09 – Saturday 12/5/09 WHERE:Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola
Frederick P. Rose Hall, 5th Floor
Broadway at 60th Street
New York, NY TIME: 11:30 p.m.; 12:45 p.m. on Friday & Saturday TICKETS: $10 – $20
ERIC KURIMSKI WHEN: Thursday 12/3/09 WHERE:Terraza Cafe
40-19 Gleane St
Elmhurst, NY TIME: 10:00 p.m. TICKETS: FREE
FERNANDO HUERGO WHEN: Thursday 12/3/09 WHERE:Vernissage Restaruant
1627 Beacon St
Brookline, MA TIME: 8:00 p.m. TICKETS: $15
WHEN: Saturday 12/5/09 WHERE:Jazz Underground
33 Golden St
New London, CT TIME: 8:00 p.m. TICKETS: $10
FRANK VILLAFAÑE WHEN: Friday 12/4/09 WHERE:Moonstruck Restaurant
517 Lake Avenue
Asbury Park, NJ TIME: 7:00 p.m.
GABRIEL ALEGRIA AFRO-PERUVIAN JAZZ SEXTET WHEN: Thursday 12/3/09 – Sunday 12/6/09 WHERE:Tutuma Social Club
164 East 56th Street
New York, NY TIME: Thursday – Saturday 8:00 p.m. & 10:30 p.m.; Sunday 7:00 p.m. TICKETS: NO COVER
HENDRIK MEURKENS WHEN: Saturday 12/5/09 WHERE:The Bar Next Door
129 MacDougal Street
New York, NY TIME: 7:00 p.m. & 9:00 p.m. TICKETS: $6 – 7:00 p.m.; $12 – 9:00 p.m.
KATHLEEN GRACE
Afro-Peruvian Vocal Series WHEN: Wednesday 12/2/09 WHERE:Tutuma Social Club
164 East 56th Street
New York, NY TIME: 8:00 p.m. & 10:30 p.m. TICKETS: NO COVER
SOFIA TOSELLO WHEN: Friday 12/4/09 WHERE:Galeria West Art Gallery
111 Quimby Street
Westfield, NJ TIME: 7:00 p.m. TICKETS: $10
VANDERLEI PEREIRA & BLINDFOLD TEST WHEN: Wednesday 12/2/09 WHERE:Smoke
2751 Broadway
New York, NY TIME: 8:00 p.m., 10:00 p.m., & 11:30 p.m. TICKETS: $9 cover; $20 minimum
If you’re in the MID-EAST this week . . . CHICAGO AFRO-LATIN JAZZ ENSEMBLE WHEN: Tuesday 12/1/09 WHERE:Jazz Showcase
806 S Plymouth Ct
Chicago, IL TIME: 8:30 p.m. TICKETS: $15
CHUCHTIO VALDES WHEN: Friday 12/4/09 WHERE:Latino Arts, Inc.
1028 S. 9th Street
Milwaukee, WI TIME: 7:30 p.m. TICKETS: $20 in advance; $25 at door
LOS GATOS WHEN: Wednesday 12/2/09 WHERE:Live At PJ’s
102 S 1st St
Ann Arbor, MI TIME: 8:00 p.m. & 9:15 p.m. TICKETS: $7
TUMBAO BRAVO WHEN: Sunday 12/6/09 WHERE:Sangria – Royal Oak
401 S. Lafayette
Royal Oak, MI TIME: 9:00 p.m. TICKETS: $6
If you’re on the WEST COAST this week . . . ANNA ESTRADA WHEN: Friday 12/4/09 WHERE:Three Seasons
518 Bryant St.
Palo Alto, CA TIME: 7:00 p.m.
ESTRADA BROTHERS WHEN: Friday 12/4/09 WHERE:Camarillo House Ranch
201 Camarillo Ranch Road
Camarillo, CA TIME: 8:00 p.m. TICKETS: $85
JOVINO SANTOS NETO WHEN: Sunday 12/6/09 WHERE:Pacific Place
Sixth Avenue and Pine Street
Seattle, WA TIME: 5:00 p.m. TICKETS: FREE
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As 2009 slowly draws to a close, it’s time to reflect on the year in Latin Jazz and leap into the LJC Best of 2009 Awards. Voting will open this Wednesday, December 2nd and run through Wednesday December 23rd. That gives you three solid weeks to support your favorite Latin Jazz artist and encourage your friends to do the same. After a short break here at LJC to enjoy the holidays, I’ll be back with the results. Every day from Sunday December 26th to Thursday December 31st, I’ll announce the winners in three to four categories. Once the LJC community has spoken and we have a list of winners, they’ll find a permanent home on LJC, recognizing their achievement. This event has become a yearly tradition at LJC, and one that always builds a lot of excitement around fantastic Latin Jazz.
I spend a good deal of time throughout the year thinking about how to make the Best of the Year awards a better event. I was initially inspired to create the awards as a result of reaction to the Grammy Awards – I wanted to create an event that authentically recognized excellence in the Latin Jazz world. After two years of awards, I think that the event has both succeeded in stumbled in different ways. As we move into year three, I’m finding the need to play with the formula a bit, in an attempt to get better results. My top priority is serving the needs of the Latin Jazz community, so your feedback is essential. I’m always open to suggestion and discussion around this event, so put your thoughts out there. My ideas are below – check them out and let me know what you think; together we’ll find the best way to recognize the top Latin Jazz from 2009!
New Categories
With each passing year, I’m finding a need to recognize more areas of Latin Jazz with the awards. As I dig deeper into all the great music emerging around the world, I’m finding a widening diversity in the style. When I think about the awards, I’m trying to come to terms with ways to address and compare recordings from a realistic perspective. I find it difficult to place an Afro-Cuban Jazz Album and an Afro-Peruvian Jazz Album in the same category – it’s like apples and oranges. I’ve come to believe that the best way to recognize the significance of these stylistic differences is through the creation of new categories. Last Year I added Brazilian Jazz Album, Large Ensemble Album, Guitarist, and Hall Of Fame. While I do have concerns about spreading the awards too thin, I felt like last year the new categories actually made the awards more potent. With this in mind, I’ve added a few more categories to the awards.
This year I’m adding four new categories to the awards: Afro-Peruvian Jazz Album, Composition, Arrangement, and Album Cover Art. The addition of an Afro-Peruvian Jazz album is a bit of a no-brainer; this segment of the Latin Jazz world has grow tremendously over the past few years. Last year I had some concerns about the sustainability of the category, but at this point, I have no doubt. In the past, I thought that categories for composition and arrangement might be too specific, but now I see them as absolute necessities. The creative manipulation of the genre through original compositions and arrangements have pushed Latin Jazz into new realms recently and that needs to be recognized. The award for album cover art seems a bit removed from the original intent of the awards – I originally wanted these awards to be all about the music. I feel like this is a topic that could use some stimulation though – artwork is an essential chance to spread the word about an album and Latin Jazz artists generally don’t utilize it effectively (more about this in an upcoming article). With these thoughts in mind, we’ll be expanding again this year.
Thoughts or ideas about these additional categories? Let me know in a comment please!
New Process For Adding Nominees To Categories
I’ve always felt that the opportunity for LJC reader to add nominees to categories was an absolute necessity that kept the awards honest. I spend a lot of time listening to Latin Jazz during the course of the year, and I cover most of the major releases. Still, I’m only one person, and I’m bound to miss something. I also might hold a different perspective on excellence, which would inspire me to choose a different group of nominees. I believe that the awards should reflect the majority voice of the community and that forces me to admit that I might not hold that opinion. So this year I’ll continue to allow readers to add nominees throughout the course of the awards.
While I’m keeping this option open, I am adding a process that will hopefully keep the process honest. Last year, I dealt with a number of spammers, nominees that didn’t fit the qualifications, and questionable selections; this year’s changes will hopefully eliminate or at least slow down those issues. Instead of an automatic entry into the awards, readers will be allowed to fill in a short form for additional nominees. Once a new nominee has been requested five times, I’ll add them onto the list of possible selections. Until they have reached five nominations, I’ll put their name at the end of the ballet so that people realize they are in the running. I’ll be making these updates once daily – most likely at the end of the day. While this may involve an extra step for readers, I’m hoping that it will keep the awards more streamlined.
Have an opinion on the new process? Let me know by leaving a comment!
Tighter Qualifications For Each Category
The creation and maintenance of the awards has been a learning process for me, and one place I see room for improvement is the qualifications for each category. In 2007 and 2008, the qualifications were kept fairly open, with a simple requirement that the nominees had to be associated with a Latin Jazz album released during that calendar year. The nominees need to be available to audience around the world, and since everyone doesn’t have the option to see these musicians perform live, recordings seemed to be the perfect vehicle. As the awards progressed over the past couple of years, I’ve seen nominees move into each category that didn’t necessarily feel right. So I’ve come up with a series of qualifications below that should help clarify things.
Album Of The Year & Next Generation Awards:
Album Of The Year is meant for established artists that have been internationally visibly on the Latin Jazz scene for a while; the Next Generation award is meant for artists new to the scene
As nominees get added to either of these categories, they will be placed (moved if necessary) into the correct category
An album cannot be be nominated in both categories
The first release of the album must be in 2009
Brazilian Jazz Album & Afro-Peruvian Jazz Album:
The first release of the album must be in 2009
At least 75% of the album must fall into either genre in this category
Large Ensemble Album:
The first release of the album must be in 2009
75% of the album must involve a group with seven or more members
Instrumentalist Awards:
The nominee needs to be part of a Latin Jazz album first released in 2009
The nominee needs to play on at least 50% of the album
Record Label:
The label needs to have released & supported Latin Jazz in a significant way during 2009
Composition & Arrangement Awards:
The chosen piece must be part of a Latin Jazz album first released in 2009
Ideas for more qualifications? Have an idea about the above qualifications? Let me know by leaving a comment!
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Remember, voting for the awards starts next week. If you’ve got suggestions or ideas that you want to discuss, throw your comment out now! If you’ve got an opinion about the revisions above, let’s discuss it in the comment thread below. I’d love to hear you thoughts!
Thanksgiving is one of the few traditions with authentic roots right here in the United States. We make a big deal out of Christmas, Easter, and more, but in reality, those are European holdovers that we’ve integrated into our society. Thanksgiving celebrates our early founders that lived a much harder life than most of us experience in 2009. Their lives were on the line every day, and a year of continued prosperity and simple existence was a thing to be cherished. A day to reflect on their survival and appreciate their lives seemed like a natural event – one they deserved and needed. In the modern age, it’s a good thing that we continue this tradition; even though many of us aren’t struggling for survival, we should appreciate our lives even if just for a day.
We’re in the age of the declining jazz audience, and in a sense, the jazz community is struggling for survival – it’s daily work keeping Latin Jazz alive, and we should celebrate our community. I do my best to pay respects to the genre’s great musicians on a daily basis, but on Thanksgiving, I think it’s important to make some special mentions. Three years ago, I started a tradition of highlighting musicians that particularly affected me during the course of the year. The reasons are always different, but thought is the same – thanking musicians that gave me something during the course of the year. So in true Thanksgiving fashion, here’s 3 Latin Jazz Artists That I’m Thankful For . . .
Poncho Sanchez It seems like we always take our most available assets for granted and sometimes overlook their importance in our lives. Conguero Poncho Sanchez is certainly one of the most popular figures in the Latin Jazz world, selling large numbers of CDs and appearing in almost every casual conversation about Latin Jazz. He works the live performance circuit extensively, appearing at every major jazz festival and headlining major jazz clubs across the nation. Here on the West Coast where Sanchez makes his home, he performs quite frequently. I’ve always had a strong respect for Sanchez’s band – they produce some of the most professional Latin Jazz recordings and always give a great show. At the same time, constant praise for Sanchez sometimes just seems too easy, like a nod towards the greater public opinion. His move towards rhythm and blues also seemed like a play towards greater accessibility, a bit of move towards larger record sales. Although I could never put my finger on it exactly, I lost some of my early enthusiasm for Sanchez.
Over the past month, I had some incredible experiences which changed my opinion about Sanchez once again. Having the opportunity to spend quite a bit of time talking to Sanchez really showed me his true personality – he’s simply a guy that loves playing music and holds a deep respects for some of the great leaders in Latin Jazz. He had the opportunity to play with many of those folks, and it didn’t change him, it simply allowed him to fall deeper in love with the music. His move into rhythm and blues reflected an honest piece of his musical upbringing, and more importantly, it was right in line with the path of his mentors. If you listen to Mongo Santamaria’s work in the sixties and seventies, he combines Afro-Cuban styles with just about every rhythm and blues song possible. Sanchez follows Santamaria’s lead faithfully, and he actually plays things a little more classy. There’s a reason why people love Sanchez – he’s a true Latin Jazz fan that can play with the best of them.
Thank you Poncho for your enthusiasm, professionalism, and pure love of Latin Jazz – I look forward to appreciating your outstanding music for years to come.
Edmar Castaneda Great Latin Jazz recordings are a special occasional, outstanding albums are even more rare, and albums that completely turn the style on it’s ear just don’t come along that often. Tradition implies a certain amount of linear concepts between artists and most people learn by imitation. Despite the best attempts of an artist to establish their own style, most performers integrate a good deal of musical ideas that we’ve heard before. Musical evolution occurs slowly; when an artist changes one element of their music, all the other things stay the same. It may take years to notice an identifiable change in the aesthetic approach to the music. Occasionally an artist appears with such a drastically different approach to the music that things seem different right away. The evolution process accelerates into a race for that artist and their music stands out from the crowd. This type of change generally doesn’t happen through alterations of the traditional genre, its due to the artist themselves – their personality, instrumental approach, and compositional style just start a new direction.
I listen to a lot of Latin Jazz every year, ranging from my favorite classics to a wide range of new material from modern day artists; I don’t experience the earth shattering revelation too often, but this year I found that mind boggling album in Edmar Castaneda’s Entre Cuerdas. The simple fact that Castaneda performs complex harmonies and rhythm while holding syncopated bass lines together on the harp is impressive in itself. That’s not the end of the story with his abilities though – he integrates a collection of percussive effects and unusual phrasing that sets his playing apart. His compositions find a unique balance between Colombian traditions, jazz improvisation, and classical elegance. His interaction with the guest musicians on the album really drives the point home. From John Scofield to Joe Locke, Castaneda matches each individual’s artistry and creates a new level of creative collaboration. Entre Cuerdas challenged me, inspired me, and forced me to think outside my current musical world through many, many, many repeated listens.
Thank you Edmar for the chance to experience your music this year – I hope to see you do all this live in the future!
John Calloway Over the past few years, our access to Latin Jazz has multiplied ten fold as we can now hear, see, and connect with artists from around the world with the simple click of a mouse. Our communities have expanded drastically, as we build relationships with artists that carry huge reputations in Latin Jazz history or we simply befriend young Latin Jazz artists that catch our attention. For some people, the role of their local music scene has become secondary to the greater music community that they can find online. Ten years ago, any city’s experienced musicians served as the core of the scene, and younger people sought their advice and guidance – they also attended their performances religiously. In this generation, young people can still obsess over more experienced musicians, but they can spend countless hours watching a musician from across the nation on YouTube instead of attending a local performance. With the declining interest in jazz among youth, it’s possible that only a small portion of any city’s young people are aware of their area’s mentors – and probably only a smaller number actually connect with them.
I come from an older generation, but I’ve always found value in respecting the contributions and talents of the experienced Latin Jazz mentors in the Bay Area; this year, I’ve had the opportunity to reflect upon the massive impact of John Calloway. I’ve followed Calloway’s music for many years, from his days with The Machete Ensemble to his current albums as a leader and as a member of The John Santos Sextet. I’ve heard him perform many times and had the opportunity to play with him on a few occasions – he’s an amazing flautist, an inspired pianist, a great composer, arranger, and so much more. Calloway works many hours as a dedicated educator, sharing his musical knowledge with students of all ages, from young children to adults. He’s a tireless musical figure that continues to push the scene in new directions through projects like Diaspora and the Flute Odyssey. Going back through Calloway’s career during our interview earlier in the year and seeing his strong connection with the audience at The San Jose Jazz Festival really made me reflect upon his contributions. We are fortunate to have a Latin Jazz scene in the Bay Area, but I don’t think that it would be half as strong as it is today if we didn’t have Calloway.
Thank you John for all the years of your influential musical presence here in the Bay Area and for making the Latin Jazz scene what it is today.
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Do have a Latin Jazz artist that has particularly inspired you over the course of 2009? Take the opportunity to thank them right here on LJC! Get into the spirit of Thanksgiving and leave a comment below thanking your favorite artist for their contributions this year . . .
Our current Spotlight Artist, Paulinho Garcia, brings a lifetime of experience with Brazilian music into his current recording My Very Life. His fluid understanding of the overall spectrum of Brazilian rhythms lets him reach beyond the standard worlds of bossa nova and Rio samba to include baião, marcha rancho, and more. He integrates these genres into his compositions with a natural ease, finding creative routes of expression through these worlds. His guitar playing sits comfortably in this setting, comping with a rhythmic momentum through a sea of rich harmonic progressions. Garcia’s voice affords him a flexible instrument that glides through a wide range with Portuguese lyrics or ample scatting abilities. All these elements come together strongly on the recording, as Garcia matches his skills against a variety of musical collaborators. A long time member of Chicago’s musical community, Garcia performs as a solo artist, but also works as a member of several groups that focus upon Brazilian music. The group Two For Brazil matches Garcia with saxophonist Greg Fishman, creating an open context for exploring the crossroads between jazz and Brazilian styles. Garcia’s work with vocalist Grazyna Auguscik allows him to stretch his vocal skills as the two singers delicately interpret Brazilian Jazz classics. There’s a lot of music in Garcia, a fact that he shows on My Very Life, and continues in a variety of performing contexts.
Exploring Garcia’s music means a dedicated inroads into Brazilian music, and fortunately there’s a wealth of places to walk into world online. Garcia’s website hosts a lot of great information about his multiple projects, recordings, and schedule, not to mention some videos and pictures. You can check out Garcia’s page on the Chicago Sessions website, a great organization that has helped create a series of albums produced by Chicago musicians – an incredible reflection of their vibrant jazz scene. Become one of Garcia’s friends at his MySpace page, while taking the opportunity to read his bio, watch some videos and listen to music. You can also check out some of Garcia’s other projects through their CDBaby pages – find recordings from Garcia and Auguscik HERE and check out music from Two For Brazil HERE. Garcia creates some incredible versions of Brazilian Jazz, so leap into the web and check out some of his music, it will be well-worth your surfing time.
Garcia’s music offers a serious entry point into some great Brazilian music, so take the time to check out My Very Life. In order to help you get to know him better, I’ve included some biographical information about Garcia below, gathered from some of his different sites. Keep scrolling down after the bio and you’ll find a couple of videos that let you experience Garcia’ musical mastery for yourself. Take the time to check out Garcia’s music on My Very Life and beyond – fans of Brazilian Jazz will be hooked. Enjoy!
———- May 1st, 1979 Paulinho Garcia arrived in Chicago, Illinois, USA. That was the beginning of a new life and a re-start of his musical career. With him were his wife Maria Angelina Seta Garcia (Teka) and his 5 years old son Paulo Garcia Junior. Teka passed way in December 1996 but her children Paulo Garcia Junior and Paula Setta Garcia and 3 grandchildren Elias, Eliana and Eliza Garcia survive her. Paulinho was born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, on August 16th, 1948 from father Heitor Gianizelli Garcia and mother Isabel da Silva Garcia. His first contact with music came very early in life, around 9 years old, when he started singing in a Sunday’s children program at Radio Inconfidencia in his hometown. In his teens he played first the drums and then moved to the bass, which became his main instrument until 1991 when he then switch to the guitar. Paulinho was well known in his hometown as a jingle composer, arranger and performer. He led the band “Os Agitadores” for many years, one of the top bands in the TV program “Brasa 4” and played bass for the Celio Balona group, a wedding band and the house band at Emissoras Associadas TV Itacolomi-Radio Guarani. Before coming to the USA Paulinho under graduated in Physics and was pursuing electrical engineering at the Universidade Federal de Belo Horizonte. Being a self taught musician Paulinho started his bassist career when an amateur band needed a bass player at the last minute and Paulinho took the instrument. About two years later, already a well-known bass player and the house musician for the television network Paulinho was asked by a famous bassist touring his town if he could borrow his instrument, it was then that Paulinho found out that all that time he was playing with his own tuning since he used the bass as it was, out-tuned, when he first started. It didn’t take long to re-learn the right way though. Paulinho was 16 when his father got him a used guitar in a trade. Not knowing anything about the instrument he tried very hard to play his first chords by watching other guitar players but little he knew that the difficulty in getting a clear sound was due a bent neck which made the action of the strings too high. Besides the problem he learned many songs on that guitar and on 1973 his wife present him with a Di Giorgio guitar and from then on playing was comparably a breezy.
In 1978 some of his friends musicians moved to Chicago and the opportunity to come to the USA came through his long time friend and drummer Dedé Sampaio who was at the time playing for Breno Sauer Brazilian Sounds. In need of a bass player Breno arranged a working visa for Paulinho and the band Made in Brazil was formed. Paulinho played with Made in Brazil until 1991 when he started his own band Jazzmineiro whose eponymous 1996 CD received excellent reviews in the Chicago Tribune, Jazziz magazine, the Brazilian Music Review, and The Brazilians. (…Paulinho ought to be considered a Chicago treasure… Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune) Also in the mid 90’s Paulinho for 5 years lead a 20-piece carnaval band for the Brazilian cultural center of Chicago for their annual carnaval party, one of the largest and best organized in the USA. Paulinho performs and records as a solo musician, with his group Jazzmineiro and three well-know duos: Two for Brazil with Greg Fishman, Dois no Choro with Julie Koidin and Paulinho Garcia-Grazyna Auguscik duo. He is a world-touring musician performing in renowned theaters, jazz festivals and clubs in Asia, Europe and America. With Greg Fishman Paulinho was the winner of the 2001 best jazz entertainer ward given by the Chicago music awards. His 50 years of Bossa Nova concert at the Chicago Millennium Park on July 24th 2008 alongside João Donato was seen by a record audience of 12000 people and in December of the same year he shared the famous Esplanade Hall stage in Singapore with Jeremy Monteiro and Toots Tielemans for a sold out audience of 1600 people. He has been regularly performing in Poland with Grazyna Auguscik and in many prestigious jazz festivals such as the North Sea jazz festival in Holland, Elite and Fujitsu jazz festivals in Japan, Singapore jazz festival, Jazz w museum and Jazz nad Odrq in Poland, Central Pennsylvania friends of jazz, North Beach and Sarasota jazz fest in the USA just to mention a few. He has also performed many times at the jazz cruise and jazz party at sea. Paulinho is also a clinician and has given workshops and concerts at many prestigious universities such as Northwestern, Wisconsin at Milwaukee, Cornell, Hope College, etc. and in June-July of 2009 he’ll be teaching at the Moscow College of Improvised Music. Paulinho presently teaches Brazilian guitar and vocals at Old Town School of folk music and coaches a Brazilian combo at Roosevelt University.
———- Paulinho Garcia Performing “One Note Samba”
Paulinho Garcia Performing “In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning”
Musicians enter your life in various ways, and the influence that they exert ranges from passing fad to lifelong presence. Every musician’s childhood touches music in some way – their parents or greater community brings music into their lives and it sticks. When a certain artist represents a community’s musical preferences, that artist becomes an influential icon that shapes the artistic landscape. At other times, musicians simply discover influences through the recommendation of a friend. Sometimes these suggestions stick and at other times they don’t, but coming from a trusted source, they instantly gain merit. Some artists enter our lives as part of a musical growth spurt, as we dig deeply into their musical approach to better ourselves. They might provide educational materials, or we might simply learn all their music by ear, but the connection drives us closer to that musician. A chance encounter with a musician might happen through a process of self-discovery, as we look for new frontiers. These unexpected inspirations usually act as pleasant surprises, and we often hold onto the memory for a long time. There’s a multitude of ways that we might encounter a musician, but once they’ve made an impact, we are undeniably tied to their influence.
Drummer Robby Ameen entered my musical landscape before I dove deeply into the Latin Jazz world and he’s been there ever since. When I first became interested in Latin Jazz as a young bass player, one of my college instructors recommended a new book to me for study, Funkifying the Clave from Ameen and bass player Lincoln Goines. I worked through all the bass tumbao exercises and then jumped into the play-alongs. I spent hours learning some great Latin Jazz charts like “Mambo For Tajrid” and “Blue Cha-Cha” and along the way I learned how to groove in Afro-Cuban styles by playing along with Ameen’s solid drumming. Later a friend brought some Ruben Blades charts into a rehearsal, leading me to buy several of his recordings. Once again, I found Ameen sitting behind the drum kit in Seis Del Solar, the band that fueled Blades’ sound for years. I found Ameen in several more places through the years, including stints with Dave Valentin. In the past several years, I’ve marveled at Ameen’s drumming as part of trombonist Conrad Herwig’s Latin Side band – all their albums are spectacular, but Ameen sound particularly good on Another Kind of Blue. Ameen joined with another iconic drummer, Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez to produce several funky clave driven albums that turned the percussion world on its ear. Ameen recently released Days in the Life, his first solo album as a leader, a Latin Jazz-fusion recording that once again reaffirms his massive musical presence. With each new step in Ameen’s career, I consistently look forward to the new musical horizons.
Ameen’s current release, Days in the Life, is a particularly inspiring collection of music that brings together Ameen’s prodigious drum skills with his voice as a composer. It’s a whirlwind ride through a creative musical mind, filled with stylistic blends and rhythmic intricacies. We’ll be spending more time with Ameen’s stellar album here at LJC soon, but I’ve been enjoying this one so much recently I couldn’t wait any longer. Today’s Weekly Latin Jazz Video Fix is dedicated to Ameen and his inspiring work as a drummer. We’ve got three clips that show him flexing his musical muscles behind the drum kit – enjoy!
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Want to hear more music featuring Robby Ameen? Check out these albums: Robby Ameen & Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez: Robby and Negro at The Third World War
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Do you have a video to contribute to satisfy our weekly Latin Jazz video fix? If so, send it in – it’s time to feed our addiction. I’m looking for live performances, from any context. I’ll most likely be posting one video per week, but if you’ve got another idea, let’s talk. So come on Latin Jazz videographers, musicians, and fans – let’s share some of our memorable videos! Get my contact info HERE
Latin Jazz This Week will bring you a weekly look into news from the Latin Jazz world. You’ll find new releases, recommended performances, web finds, and more. You can check out some current sounds in the Listening Center tab at the top of the page. Performance dates will be kept in the Live Latin Jazz tab at the top of the page.
NEWS
Over at JazzWax, Marc Meyers recently posted a great interview with legendary composer and arranger Ray Santos, a cornerstone of the Big 3 Sound. Santos spends a good deal of time discussing his early musical development, his time at Juilliard, and of course, his work for Machito, Tito Rodriguez, and Tito Puente. It’s a great read that provides a deeper insight into one of the musicians that defined the Big 3 sound. You can check out Part 1 HERE and Part 2 HERE.
NPR continues their promotion of the Newport Jazz Festival 2009, and they are providing some great audio from the concert. This week, you can check out a write-up and downloadable audio from Chilean vocalist Claudia Acuña (as well as saxophonist Branford Marsalis!). To check it out, stream or download the audio, head on over HERE – it’s a good set, you’ll be glad you heard it!
If you’re in CENTRAL AMERICA this week . . . ARTURO SANDOVAL WHEN: Sunday 11/29/09 WHERE:Centro Nacional de las Artes
Río Churubusco No.79 esq.
calzada de Tlalpan
Mexico TIME: 1:30 p.m. TICKETS: FREE
If you’re in AFRICA this week . . . OMAR SOSA WHEN: Wednesday 11/25/09 WHERE:Centre Culturel Albert Camus
Antananarivo, Madagascar TICKETS: 6000 AR
If you’re in EUROPE this week . . . SAMUEL QUINTO WHEN: Thursday 11/26/09 WHERE:B-Flat Restaurant
Rua Garcia Arosa 4450
Matosinhos, Portugal TIME: 11:00 p.m.
If you’re on the EAST COAST this week . . . ANDREA BRACHFELD WHEN: Saturday 11/28/09 WHERE:The Underground Lounge
955 W End Ave
New York, NY TIME: 10:30 p.m. & 12:00 a.m. TICKETS: $10 in advance & $12 at door
ARTURO O’FARRILL
Solo Piano WHEN: Wednesday 11/25/09 WHERE:Puppet’s Jazz Bar
481 5th Avenue Park Slope
Brooklyn, NY TIME: 7:00 p.m. TICKETS: $10
BOBBY SANABRIA
Manhattan School Of Music Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra WHEN: Monday 11/23/09 WHERE:Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola
Frederick P. Rose Hall
Broadway at 60th Street, 5th Floor
New York, NY TIME: 7:30 p.m. & 9:30 p.m. TICKETS: $20
New School Afro-Cuban Big Band WHEN: Sunday 11/29/09 WHERE:Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe
236 East 3rd Street
New York, NY TIME: 8:00 p.m. TICKETS: $10
BRONX HORNS WHEN: Friday 11/27/09 WHERE:SOB’s
204 Varick Street
New York, NY TIME: 8:00 p.m. & 10:00 p.m. TICKETS: $15
CHICO O’FARRILL’S AFRO-CUBAN JAZZ ORCHESTRA WHEN: Sunday 11/29/09 WHERE:Birdland
315 W. 44th Street
Manhattan, NY TIME: 9:00 p.m. & 11:00 p.m. TICKETS: $30
CHRIS WASHBURNE & S.Y.O.T.O.S. WHEN: Sunday 11/29/09 WHERE:Smoke
2751 Broadway
New York, NY TIME: 8:00 p.m., 10:00 p.m. & 11:30 p.m. TICKETS: $20 minimum
CURTIS BROTHERS QUARTET WHEN: Wednesday 11/25/09 WHERE:Chris’ Jazz Cafe
481 5th Avenue Park Slope
Brooklyn, NY TIME: 5:00 p.m. TICKETS: $10
WHEN: Friday 11/27/09 WHERE:Puppet’s Jazz Bar
1421 Sansom Street
Philadelphia, PA TIME: 9:00 p.m. TICKETS: $12 & 2 drink minimum
ERIC KURIMSKI WHEN: Thursday 11/26/09 WHERE:Terraza Cafe
40-19 Gleane St
Elmhurst, NY TIME: 10:00 p.m. TICKETS: FREE
GABRIEL ALEGRIA AFRO-PERUVIAN JAZZ SEXTET WHEN: Thursday 11/26/09 – Sunday 11/29/09 WHERE:Tutuma Social Club
164 East 56th Street
New York, NY TIME: Thursday – Saturday 8:00 p.m. & 10:30 p.m.; Sunday 7:00 p.m. TICKETS: NO COVER
GREG DIAMOND WHEN: Tuesday 11/24/09 WHERE:Rose
345 Grand Street
Brooklyn, NY TIME: 9:00 p.m.
WHEN: Wednesday 11/25/09 WHERE:Flutebar
205 West 54th Street
New York, NY TIME: 8:00 p.m.
JOHN BENITEZ BAND WHEN: Tuesday 11/24/09 – Wednesday 11/25/09 WHERE:Tutuma Social Club
164 East 56th Street
New York, NY TIME: 8:00 p.m. & 10:30 p.m. TICKETS: NO COVER
PAPO VAZQUEZ PIRATES TROUBADORS
10th Anniversary Of The Central Brooklyn Jazz Consortium WHEN: Saturday 11/28/09 WHERE:Jazz966
966 Fulton Street
Brooklyn, NY TIME: 6:00 p.m. TICKETS: $20
If you’re in the MID-EAST this week . . . LOS GATOS WHEN: Wednesday 11/25/09 WHERE:Live At PJ’s
102 S 1st St
Ann Arbor, MI TIME: 8:00 p.m. & 9:15 p.m. TICKETS: $7
TUMBAO BRAVO WHEN: Sunday 11/29/09 WHERE:Sangria – Royal Oak
401 S. Lafayette
Royal Oak, MI TIME: 9:00 p.m. TICKETS: $6
If you’re on the WEST COAST this week . . . ANNA ESTRADA WHEN: Friday 11/27/09 WHERE:Senzala Restaurant
250 E Java Drive
Sunnyvale, CA TIME: 9:00 p.m. TICKETS: $10
BANDA BROTHERS WHEN: Wednesday 11/25/09 WHERE:Steamers
138 W. Commonwealth
Fullerton, CA TIME: 8:00 p.m. TICKETS: NO COVER
JOHNNY BLAS LATIN JAZZ BAND WHEN: Wednesday 11/25/09 WHERE:Steamers
138 W. Commonwealth
Fullerton, CA TIME: 8:30 p.m. TICKETS: $8
JOVINO SANTOS NETO WHEN: Sunday 11/29/09 WHERE:Marine View Church
8469 Eastside Dr. NE
Tacoma, WA TIME: 5:00 p.m. TICKETS: $15
PONCHO SANCHEZ WHEN: Friday 11/27/09 WHERE:The Hop
5201 Clark Ave
Lakewood, CA TIME: 9:00 p.m.
WHEN: Sunday 11/29/09 WHERE:Spaghettini’s
3005 Old Ranch Parkway,
Seal Beach, CA TIME: 7:00 p.m TICKETS: $40 reserved seating; $20 general admission
Esta Plena Miguel Zenón Marsalis Music
When a jazz artist makes a commitment to Latin Jazz, they build a connection to Caribbean and South American culture that they can explore on several levels. For some musicians, the simple insertion of rhythmic patterns underneath jazz harmonies constitutes Latin Jazz. They may not understand the cultural context of those rhythms or even associate them with a specific country, they simply appreciate the Latin implication. Other artists dig a little deeper and discover dance rhythms from the Caribbean and South America, usually introduced by the most popular artists from those regions. In addition to integrating these rhythms into their repertoire, they might build a stronger connection by introducing common forms into a jazz context. Artists with a stronger bond to the Caribbean or South America often diversify their approach with folkloric forms or arrangements of traditional songs. This approach more closely aligns jazz with cultural traditions, respecting both the context and function of the music in a given country. When an artist digs deep into the culture and actually researches the history, tradition, and social context of a musical style, their resulting product can be breathtaking. After receiving a substantial grant, Puerto Rican saxophonist Miguel Zenón dived deeply into the island’s rich folkloric tradition, plena. The combination of his discoveries with his already refined modern jazz technique shine brightly on Esta Plena, a brilliant combination of cultural ideals.
Vocals In The Forefront
Several tracks on Esta Plena feature vocals in the forefront, connecting the music to the plena’s folkloric roots. Hector “Tito” Matos introduces the main lyrics unaccompanied on “Esta Plena,” before Obanilu Allende and Juan Gutierrez join him and the panderos start a strong pulse. A spacious instrumental melody supported by aggressive rhythm section kicks leads into a colorful improvisation from pianist Luis Perdomo who creates distinctive melodies with modern chromaticism. Zenón cleverly darts around the plena rhythm, infusing blistering runs, rhythmic emphasis, and screeching high notes before the vocalists return for an uptempo coro-pregon section. Matos leaps an energetic melody that laments the questionable future of Puerto Rico on “Qué Será de Puerto Rico?” before the rhythm section joins the driving plena groove of the panderos. The vocal comes to an abrupt stop, opening the door to a impassioned improvisation from Zenón, who flies through the changes with a determined strength. Matos spins poignant pregones between wild unison melodic flights from Zenón and Perdomo until drummer Henry Cole stretches the limits of the rhythmic structure with a smart unaccompanied solo. The panderos ring through the sound of a New Year’s Eve celebration on “Despedida” until Zenón inserts pieces of “Auld Lang Syne” over an aggressive rhythm section groove. The vocalists return for an upbeat lyric that describes a wild party while the rhythm section keeps the music interesting with a variety of texture changes. As Zenón races into an intriguing statement filled with a modern jazz vocabulary the rhythm section jumps into swing, eventually changing gears one more time for attention grabbing percussion solos. Zenón pulls the plena’s folkloric roots together into a symbiotic mixture on these tracks, placing his dual influences together in a complementary way.
Weaving Vocalists Into A Jazz Tapestry
On other pieces, Zenón weaves the vocalists into the jazz tapestry, finding an even balance between the two worlds. Matos provides a searching vocal melody with the support of Allende and Guitierrez on “Oyelo” while the rhythm section places a minor harmony beneath them. Perdomo and Zenón take a unison journey through a winding melody that leads into a searing improvisation from Zenón who pushes a strong theme through every register of his instrument. Perdomo takes his time building an understated idea with an introspective feel before the vocals join the group for a return to the main melody. An upbeat melodic line from Zenón sends the group into a minor vamp on “Pandero y Pagode” until the vocalists enter with a richly harmonized melody. A beautifully executed vocal leads into an improvisation from Perdomo, who plays off the rhythmic momentum of the band with a lively inertia. Zenón quickly kicks things into high gear with cutting lines that wind through the group’s sharp collective hits and inspire active commentary from Cole. These pieces hold onto the folkloric nature of the plena vocal, but place that element in a modern jazz context that adds color and movement to the style.
Placing Plena In Instrumental Pieces
Zenón also spends time focusing upon instrumental pieces, keeping the plena rhythm as an essential element. An extensive break leads into a blistering plena groove on “Villa Palmeras” until Zenón jumps into a long melody filled with several interesting themes. The combination of the rhythm section and the panderos create an unstoppable momentum behind Zenón, who virtuosically spins a theme full of racing notes, sharp rhythmic accents, and a effectively wide register. Perdomo follows Zenón’s lead with an energetic solo that races through a wildly logical development before the group hits quick breaks for pandero improvisations. After a rubato introduction from Zenón, bassist Hans Glawischnig establishes a medium tempo plena that moves forward with a bluesy strut on “Villa Coope,” allowing Zenón to explore an open melody. A dramatic stop break provides a space for Zenón to introduce his initial idea before he charges into an angular improvisation that climbs into fervent climax. Perdomo’s running lines overflow with a swinging sensation, pushing the groove into a swaggering movement that captures the connection between jazz and plena. A flying melodic line from Zenón that sits somewhere between Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, and Wayne Shorter introduces “Residencial Llorens Torres” before Perdomo joins him in a blazing melodic race through an uptempo plena. The rhythm section maintains the fiery tempo as Zenón soars into a focused improvisation that builds into an intense energy with quick note flurries and screaming pitches. Perdomo maintains the fierce drive throughout his statement, using long streams of notes that run across the stretch of the piano and rhythmic chordal stabs. Glawischnig creates an unaccompanied solo that resonates with defined development and a bluesy undertone before leaping into the main line on “Calle Calma.” Zenón and Perdomo travel through a moody melody that benefits from a rising and falling shape and drastically effective dynamic changes. There’s a sense of reflective calm throughout the piece as the musicians repeat the melodic ideas against the plodding pandero rhythms. These pieces find Zenón integrating the plena rhythm into a jazz context without loosing the authentic flavor of either genre.
The Potential Behind Meaningful Cultural Connections
Zenón displays keen insight into the cultural traditions of both plena and jazz on Esta Plena, creating a product that authentically respects both musical worlds. As a composer, Zenón utilizes a thoughtful musical process that digs deeply into the connection between the two musics. He integrates two groups – a trio of percussionists playing traditional plena on panderos and a modern jazz quartet – and his challenge lies in the complementary relationship between them. There are moments when they take the basic route to collaboration: having the panderos provide a constant plena behind modern jazz improvisation or re-harmonizing more traditional plena structures. Still, Zenón takes every step to make sure that these connections work. He builds complex bass lines that sit comfortably against the plena while moving through chord changes. He develops intricate rhythm section arrangements that wind through the plena while leaving open space for improvisation. He never sacrifices his contemporary jazz sound, leaning towards Coltrane and Shorter even where the plena begs for more basic harmonies. Zenón’s improvisations seem inspired throughout the recording, as he solo with a passionate vigor that gains momentum with each track. Perdomo also delivers an outstanding performance, supporting the plena structures with style and ease while infusing his own personality into each improvisation. Zenón’s worked hard researching and deciphering plena before creating Esta Plena, and the results teach us a valuable lesson about the potential behind meaningful cultural connections.
Latin Jazz artists that spend a lifetime in the music world need to diversify their repertoire over time. In the early days of their musical journey, they spend their time solidifying the details of a specific musical genre; their output benefits from a single focus. They build their reputation upon this musical specialty and they become closely identified with it. As they follow this path into the long term, they run the risk of becoming stagnant and falling into redundant musical patterns. They need to experiment with new musical ideas, perform with different musicians, and stretch the limits of their musicality. These new challenges keep the musicians fresh, force them to maintain an active engagement in the music, and regularly peek their listeners’ interest. At the same time, they need to stay connected to their roots and constantly examine the relationship between their new ideas and their original focus. Over time, the musician evolves into a new artistic personality with a distinct approach to the music that includes all the elements of their musical explorations.
With the 2009 release of Psychedelic Blues, conguero Poncho Sanchez looks back on well over three decades as a professional musician. His initial leap into the life of a full time professional musician took him deep into the Latin Jazz world, performing as a sideman to Cal Tjader. This allowed Sanchez to build upon his passion for the genre that he developed as a young musician. Once Sanchez moved into the position of band leader, he understood the style with a keen insight that allowed him to carry his group into the front of the genre. The Poncho Sanchez Band became known for its tight rhythm section work and solid Latin Jazz sound, but Sanchez recognized the need for change. With the release of the 2003 album Out Of Sight, Sanchez introduced a new line-up of musicians and steered his Latin Jazz approach in a distinctly new direction. Over the course of the next few albums, Sanchez integrated soul and rhythm and blues into Latin rhythms, creating a funky mixture that hit a chord with a popular audience. The band’s success grew tremendously, making them worldwide ambassadors to the Latin Jazz world. With the arrival of Psychedelic Blues, Sanchez emerges as a creative and defined bandleader that always delivers top-notch danceable Latin Jazz.
In the last piece of our interview with Poncho Sanchez, we dig into the musical changes that led to the definition of his current sound. Don’t forget to check out the back story of Sanchez’s career – Part 1 of our interview explores Sanchez’s early musical development, Part 2 looks at his leap into Latin percussion and gig with Cal Tjader, and Part 3 discusses the early days of the Poncho Sanchez Band. Today’s feature takes us into 2009, where we look at Psychedelic Blues and more. Enjoy!
———- LATIN JAZZ CORNER: You did a series of albums from 2003 – 2005 that started with Out Of Sight, where you went in an R ‘n B/soul direction. There were some changes in the band line-up as well. What inspired you to make both those musical and personnel changes?
PONCHO SANCHEZ: A couple of the guys in the band that had been with me for a very long time started complaining a bit. They were saying that we should be doing this or we should be doing that . . . Everyone’s got there opinion, right? You’ve got nine guys and they’re all voicing their opinions. I’d say, “We’ll we’ve got to do this because it’s a Latin Jazz band . . .” Someone else would say, “Well, we should be doing more bebop.” Then another guy would say, “We should be doing more salsa.” I’d say, “We’re not a bebop band. We’re not really a salsa band either.” We do a little bit of both, and when we perform in places, people like us to play Latin Jazz and salsa. I hadn’t really bought into the soul thing yet. We had recorded one or two soul things before – James Brown’s “Cold Sweat” and we had recorded “Let A Woman Be A Women And Let A Man Be A Man.” We’d put them in every once in a while, but they weren’t really a big selling point in our shows at that time. So I would say, “Well, everyone’s got their ideas . . .”
We were playing a lot and flying here and flying there; we had some outrageous flight times – red eyes and all that stuff. Thank god we were young. Some of the guys were saying, “Hey, we should be getting better flights. Hey, we should be flying first class. Hey, we should be staying in the best hotels.” I would say, “I agree with you! I want to fly first class and I want to stay at the Four Seasons. I want the best places too. But hey man, we’re a Latin Jazz band. How are you going to fly first class? How are you going to have all the best? It’s not going to work, we can’t afford that. We’re a Latin Jazz band.”
Finally, I said, that’s it. What are we going to do? After about four or five years of that going around and around and around, some guys were doing the gig but complaining. So I said, “Hey, it’s all good. We’ve been together a long time, and maybe it is time to make some changes.” It was tough, because everybody was family. I still love the guys today that left, but we decided to make some changes. They went on their way and I said, “You know what I’m going to do? I’d going to get some young guys in the band. Younger than me, because all the other guys were about my age – get some young blood in here.” So I got some young cats – George Ortiz on timbales . . . we made some changes here and there. That was cool, we started doing some different things like that and changing things around with some young blood in the band. It was a little tough to take off with at first because the young guys were really nervous and they were just excited to be in my band. They grew up watching the other guys in my band. Everybody respected each other, which was very cool actually. A couple of months later though, they caught on and we were flying, we were doing it.
Then I said, “I think that I’m going to go back and see if I can mix in that soul bag a little heavier.” The people kind of liked it. We’d play the James Brown thing sometimes, and people would ask for it every once in a while. So I started leaning more towards that. I knew Fred Wesley – we had played together years before in The Long Beach City Band, a big band here in Long Beach, California. I said, “You know, I think I’ll call Fred Wesley and see if he wants to do a little James Brown number or something.” I called him and he said, “Well, why don’t we get Pee Wee and Maceo Parker – the three James Brown horn players?” I said, “Yea, man, let’s do it!” Maceo Parker was in Europe in time; he wanted to do it, but he couldn’t get back in time to do the recording. So I just used Pee Wee and Fred Wesley (on the recording Out Of Sight)– later on I was able to use Maceo Parker on another record (Raise Your Hand). But I did finally use all the horn players from the James Brown Band.
We started doing those records like that; we did another record with a James Brown theme and then we invited Ray Charles to play on it, and Billy Preston – people like that. I sang with Sam Moore from Sam and Dave . . . it was all these guys I grew up listening to when I was in high school! For me, it was like a dream come true to have these great cats playing with us. Then I used the whole Tower of Power band on another record and Hugh Masekela from South Africa (on the album Do It!). All these ideas were flowing – a lot of these different things started happening when I got the new guys in the band. We started doing some fresh new ideas, and it was good, things went very well for us. Everything went up another notch and things were happening pretty good for us. We got nominated for another Grammy with Poncho at Montreux, recorded live at the Montreux Jazz Festival 2005 – it was a CD and a DVD. So, you know, we had all these new guys in the band . . . how do you say it? The thing keeps going, the story keeps growing. Now I’m bringing in new younger family members, it helps them grow.
I think that I’ve done my part pretty good, and now we’re just continuing the cycle. I’ve got Arturo Sandoval on the new CD, and I’ve got a young guitar player from L.A., Andrew Synowiec; he played on about four or five tunes. A nice, young guitar player; he’s a really nice guy and great musician. He can read anything; you put anything out there, he reads it right away – I love that! You play it once or twice and that guy’s got it!
LJC: He sounds great on the new album!
PS: Yea, he’s smooth as silk. He’s a great guy too – that makes it so much better. He’s not the show-off, smart alec kind of guy. He’s a nice kid, and he plays great – he can play jazz, and he’s learning all about Latin Jazz now. He grabs it pretty quick. I gave him a bunch of CDs with old recordings of guys playing tres – Niño Rivera and the old Patato records with tres on it. All the old Cuban stuff and the old cuatro stuff from Puerto Rico. I gave him all that guitar stuff; whenever I see him in his car nowadays, he’s always listening to all of that. He’s learning about the Latin playing.
LJC: The new album is so great, it’s one of my favorites that I’ve heard from you band in a while. It really is a jump back to that straight-ahead Latin Jazz approach – was that something you were looking for?
PS: Yea, John Burke, the vice-president of Concord Records, Francisco Torres, David Torres, and I all got together before we did this and discussed which way should we go, what should we do? John Burke said, “Poncho, why do you go back to what made this band popular and famous – the Latin Jazz stuff. Why don’t you lean back into that stuff and see what you want to do. You’ve always got great ideas for tunes that people haven’t recorded in years – you guys redo it, revamp it, and it comes out great.” So I told him, “Yea, let’s do it, I’m good with that.” We were here at my house. I’m a collector, so I’ve got a room with 6,000 – 7,000 CDs, about 5,000 records – some collector’s stuff that you can never find – and I’ve got about 3,000 DVDs and video tapes of everybody from Dizzy Gillespie to whatever – stuff from Cuba, I’ve got it all. Old doo-wop, rhythm and blues, James Brown in old black and white footage of his band, I’ve got a lot of stuff. So there we go, we start pulling out ideas.
I said, you know, I’ve always like that Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers tune “Slowly But Surely” – man, nobody’s recorded that tune and that’s a great number. It’s a jazz tune – straight ahead swing, but I said, but we’ve got to put that Latin style in there. So Francisco Torres says, “Hey, Poncho, that would work as a cha cha cha. Let’s try it.” So we start trying it like that, and it lent itself to it. Then he came up with a nice arrangement of that. I told him, I also like the Horace Silver tune “Silver’s Serenade,” and that’s just a medium tempo swing tune. Well, we do it as an uptempo mambo. So that’s what we do, we start picking ideas about tunes that I always liked and jazz stuff that I love. Then, of course, we all wrote some tunes, you know, everybody’s got to get an original on there. Also, John Burke said, “Why don’t you do a tribute to Willie Bobo?” So I said, “OK” and we did a Willie Bobo medley. The song that not many people know is, “Baby, I Don’t Know” – the one that I sing. And then we did “Fried Neckbones And Some Home Fries” and “Spanish Grease” which are the two most popular tunes from Willie Bobo. David Torres did a really nice job in putting those three tunes together.
And then we recorded the song “Con Sabor Latino” – that song comes from an album by Rene Touzet and His Orchestra. Rene Touzet was a piano player from Cuba who moved to Los Angeles in the fifties. He recorded an album in the early sixties called Too Much!. It’s an album – definitely not on CD! The song was called “Con Sabor Latino.” He did that for a disc jockey in Los Angeles by the name of Chico Sesma. Chico Sesma is still alive today, Rene Touzet has passed already. Chico Sesma had the first – and only – Latin Jazz or salsa program in the late fifties or early sixties on the AM dial – not FM. He used to come on for one hour, once a week. When I was a little boy back in 1959, my sisters used to wait for his program to come on, because he’d play all the music of Tito Puente, Machito, and Cal Tjader – all that stuff. His theme song was called “Con Sabor Latino” – that was it, that’s the song! He would have that as his theme song and he would lower it down in the middle and say, “Hi, this is Chico Sesma and it’s my pleasure to be your host for the best in mambo and cha cha cha music” The song goes, “A pleasure to be your host . . .” that’s when he would lower it down. This was a long time ago – I was a kid. That’s where that song comes from, and nobody had touched that song since those days.
About three years ago, Ry Cooder and Little Wille G, a singer from a band called The Midnighters from East L.A. that did a lot of oldies in the sixties and seventies – they came to my house and Ry said, “Poncho, we’ve got a little bit of a budget to do a record . . .” The record that he was going to put together – you know, he always has trippy ideas – he was going to put out a record in all the Starbuck’s with music from the sixties in Los Angeles. From Doo Wop, oldies, soul, Latin . . . everything – they were going to cover all the bases. They wanted me to record a song that had something to do with Latin bands in the sixties in Los Angeles. So I thought of that tune, “Con Sabor Latino.” I played it for him, and he loved it! He said, “Oh, Poncho, that would be great!” This was three years ago, and we were going to record that song for this package with Ry Cooder. Well, they were trying to get the money together, make a budget, and make a recording with all these different groups. It never happened. He called back and said, “You know Poncho, I thought I had it, but they don’t want to spend that much money.” So it fell apart. I said, “Well, OK, maybe some other time. If something comes up, let me know, we can try it again. No problem” So when this record was coming out, I said, “Hey, why don’t we try that Con Sabor Latino idea again?” So Francisco Torres said, “Let me hear it” – he had never heard it. I put it on and he said, “That’s cool man, that’s old style! Let’s do it!” And boom, there it is, I decided to use it on this record. So these are just a lot of ideas that I’ve had for a while.
LJC: It’s really interesting to hear you talk about these great role models that you had like Cal, Mongo, and Tito – because you’ve really become one of those people in the Latin Jazz world. I don’t think any Latin Jazz group travels as much as you do and puts the music out there. How do you feel about your role in that?
PS: Thank you very much for that. Really, I try to be as humble as possible, because being a big shot really gets you nowhere. I’m not about that. I don’t like people that act like that either, because, we’re all the same. We’ll all just folks – that’s the way that I see it, we’re all just people. I’ve been blessed. I’ve been lucky . . . everything’s worked for me – luck, hard work, studying, you know, I’ve done it all. So at the end, I guess I’ve been pretty lucky, because I’m still here and I’m doing it.
But it’s funny you say that. Yesterday I went to a place that has nothing to do with Latin Jazz – I went to my son’s work. It’s a government run place, you’ve got to have a card to slide and a code to get in. I went there just because my son works there – he said, “Dad, they’re going to have a Latin month here at my work and they’re going to have different speakers come that have been through different trials and tribulations in there lives. These people at my work want to hear their stories. One of the guys plays congas and he knows who you are – do you think that you could come and do a talk?” I said, “Of course, what do you want me to do?” Usually it goes through my management, but I told my manager, “This is my son’s work, I’m going for free.” I went there yesterday and to be honest, I was a little uncomfortable – it wasn’t a gig! I waited for my son on the other side of the gate and he checked me in, we had to go through a security guy, he gave me a badge, and I was getting kind of nervous. It’s a different world.
We got into this big conference room, really nice room that held about ninety people. My son was saying, “Boy, I hope that people show up! I think a lot of people know who you are, but I’m not sure.” People started coming in, saying, “Wow, it really is him! This is your Dad?!?” Once they started coming in, it was packed! As a matter of fact, the guy that does that every year said that was the most people that they’d ever had there. People were standing in the hallway! They showed a twelve minute version of a DVD called “The Keeper Of The Flame – Poncho Sanchez” – it’s a documentary that lasts about an hour, but we have a twelve minute version of it. They showed that first, and people clapped their hands like they were at the movies or something. Then I got up and spoke; after I spoke, they gave me a standing ovation for a couple of minutes. Individuals were coming up to me saying that my experiences reminded them of when they were young; I touched people’s hearts I guess with the stories that I tell, because they’re real, true stories. People wanted to take pictures with me and get autographs! I still kind of have a hard time with that, because, you know, to me, the greatest guys are Mongo and Cal Tjader – not me. They’re the guys, I still have that much respect for them; they’re the main guys in my life still. But people were telling me just what you were telling me – “No Poncho, now you’re those guys!” I guess it comes with the territory. I’m just the guy down the street, that’s how I feel. But I’m thankful that I’m still here doing it. I’m still healthy enough to hit that damn drum!
———-
A big thanks to Poncho for spending so much time talking with me and for spending so many years creating incredible Latin Jazz!
Don’t forget Part 3 of the LJC interview with Poncho Sanchez where we dive into the early days of the Poncho Sanchez Band and discuss some of the group’s incredible guest artists and special projects. You can find it HERE
The road to a successful music career includes an unexpected number of twists and turns. Some musicians face artistic hurdles, trying to find their voice in a world that values different musical aesthetics. Other artists encounter a struggle to find an audience, playing a style that steps outside the realm of popular culture. Still more musicians experience financial hardships, finding it difficult to support themselves through their performance career. Some artists persevere, paying their dues over the course of years until they reach their goals. The pressure of the ever changing road overwhelms other musicians, forcing them to alter the plans or leave music altogether. Everyone follows their own path, but without a doubt, they all encounter their share of challenges.
Conguero Poncho Sanchez experienced his share of ups and downs throughout his career. An early love for rhythm and blues led him to work as a singer with a variety of local Los Angeles groups. His sisters helped foster a connection to Latin Jazz, eventually driving Sanchez to buy a set of congas. He quickly became addicted to the thrill of percussion, building an impressive set of chops that earned him a gig with one of his heroes, vibraphonist Cal Tjader. Over the course of seven and a half years, Sanchez toured the world with Tjader, gaining a keen insight into Latin Jazz and garnering some well deserved respect as a musician. Just as Sanchez seemed on an upward path towards lifelong success, tragedy struck on a tour of the Philippines. During the trip, Tjader suffered a massive heart attack and at the young age of 56, he left the world. Crushed by the loss of his musical mentor and lost without a regular gig, Sanchez’s journey changed drastically. He focused upon his own band and began a new path, destined to lead him towards a new level of success.
In the third part of our interview with Poncho Sanchez, we join Sanchez on his journey to build his band into the powerful unit that we know today. Make sure that you check out the background to the story – in Part 1 of the interview, you’ll hear about Sanchez’s early development and in Part 2, you can read about his path into the Tjader band. Then look below and follow Sanchez as he pays his dues and becomes one of the Latin Jazz world’s primary figures!
———- PONCHO SANCHEZ: Cal was gone and I had no work; I was just putting odds and ends together. I was trying to find jobs playing, but it was hard to find gigs. So I decided to go back to work during the week and play on the weekends, just like I used to before I played with Cal. I went back to the old foundry – that dirty, hot job – because that was the only thing that I knew how to do. When I went back, the same boss was still there – this was like eight years later. He gave me a big hug when he saw me and he said, “Poncho! How are you doing? I heard about Cal Tjader, but, you’re going to do good by yourself.” And I said, “No, that’s the problem. That’s why I’m here, I’m asking for my old job back.” The guy said, “No, you can’t be talking the truth.” I said, “Monguito’s getting big, I can’t pay my rent – I need a job.” I had worked there for five years, and they knew me very well. He said, “Come here, Poncho, let me show you something.” So I went down the hall with this guy and he took me to the lunch room. Up on one whole wall of that lunch room, there was every newspaper write-up and magazine article that I had ever been in since I joined Cal Tjader’s band. He said, “Look at this wall here. That’s you. You’re our hero. All these guys that worked with you, you’re their hero.” I had never dreamed that they would even think of me like that. The boss said, “Poncho, that’s what I’m telling you – you can’t come back here. We’re nobody, you’re world famous now.” I said, “I’m sorry Joe, I need the job.” “If you really want the job, you’ve got it. Go get your boots today and you can start working tomorrow”
So I went back to work at the foundry for about nine months. After that, the company folded and they laid everyone off. Then I started driving a liquor truck; I had a friend that drove a liquor truck and he got me a job as a part-time driver. I’d work three days out of the week and play two days with The Poncho Sanchez Band. Even when I had four albums out, I was driving that liquor truck. I went to Concord Records and I recorded Sonando and Bien Sabroso. Bien Sabroso got nominated for a Grammy; then I did two more records and I was still driving that liquor truck. I didn’t have enough money to make my ends meet every month by just playing gigs with my band.
I had the Poncho Sanchez band, but I didn’t have a manager – I was doing everything by myself. I was trying to book the band and making phone calls during the daytime. I would collect health, welfare and pension from the band every week because we all belonged to the musician’s union. I was trying to do things right, but the money was really thin for everybody. So I know what it’s all about, I used to do everything for this band. I used to manage it, book it, deal with the union – I did everything at the beginning. Now, thank god, I have a personal manager, a manager that runs my office, helps with all the bills, and pays the band. I have a band manager, I have a personal manager, and of course I have a booking agent, and a travel agent – you need all those things to have a business.
LATIN JAZZ CORNER: When did things take off? When were you able to leave the day gig and make ends meet with the band?
PS: I don’t remember exactly, but I had about four or five albums out by the time that I cut loose any type of day gig. I have twenty-four CDs out now, and it took about four or five CDs before I could cut everything loose and just play music. So, I paid my dues. I worked during the week and played music on the weekend. Everyone thought that I was a big star and yet I was driving a liquor truck during the daytime. I was taught as a young boy that you do whatever your family needs. My family needed to eat and I needed to pay my rent so that’s what I did. I went out and found work.
LJC: One of the first Poncho Sanchez albums that I discovered was Chile con Soul, which had Tito Puente on it. It seemed like that was the start of a tradition of bringing guest artists into the albums. How did you start doing that and what does that do for you to bring in those big figures to play with you?
PS: By then I had been in the business for long enough where I had met all these people and they were pretty good friends of mine. Every time that I would see Tito Puente, we would hang out and talk. Of course, he knew that I had played with Cal Tjader and he loved Cal Tjader. They were very good friends. Cal introduced me to a lot of people – Dizzy Gillespie and people like that.
I would have a meeting with Concord every time that we were going to make an album to see what we wanted to do with that record. Concord said, “Well, Poncho, you should use a guest.” So I said, “What if we get Tito Puente to be our guest?” They said, “Call him, see if he’ll do it. We’ll pay him for it.” So I called Tito and he said, “Yea, Poncho, I’ll do one or two songs.” Then I had Concord call him and they worked out the negotiations money-wise. Tito was very generous; he just wanted to be on the record with us and help us out. That was very cool.
I had played with Freddie Hubbard in both his band and our band. So I asked Freddie one day if he would play on a record with us (Cambios) and he said yes. We had to negotiate the price, because you have to pay him a little money to be on the record – regular business. From there on in, Concord said, “Poncho, the records are selling well, they are all paying themselves back.” Let me tell you – if you are going to record a CD with someone and it doesn’t pay itself back, they’re not going to sign you again. They’re in it to make money just like everyone else is. So, thank god all my records were paying themselves back pretty quickly, even with the special guests on there and everything. So, they would say, “Hey, let’s do another one.” We just kept doing them like that and now we have number 24. Once again, we have a guest on this one – we have Arturo Sandoval on Psychedelic Blues. But it’s funny, the record that won the Grammy in 1999, Latin Soul, it was just live, my band only. That made me feel very proud, because I didn’t even have guest on that record and that’s the one that won the Grammy. I felt very proud of that because it was just my band.
LJC: You’ve always had a great band, and you’ve done such great things with them. But there were two albums in the mid-nineties that seemed to me like real milestones for the group. The first one was Soul Sauce: Memories of Cal Tjader. It was so personal and it really connected you back to that history with Cal. What were you trying to give people and what did you want people to take away about Cal?
PS: First of all, I just wanted people to enjoy his music once again. The arrangements were a little different. We tried not to make them too different than the original Cal Tjader tunes or the way that he recorded them. All we did was add some horns and some background parts; there were a couple of spots where the horns would play the melody and then the vibes would take a solo. I didn’t want to change it too much from his real sound; I wanted to get as close as I could to the real Cal Tjader sound. That’s why I used Ruben Estrada on vibes – he loved Cal Tjader as much as I did and respected him as much as I did. Ruben Estrada actually had that sound and that touch like Cal. Not exactly, because nobody has the real Cal Tjader sound other than Cal Tjader. But Ruben got awfully close. He loved him deeply, just like I did, so I knew that was the right guy for the job. We wanted to change the arrangements just enough to make it fresh and new sounding and then do a tribute to Cal Tjader so that people could once again enjoy his music. That was the main thing behind that.
As a matter of fact I had his actual mallets, the Cal Tjader mallets that I took from Cal on one of our road trips. There used to be a company called Good Vibes – they made mallets and they made the Cal Tjader model. The tips are blue; he had red ones that were a little harder and orange ones that were a little softer, all to get a different tone on the vibes. Well, I got the blue ones because he used those almost all the time. They were medium-hard mallets. I got them from him and I had them all those years. When we started rehearsing with Ruben Estrada for the record, I took the mallets with me one day and I showed them to him. He went “Holy . . . these are Cal Tjader’s mallets!” They had his name right on there. He went “Poncho, I know what these are, these are the Cal Tjader model. They don’t make these anymore.” I said, “Well, do you want to use them?” He used them for every rehearsal and he used those mallets on the record. Then after the recording was over, we were all celebrating, because we knew it was a good record and we were all very happy with it. He came back and he handed me the mallets like he was carrying a baby – two hands, open palms, with the mallet sticks in his hands. “Poncho, here’s Cal Tjader’s mallets back. Those are precious” I got them and I took them to a framing place. Now they’re inside a frame so that no one can touch them anymore. I’ve got them in a frame with an old plaque – an award that Cal Tjader got as Vibes – New Star, Jazz Master from Downbeat in 1955. It’s an plaque that Cal had, and I put one of his old CD covers in there; it’s like a box frame with the two mallets.
LJC: The other album that really struck me is Conga Blue, that you did with Mongo Santamaria. I remember seeing your band with Mongo at Yoshi’s in Oakland – it was an incredible show. Seeing the two of you up there together, you could really hear the influence. How was that experience for you and what did you take away from Mongo?
PS: That was the best, the top of my life right there. Just imagine a kid that wants to be like the greatest baseball player. He was next to me the whole week and we played, traded back and forth . . . I mean, I was in seventh heaven, every night with him. By then we were good friends. Before that, when I was younger, I was very scared and nervous to be around him. He really didn’t talk too much, Mongo was the kind of guy that was very private. He wouldn’t talk to you unless he felt comfortable with you. A lot of times he would just shake people’s hands, say, “Thank you very much,” and that’s about it. He didn’t really open up or talk to you. It was like that for several years; I could hardly get next to him.
I remember at the old Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach when I was just a kid, even before I played with Cal Tjader. He was at the bar, so I went up to him and I told him, “Mongo, I play congas a little bit.” I told him about a song he played on a record and I said, “Is this the way you play the pattern?” I started playing it with my hands on the top of the bar. He looked at me and he said, “Mas o menos,” which means more or less. I waited for instruction after that, like more or less, but you should do this, do that, or you’re doing this wrong. He just said “Mas or menos.” That was it, he didn’t talk anymore to me. I said, “Thank you maestro” and walked away!
That was at the beginning, but by the time that I made that record with him . . . forget about it, we were good friends. Then he was very open to me. I would talk to him and ask him stories about when he grew up in Cuba and when he first came to New York, and all that stuff. Then he would talk to me. Of course, after he knew that I named my son after him, well, then he knew that I wasn’t faking.
I learned a great deal just by being around him. When he would play with us, I would just see a master sitting next to me. I could hear the tones coming out of his drums, the feeling, the sound. I wanted to be like that so much – I wanted to sound like him, he was my hero. So I would smack those things and people would tell me, “Poncho, you sound like Mongo! You’ve got that same sound” To get that sound, you’ve got to play hard. There’s a lot of great, wonderful conga players today that use different techniques. Giovanni Hidalgo is a good friend of mine also and he’s a monster, he’s incredible. His speed – he’s fast. I can’t even think as fast as he plays. I tell him that too – “Giovanni, how do play so fast, like lightning?” I don’t come from that school, I come from the old heavy hitters. I slap it differently. I just learned the old style very well, and to me, that’s what I do, that’s my style. And I’m going to hold the fort. I come out of that school – I learned from watching Mongo.
The Spotlight Series highlights upcoming Latin Jazz musicians that have yet to reach national recognition. Many of these musicians thrive in local scenes and some tour in support of releases. All these musicians contribute greatly to the overall Latin Jazz scene, and they deserve our “spotlighted” attention.
My Very Life Paulinho Garcia Chicago Sessions
Many professional musicians perform Brazilian rhythms and songs in a competent manner, but a truly meaningful performance in this style demands a deeper connection to the style. At a basic level, Brazilian styles involves a collection of rhythms that fit together logically when spread out across several instruments; a group of trained musicians can certainly execute these musical pieces. Unfortunately, that’s exactly how their performance sounds – like several puzzle pieces fit together in a logical and rigid fashion. They miss the subtleties and nuances that make the music flow with graceful elegance or charge forward with energetic zeal. Bringing these exciting qualities from Brazilian music requires a more authentic connection to the music where the style becomes a natural extension of the artist’s musical personality. This connection might arise from a lifetime in Brazil or it might simply emerge as a result of several years spent immersed in the genre. Many background factors could help an artist build this natural connection to Brazilian music, but once they do, the results are magical. They begin to add breath and motion to the music, creating an unstoppable groove that screams of Brazilian culture. Combined with their own musical personalities, these artists make major statements that separate them from the stiff interpretations found across the country. Guitarist and vocalist Paulinho Garcia effortlessly performs a collection of original Brazilian Jazz compositions on My Very Life, showing the results of a natural connection to Brazilian music.
Using A Wide Variety Of Brazilian Styles
Garcia grounds the album with a number of tracks that incorporate a wide variety of Brazilian styles. A subtly dramatic series of chords hovers over percussive effects on “Cintura Fina” until a small group of drummers jump into a baião behind Garcia’s upbeat vocal. The rich quality of Garcia’s voice suits the melody well as he effortlessly moves between lush melodic ideas and sharp rhythmic accents. Without dropping a beat, Garcia moves into an energetic scat solo with a running stream of melodies before leaving space for a quick pandiero spotlight. Saxophonist Steve Eisen weaves a gentle melody over the soft texture of Garcia’s guitar on “Ponto De Encontro” while the percussionists maintain a steady samba cancão. Garcia’s vocal matches the introspective mood of the rhythm section, expressively moving through the lyrics with a quiet longing. Eisen’s improvisation follows Garcia’s lead, exploring the colorful chord chages with subdued chromatic embellishments and a cool jazz sensibility. The distorted tone of Ernie Denov’s electric guitar cuts through the rhythm section’s driving samba groove on “Disfrutando A Boa Vida.” The group builds an engaging forward motion beneath Garcia’s vocal, allowing him to bounce around the groove with a smart lyrical motion. Denov displays an interesting improvisational voice nimbly moving through the jazz changes while infusing the samba with the rock-edge of his racious tone. Garcia scats along with his guitar’s chordal melody on “E Quando” as the rhythm section sways through a marcha rancho rhythm. There’s a lilting motion to Garcia’s vocal as he rides the waves of melodic activity, sliding between pitches with a smooth legato phrasing. He captures the same sensation in his scat solo, creating understated ideas that glide through the song with sporadic syncopations for emphasis. The rhythmic variety throughout these pieces diversify the album, with Garcia’s strong musical personality maintaining a coherent logic.
Playing Upon The Chorinho
Garcia digs deep into the heart of Brazilian lyricism with several jazz-tinged pieces that play upon the chorinho. Garcia creates a serious tone with a rubato scat solo on “Chorinho Novo” before the band explodes into an uptempo groove. Electric guitarist Michael Allemana accompanies Garcia’s scat vocal as the two musicians race through a winding melody. Allemana flys through the changes with a smart approach to jazz harmony until Garcia leaps into an energetic scat solo that enthusiastically engages the rhythmic basis. Garcia doubles the impact of his personality on “Chorinho Da Paula” with a catchy scatted melody joined by a unison melody from his guitar. After a short interlude, Garcia segues directly into a tasteful guitar solo that combines pieces of the melody with a winding road through the rich harmony. Garcia shifts gears with an engaging scat solo that grows into an ear catching statement that leads the vocalist through every register of his range. The percussionists’ steady pulse leads the rhythm section directly into a catchy melody performed with a light and graceful feel by Julie Koidin on “Chorinho Do Paulinho.” Garcia displays a different side to his musicianship with an improvisation based strongly in jazz melodies and thoughtful running phrases. Koidin revisits the melody with a vibrant attitude, mixing improvisational embellishments and an upbeat attitude into the main theme. These pieces find Garcia moving skillfully through a variety of original chorinhos that connect his personality strongly to Brazilian music while injecting a strong jazz flavor into the music.
Brazilian Pieces With English Lyrics
Garcia reflects the impact of his current life in the United States with several Brazilian pieces that contain English lyrics. There’s a shade of Jobim hidden in the uptempo bossa nova “I’ll Be Calling For Maria (No Matter What)” as Garcia places an understated scat over the introduction. The vocalist breezes through a series of subdued lyrics with a breathy tone that keeps the performance firmly based in the style. As Garcia brings his lyrics to a close, bassist Brett Benteler jumps into a lyrical improvisation that smartly plays through the changes and shimmers against the sound of the acoustic guitar. A mid-tempo baião rhythm leads into the deep tone of vocalist Grazyna Auguscik on “Do You Remember Me?” until Garcia returns with additional lyrics. The two vocalists create a complimentary sound, trading phrases and then building lush vocal harmonies with a low key sound. Garcia creates some contrast with a moving guitar solo that utilizes a dark sound as he moves through the minor chord changes. The lone sound of Garcia’s acoustic guitar provides a swaying sensation with a down-tempo bossa nova on “My Very Life,” and creates the perfect backdrop for Garcia’s vocal. There’s a reflective sense of romantic involvement in Garcia’s performance that serves the song well and infuses a personal touch into the track. The guitarist takes a brief section to explore a smart chord solo that breaks the time and expands the song’s harmonic depth. These tracks reveal a dual side to Garcia’s lyrical abilities and create a collection of songs with a distinctly different personality.
A Natural Connection To Brazilian Music
Garcia creates a natural connection to Brazilian music on My Very Life that moves with an effortless swing and displays his artistic personality strongly. Garcia’s compositions form the bulk of the repertoire, finding him connected deeply to a variety of musical pieces. He intelligently taps into the heart of each style, crafting structures that reflect the distinct characteristics of the musical setting while holding onto his artistic personality. He smartly varies the arrangements throughout the recording to add diversity; from different soloists to several approaches to form, Garcia keeps each track fresh. Garcia’s performance drives the recording and the main focus of guitar and voice sets an intimate tone. Despite some admirable work from his percussionists, Garcia’s constant comping on the guitar creates an unbeatable swing throughout the record. His vocals soar with beauty, bounce with rhythmic momentum, and hold an authentic authority over the music. On both sides of his performance, Garcia performs with enough dexterity and flexibility to ably move through jazz changes, giving his performance depth. His guest musicians add to the overall mixture of musical voices on the album, but in reality, they simply support the fantastic work happening with Garcia. The show belongs to Garcia throughout My Very Life, and his presence overflows with a natural connection to Brazilian music that grabs your attention and won’t let go.
As 2009 slowly draws to a close, it’s time to reflect on the year in Latin Jazz and leap into the LJC Best of 2009 Awards. Voting will open this Wednesday, December 2nd and run through Wednesday December 23rd. That gives you three solid weeks to support your favorite Latin Jazz artist and encourage your friends to do the same. After a short break here at LJC to enjoy the holidays, I’ll be back with the results. Every day from Sunday December 26th to Thursday December 31st, I’ll announce the winners in three to four categories. Once the LJC community has spoken and we have a list of winners, they’ll find a permanent home on LJC, recognizing their achievement. This event has become a yearly tradition at LJC, and one that always builds a lot of excitement around fantastic Latin Jazz.
Thanksgiving is one of the few traditions with authentic roots right here in the United States. We make a big deal out of Christmas, Easter, and more, but in reality, those are European holdovers that we’ve integrated into our society. Thanksgiving celebrates our early founders that lived a much harder life than most of us experience in 2009. Their lives were on the line every day, and a year of continued prosperity and simple existence was a thing to be cherished. A day to reflect on their survival and appreciate their lives seemed like a natural event – one they deserved and needed. In the modern age, it’s a good thing that we continue this tradition; even though many of us aren’t struggling for survival, we should appreciate our lives even if just for a day.
It seems like we always take our most available assets for granted and sometimes overlook their importance in our lives. Conguero Poncho Sanchez is certainly one of the most popular figures in the Latin Jazz world, selling large numbers of CDs and appearing in almost every casual conversation about Latin Jazz. He works the live performance circuit extensively, appearing at every major jazz festival and headlining major jazz clubs across the nation. Here on the West Coast where Sanchez makes his home, he performs quite frequently. I’ve always had a strong respect for Sanchez’s band – they produce some of the most professional Latin Jazz recordings and always give a great show. At the same time, constant praise for Sanchez sometimes just seems too easy, like a nod towards the greater public opinion. His move towards rhythm and blues also seemed like a play towards greater accessibility, a bit of move towards larger record sales. Although I could never put my finger on it exactly, I lost some of my early enthusiasm for Sanchez. 
Great Latin Jazz recordings are a special occasional, outstanding albums are even more rare, and albums that completely turn the style on it’s ear just don’t come along that often. Tradition implies a certain amount of linear concepts between artists and most people learn by imitation. Despite the best attempts of an artist to establish their own style, most performers integrate a good deal of musical ideas that we’ve heard before. Musical evolution occurs slowly; when an artist changes one element of their music, all the other things stay the same. It may take years to notice an identifiable change in the aesthetic approach to the music. Occasionally an artist appears with such a drastically different approach to the music that things seem different right away. The evolution process accelerates into a race for that artist and their music stands out from the crowd. This type of change generally doesn’t happen through alterations of the traditional genre, its due to the artist themselves – their personality, instrumental approach, and compositional style just start a new direction.
Over the past few years, our access to Latin Jazz has multiplied ten fold as we can now hear, see, and connect with artists from around the world with the simple click of a mouse. Our communities have expanded drastically, as we build relationships with artists that carry huge reputations in Latin Jazz history or we simply befriend young Latin Jazz artists that catch our attention. For some people, the role of their local music scene has become secondary to the greater music community that they can find online. Ten years ago, any city’s experienced musicians served as the core of the scene, and younger people sought their advice and guidance – they also attended their performances religiously. In this generation, young people can still obsess over more experienced musicians, but they can spend countless hours watching a musician from across the nation on YouTube instead of attending a local performance. With the declining interest in jazz among youth, it’s possible that only a small portion of any city’s young people are aware of their area’s mentors – and probably only a smaller number actually connect with them. 
May 1st, 1979 Paulinho Garcia arrived in Chicago, Illinois, USA. That was the beginning of a new life and a re-start of his musical career. With him were his wife Maria Angelina Seta Garcia (Teka) and his 5 years old son Paulo Garcia Junior. Teka passed way in December 1996 but her children Paulo Garcia Junior and Paula Setta Garcia and 3 grandchildren Elias, Eliana and Eliza Garcia survive her. Paulinho was born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, on August 16th, 1948 from father Heitor Gianizelli Garcia and mother Isabel da Silva Garcia. His first contact with music came very early in life, around 9 years old, when he started singing in a Sunday’s children program at Radio Inconfidencia in his hometown. In his teens he played first the drums and then moved to the bass, which became his main instrument until 1991 when he then switch to the guitar. Paulinho was well known in his hometown as a jingle composer, arranger and performer. He led the band “Os Agitadores” for many years, one of the top bands in the TV program “Brasa 4” and played bass for the Celio Balona group, a wedding band and the house band at Emissoras Associadas TV Itacolomi-Radio Guarani. Before coming to the USA Paulinho under graduated in Physics and was pursuing electrical engineering at the Universidade Federal de Belo Horizonte. Being a self taught musician Paulinho started his bassist career when an amateur band needed a bass player at the last minute and Paulinho took the instrument. About two years later, already a well-known bass player and the house musician for the television network Paulinho was asked by a famous bassist touring his town if he could borrow his instrument, it was then that Paulinho found out that all that time he was playing with his own tuning since he used the bass as it was, out-tuned, when he first started. It didn’t take long to re-learn the right way though. Paulinho was 16 when his father got him a used guitar in a trade. Not knowing anything about the instrument he tried very hard to play his first chords by watching other guitar players but little he knew that the difficulty in getting a clear sound was due a bent neck which made the action of the strings too high. Besides the problem he learned many songs on that guitar and on 1973 his wife present him with a Di Giorgio guitar and from then on playing was comparably a breezy. 
In 1978 some of his friends musicians moved to Chicago and the opportunity to come to the USA came through his long time friend and drummer Dedé Sampaio who was at the time playing for Breno Sauer Brazilian Sounds. In need of a bass player Breno arranged a working visa for Paulinho and the band Made in Brazil was formed. Paulinho played with Made in Brazil until 1991 when he started his own band Jazzmineiro whose eponymous 1996 CD received excellent reviews in the Chicago Tribune, Jazziz magazine, the Brazilian Music Review, and The Brazilians. (…Paulinho ought to be considered a Chicago treasure… Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune) Also in the mid 90’s Paulinho for 5 years lead a 20-piece carnaval band for the Brazilian cultural center of Chicago for their annual carnaval party, one of the largest and best organized in the USA. Paulinho performs and records as a solo musician, with his group Jazzmineiro and three well-know duos: Two for Brazil with Greg Fishman, Dois no Choro with Julie Koidin and Paulinho Garcia-Grazyna Auguscik duo. He is a world-touring musician performing in renowned theaters, jazz festivals and clubs in Asia, Europe and America. With Greg Fishman Paulinho was the winner of the 2001 best jazz entertainer ward given by the Chicago music awards. His 50 years of Bossa Nova concert at the Chicago Millennium Park on July 24th 2008 alongside João Donato was seen by a record audience of 12000 people and in December of the same year he shared the famous Esplanade Hall stage in Singapore with Jeremy Monteiro and Toots Tielemans for a sold out audience of 1600 people. He has been regularly performing in Poland with Grazyna Auguscik and in many prestigious jazz festivals such as the North Sea jazz festival in Holland, Elite and Fujitsu jazz festivals in Japan, Singapore jazz festival, Jazz w museum and Jazz nad Odrq in Poland, Central Pennsylvania friends of jazz, North Beach and Sarasota jazz fest in the USA just to mention a few. He has also performed many times at the jazz cruise and jazz party at sea. Paulinho is also a clinician and has given workshops and concerts at many prestigious universities such as Northwestern, Wisconsin at Milwaukee, Cornell, Hope College, etc. and in June-July of 2009 he’ll be teaching at the Moscow College of Improvised Music. Paulinho presently teaches Brazilian guitar and vocals at Old Town School of folk music and coaches a Brazilian combo at Roosevelt University.
Musicians enter your life in various ways, and the influence that they exert ranges from passing fad to lifelong presence. Every musician’s childhood touches music in some way – their parents or greater community brings music into their lives and it sticks. When a certain artist represents a community’s musical preferences, that artist becomes an influential icon that shapes the artistic landscape. At other times, musicians simply discover influences through the recommendation of a friend. Sometimes these suggestions stick and at other times they don’t, but coming from a trusted source, they instantly gain merit. Some artists enter our lives as part of a musical growth spurt, as we dig deeply into their musical approach to better ourselves. They might provide educational materials, or we might simply learn all their music by ear, but the connection drives us closer to that musician. A chance encounter with a musician might happen through a process of self-discovery, as we look for new frontiers. These unexpected inspirations usually act as pleasant surprises, and we often hold onto the memory for a long time. There’s a multitude of ways that we might encounter a musician, but once they’ve made an impact, we are undeniably tied to their influence.
from Ameen and bass player Lincoln Goines. I worked through all the bass tumbao exercises and then jumped into the play-alongs. I spent hours learning some great Latin Jazz charts like “Mambo For Tajrid” and “Blue Cha-Cha” and along the way I learned how to groove in Afro-Cuban styles by playing along with Ameen’s solid drumming. Later a friend brought some Ruben Blades charts into a rehearsal, leading me to buy several of his recordings. Once again, I found Ameen sitting behind the drum kit in Seis Del Solar, the band that fueled Blades’ sound for years. I found Ameen in several more places through the years, including stints with Dave Valentin. In the past several years, I’ve marveled at Ameen’s drumming as part of trombonist Conrad Herwig’s Latin Side band – all their albums are spectacular, but Ameen sound particularly good on 
. Ameen joined with another iconic drummer, Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez to produce several funky clave driven albums that turned the percussion world on its ear. Ameen recently released 
Latin Jazz artists that spend a lifetime in the music world need to diversify their repertoire over time. In the early days of their musical journey, they spend their time solidifying the details of a specific musical genre; their output benefits from a single focus. They build their reputation upon this musical specialty and they become closely identified with it. As they follow this path into the long term, they run the risk of becoming stagnant and falling into redundant musical patterns. They need to experiment with new musical ideas, perform with different musicians, and stretch the limits of their musicality. These new challenges keep the musicians fresh, force them to maintain an active engagement in the music, and regularly peek their listeners’ interest. At the same time, they need to stay connected to their roots and constantly examine the relationship between their new ideas and their original focus. Over time, the musician evolves into a new artistic personality with a distinct approach to the music that includes all the elements of their musical explorations. 
, Sanchez introduced a new line-up of musicians and steered his Latin Jazz approach in a distinctly new direction. Over the course of the next few albums, Sanchez integrated soul and rhythm and blues into Latin rhythms, creating a funky mixture that hit a chord with a popular audience. The band’s success grew tremendously, making them worldwide ambassadors to the Latin Jazz world. With the arrival of 
Finally, I said, that’s it. What are we going to do? After about four or five years of that going around and around and around, some guys were doing the gig but complaining. So I said, “Hey, it’s all good. We’ve been together a long time, and maybe it is time to make some changes.” It was tough, because everybody was family. I still love the guys today that left, but we decided to make some changes. They went on their way and I said, “You know what I’m going to do? I’d going to get some young guys in the band. Younger than me, because all the other guys were about my age – get some young blood in here.” So I got some young cats – George Ortiz on timbales . . . we made some changes here and there. That was cool, we started doing some different things like that and changing things around with some young blood in the band. It was a little tough to take off with at first because the young guys were really nervous and they were just excited to be in my band. They grew up watching the other guys in my band. Everybody respected each other, which was very cool actually. A couple of months later though, they caught on and we were flying, we were doing it. 
We started doing those records like that; we did another record with a James Brown theme and then we invited Ray Charles to play on it, and Billy Preston – people like that. I sang with Sam Moore from Sam and Dave . . . it was all these guys I grew up listening to when I was in high school! For me, it was like a dream come true to have these great cats playing with us. Then I used the whole Tower of Power band on another record and Hugh Masekela from South Africa (on the album 
, recorded live at the Montreux Jazz Festival 2005 – it was a CD and a DVD. So, you know, we had all these new guys in the band . . . how do you say it? The thing keeps going, the story keeps growing. Now I’m bringing in new younger family members, it helps them grow. 
And then we recorded the song “Con Sabor Latino” – that song comes from an album by Rene Touzet and His Orchestra. Rene Touzet was a piano player from Cuba who moved to Los Angeles in the fifties. He recorded an album in the early sixties called 
PS: Thank you very much for that. Really, I try to be as humble as possible, because being a big shot really gets you nowhere. I’m not about that. I don’t like people that act like that either, because, we’re all the same. We’ll all just folks – that’s the way that I see it, we’re all just people. I’ve been blessed. I’ve been lucky . . . everything’s worked for me – luck, hard work, studying, you know, I’ve done it all. So at the end, I guess I’ve been pretty lucky, because I’m still here and I’m doing it. 
The road to a successful music career includes an unexpected number of twists and turns. Some musicians face artistic hurdles, trying to find their voice in a world that values different musical aesthetics. Other artists encounter a struggle to find an audience, playing a style that steps outside the realm of popular culture. Still more musicians experience financial hardships, finding it difficult to support themselves through their performance career. Some artists persevere, paying their dues over the course of years until they reach their goals. The pressure of the ever changing road overwhelms other musicians, forcing them to alter the plans or leave music altogether. Everyone follows their own path, but without a doubt, they all encounter their share of challenges. 
PONCHO SANCHEZ: Cal was gone and I had no work; I was just putting odds and ends together. I was trying to find jobs playing, but it was hard to find gigs. So I decided to go back to work during the week and play on the weekends, just like I used to before I played with Cal. I went back to the old foundry – that dirty, hot job – because that was the only thing that I knew how to do. When I went back, the same boss was still there – this was like eight years later. He gave me a big hug when he saw me and he said, “Poncho! How are you doing? I heard about Cal Tjader, but, you’re going to do good by yourself.” And I said, “No, that’s the problem. That’s why I’m here, I’m asking for my old job back.” The guy said, “No, you can’t be talking the truth.” I said, “Monguito’s getting big, I can’t pay my rent – I need a job.” I had worked there for five years, and they knew me very well. He said, “Come here, Poncho, let me show you something.” So I went down the hall with this guy and he took me to the lunch room. Up on one whole wall of that lunch room, there was every newspaper write-up and magazine article that I had ever been in since I joined Cal Tjader’s band. He said, “Look at this wall here. That’s you. You’re our hero. All these guys that worked with you, you’re their hero.” I had never dreamed that they would even think of me like that. The boss said, “Poncho, that’s what I’m telling you – you can’t come back here. We’re nobody, you’re world famous now.” I said, “I’m sorry Joe, I need the job.” “If you really want the job, you’ve got it. Go get your boots today and you can start working tomorrow” 
So I went back to work at the foundry for about nine months. After that, the company folded and they laid everyone off. Then I started driving a liquor truck; I had a friend that drove a liquor truck and he got me a job as a part-time driver. I’d work three days out of the week and play two days with The Poncho Sanchez Band. Even when I had four albums out, I was driving that liquor truck. I went to Concord Records and I recorded 
PS: I don’t remember exactly, but I had about four or five albums out by the time that I cut loose any type of day gig. I have twenty-four CDs out now, and it took about four or five CDs before I could cut everything loose and just play music. So, I paid my dues. I worked during the week and played music on the weekend. Everyone thought that I was a big star and yet I was driving a liquor truck during the daytime. I was taught as a young boy that you do whatever your family needs. My family needed to eat and I needed to pay my rent so that’s what I did. I went out and found work. 
PS: By then I had been in the business for long enough where I had met all these people and they were pretty good friends of mine. Every time that I would see Tito Puente, we would hang out and talk. Of course, he knew that I had played with Cal Tjader and he loved Cal Tjader. They were very good friends. Cal introduced me to a lot of people – Dizzy Gillespie and people like that. 
I would have a meeting with Concord every time that we were going to make an album to see what we wanted to do with that record. Concord said, “Well, Poncho, you should use a guest.” So I said, “What if we get Tito Puente to be our guest?” They said, “Call him, see if he’ll do it. We’ll pay him for it.” So I called Tito and he said, “Yea, Poncho, I’ll do one or two songs.” Then I had Concord call him and they worked out the negotiations money-wise. Tito was very generous; he just wanted to be on the record with us and help us out. That was very cool. 
, it was just live, my band only. That made me feel very proud, because I didn’t even have guest on that record and that’s the one that won the Grammy. I felt very proud of that because it was just my band. 
LJC: You’ve always had a great band, and you’ve done such great things with them. But there were two albums in the mid-nineties that seemed to me like real milestones for the group. The first one was 
As a matter of fact I had his actual mallets, the Cal Tjader mallets that I took from Cal on one of our road trips. There used to be a company called Good Vibes – they made mallets and they made the Cal Tjader model. The tips are blue; he had red ones that were a little harder and orange ones that were a little softer, all to get a different tone on the vibes. Well, I got the blue ones because he used those almost all the time. They were medium-hard mallets. I got them from him and I had them all those years. When we started rehearsing with Ruben Estrada for the record, I took the mallets with me one day and I showed them to him. He went “Holy . . . these are Cal Tjader’s mallets!” They had his name right on there. He went “Poncho, I know what these are, these are the Cal Tjader model. They don’t make these anymore.” I said, “Well, do you want to use them?” He used them for every rehearsal and he used those mallets on the record. Then after the recording was over, we were all celebrating, because we knew it was a good record and we were all very happy with it. He came back and he handed me the mallets like he was carrying a baby – two hands, open palms, with the mallet sticks in his hands. “Poncho, here’s Cal Tjader’s mallets back. Those are precious” I got them and I took them to a framing place. Now they’re inside a frame so that no one can touch them anymore. I’ve got them in a frame with an old plaque – an award that Cal Tjader got as Vibes – New Star, Jazz Master from Downbeat in 1955. It’s an plaque that Cal had, and I put one of his old CD covers in there; it’s like a box frame with the two mallets.
LJC: The other album that really struck me is 
I remember at the old Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach when I was just a kid, even before I played with Cal Tjader. He was at the bar, so I went up to him and I told him, “Mongo, I play congas a little bit.” I told him about a song he played on a record and I said, “Is this the way you play the pattern?” I started playing it with my hands on the top of the bar. He looked at me and he said, “Mas o menos,” which means more or less. I waited for instruction after that, like more or less, but you should do this, do that, or you’re doing this wrong. He just said “Mas or menos.” That was it, he didn’t talk anymore to me. I said, “Thank you maestro” and walked away! 
