Latin Jazz Conversations: Andy Gonzalez (Part 2)
Some musical figures leave an important legacy that somehow gets buried in the midst of music history and they inevitably need another musician to champion their place in history. They spend years of their lives advancing the art form, often at the cost of their own personal well being, showing an undying love for musical exploration. Their peers often recognize the importance of their work, and in some cases, the greater scene comes to admire their ingenuity. Either during their life or after they pass, the musical community begins to understand the inner workings of their music, and the scene changes drastically as a result of their influence. In many cases, the musical community soaks up their ideas and their name becomes less connected with their innovations; by the time several generations have passed, the younger generation performs without a working knowledge of these influential musicians. Each generation contains a curious young musician that hunts down these names and faces though, keeping their spirit alive. These young musicians perform their music and become their most ardent fans, spreading the word about their music and lives. When these young artists have access to larger scale projects, they continue to highlight their heroes, educating the public about the importance of music history. It’s an integral connection that keeps the music alive, pushes young musicians forward with an educated perspective, and pays respect to the artists that laid the groundwork for a genre.
Andy Gonzalez has long served as a champion for classic Cuban music, and his most recent work with Grupo Folklorico brings the legacy of Arsenio Rodriguez to the forefront. Finding value in the roots of salsa, Gonzalez spent ample time early in his career listening to traditional Cuban music and learning about authentic performance approaches. This passion led Rodriguez to develop his distinct sound as a bass player and also inspired the formation of Grupo Folklorico Y Experimental Nuevayorquino. Paired with like-minded musicians such as his brother Jerry, pianist Oscar Hernandez, timbalero Manny Oquendo, percussionist Milton Cardona, and more, Gonzalez and Grupo Folklorico spread the value of Cuban roots and developed a uniquely New York approach to the music. Along the way, Gonzalez reached out to the greater community, sharing Cuban music through radio shows and live performance. Even as he moved onto other projects, Gonzalez held onto the importance of educating the public about Cuban music and that became a hallmark of his career. Decades later Gonzalez stands as an influential figure in the music, but his desire to share the music still fuels the modern scene. As he brings the now legendary Grupo Folklorico Y Experimental Nuevayorquino together again for an exciting reunion concert, the focus moves away from simple nostalgia and shines upon one of the most important figures in Cuban music – Arsenio Rodriguez. The blind musician wrote over 1000 pieces, changed the sound of son with the addition of strong brass to his ensemble, and brought the tres to a whole new level of virtuosity. Musicians have treasured his individual pieces for years, but now Gonzalez brings the whole spectrum of Rodriguez’s career into the limelight through Grupo Folklorico Y Experimental Nuevayorquino. Once again, Gonzalez helps connect the Latin music scene with its past, championing the work of Rodriguez, an important master.
As Grupo Folklorico Y Experimental Nuevayorquino prepares to pay tribute to Arsenio Rodriguez, it’s important to look back upon these two major forces in Latin music. In the first part of our interview with Andy Gonzalez, we discussed the formation of Grupo Folklorico and some of the band’s early history. In the second piece of our interview, we continue our look at the band’s history and dig into the important legacy of Arsenio Rodriguez.
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ANDY GONZALEZ: Rene Lopez wanted to do a charanga version of “Corta El Bonche,” which was a guaracha that was performed by Conjunto Cubavana, which at the time was a very hip band. In 1947, they recorded for RCA; that was the first band that Patato played in and that was the first band that Armando Peraza played in. They recorded a series of guaracha-rumbas that were super exciting to listen to. When we came up with the idea of doing “Corta El Bonche,” we said, “How can we do this different and still have that kind of vibe?” What the tune means is “It’s time to cut out the bunch.” In other words, the rumba was too strong and it’s time to make everybody go home. Nobody wanted to go home because the rumba was too strong and too hip. That was what the song was about. So we gave the song to Bobby Paunetto, who was another extraordinary, visionary, modern Latin Jazz musician, who was known for really, really modern arrangements and orchestrations. So he wrote a charanga arrangement for “Corta El Bonche.” Manny Oquendo takes a big timbale solo at the end and it really hits home with what the song was about. What we did with it was brought it up to the 1970s with modern harmonies and different ways of approaching the music. It was very danceable and it was a joy to do.
The rest of it – we mixed it up. It had bata drums, Julito Collazo sings on it. Then we did something with Virgilio Marti, who was a wonderful rumbero. What he used to like to do was take hit songs from other countries and adapt them to guaguanco – to rumba beats. So he did that with “Se Me Olivido Que Te Olvide.” It says, “I forgot to tell you that I forgot you.” That’s the title of tune in English translation. This tune was written by a lady in Mexico and it was recorded as a Mexican ranchera. So Virgilio adapted the tune for a guaguanco. But he didn’t want a regular guaguanco, he wanted something different – so he gave us the basic beat of what he wanted. He hit two drums and he would sing the song for us. And we said, “Well, we can build something out of that.” So what we kept those two drums, added a quinto, and had somebody playing sticks (claves). We also had a violin, acoustic bass, tres, and piano. We recorded the basic tracks on that. Then I added a marimba in a section of the tune – just a small part of it, with me playing marimbas on the coro. During the violin solo I’m playing and then when the montuno happens right after the song is sung, there’s a section for the coro and the montuno. Jerry overdubbed trap drums playing on the snare. Just playing the snare like a comparsa pattern. All that fits together so well and it’s so distinct, so different. It’s the true essence of what Grupo Folklorico Y Experimental was about. With just the basic beat and the style of the song that Virgilio sang us, we came up with a whole way of playing it that was so different than anybody ever heard. That record became kind of a hit in Venezuela, Columbia, and even Mexico. They loved that version.
LJC: It must have been incredible to play with people that really influenced the scene.
AG: Well, I’ve been blessed man. I’ve gotten the chance to perform with quite a few of the old timers. I played with Machito’s original band when Mario Bauza was there. I played with Tito Puente’s big band and his Latin Jazz ensemble. I played with Tito Rodriguez. Playing with Manny Oquendo for 35 years was a big help also because he’d tell me about all the experiences that he had in music. He was sort of a studio guy too, he got a chance to play with everybody. I got a chance to play with all the great singers of the past – I recorded with Graciela, Bobby Capo, Gilberto Montoya, and Santito Colon. These are all great singers. I’ve been so blessed in my life that I’ve had a chance to be a part of that. Who I didn’t get a play with, I studied it. So playing Arsenio’s music is such a pleasure, because it’s something that I never thought that I’d get a chance to do.
LJC: Had Arsenio passed by the time that you were on the scene?
AG: I met him once. When I first started playing with Ray Barretto’s band, we were playing live at the Corso, and Arsenio walked in with his brother, who led him around. It was an honor to meet him and shake his hand. I had already known about how great Arsenio was and I knew about his records already.
LJC: Was Arsenio appreciated on the scene for his contributions? Were people aware of him?
AG: Not for his contributions, because there was no internet or anything – the only knowledge that people got was from regular radio stations. I had something to do with getting some of the public stations aware of the past of Latin music. That wasn’t being well documented. That kind of information wasn’t out there – there were no books at the time. There was no way of really getting that information – we knew about all the contemporary things that were going on, but we didn’t know about the past that well. We heard about it, but didn’t know. And then finally we got in touch with record collectors and then we had friends that had radio shows. We would do whole shows playing that kind of music. It got to be such a big thing that the stations got super popular. Now that’s been a thing – on Sunday afternoon on the radio here, there’s always good music on the air . . . and good information. We started doing this about 1970.
LJC: What are some of the radio shows that you guys were involved with?
AG: There was Latin Roots with Felipe Luciano – we started that. Me and Rene Lopez used to go on that show. It started at midnight on Sunday night and it would go until six in the morning. Then they moved us to Sunday afternoon, and that became really big. Then Felipe left that and his wife took over – Nancy Rodriguez. She did it for a long while. Then Roger Dawson took over from there. There was always somebody doing the Sunday show. It always had Cuban music, past and present, music from other countries – Puerto Rico – a lot of culture. We disseminated a lot of culture at the time.
LJC: That ties right into what you did with Grupo Folklorico too.
AG: Yea, that was what was so interesting about the seventies. That was when we started doing all these things and reflecting all that knowledge that was being heard on the radio.
LJC: Do you think that Grupo Folklorico educated the scene?
AG: Oh yea, like I said, we were the alternative to the Fania machine. We were playing something so different from them; we were being very roots oriented. We were also being very progressive about the kind of style that we were playing and the kind of vibe that we gave out. It was very exciting. There are documents. One day you will see a documentary on Grupo Folklorico Y Experimental which has some of the performances that we did in Washington D.C. at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. We have some of that on black and white videotape with the original band members doing that original material. It was exciting when I saw that footage – I haven’t seen it in many years, but it does exist.
LJC: So a documentary about the group in the works?
AG: Yea, they’ve been working on this documentary already a few years. It’s going to be about Grupo Folklorico when we started it and then it’s going to come up to date. The documentarians are coming to film this concert. It’s really something to look forward to. This is really big. This is probably the most exciting thing that I’ve been involved with. I’ve always managed to be involved with exciting things – the whole thirty-six years with Manny Oquendo was always exciting. I’ve been blessed, I’ve had a chance to take in all this music.
LJC: Could you tell us what you think Arsenio’s major contribution was and why we look back and treasure what he did?
AG: What he did was almost single-handedly take what had happened in Cuban music before that – which was the sound of the son and the roots of black music from the Havana ghettos – and brought it up a couple of notches. He added a piano, two trumpets, and then three trumpets. He added a strong rhythm section. Then the styles of the tunes that he did – he was quite responsible for things that later on came to be known as mambo. What became pretty much modern dance music of the fifties and sixties, that all stems from him!
LJC: When did Arsenio came up to New York?
LJC: Did he just keep evolving?
AG: Well, one thing that I realized from listening to all of Arsenio’s career, is that Arsenio was a great listener of music. You could hear influences in his playing and direction of a band from all over. I could hear Django Reinhardt in him. I could also hear things that were quite original that nobody was touching.
LJC: What would be some things that he was doing differently?
AG: Rhythm things, how you approach rhythm. How you set up a rhythm section to sound this way for dancers. I use that same analyzation when I listen to James Brown records. You pull everything apart and listen to each section by itself; then you put them together to hear how deep that was. When I listen to James Brown, I take that rhythm section apart and then I put it back together again and I go, “Wow!” Something like “Cold Sweat,” I used to do it with that. He was an amazing genius in terms of putting things together and Arsenio was the same way!
LJC: When you guys play his music at the concert, are you taking pieces from all across his career?
AG: Yea, we’re playing stuff that I never thought that I’d ever play. Music that I loved and respected but never thought that I’d get the chance to play. And we’re playing it! We’re playing stuff from Arsenio’s early career, middle career, and late career. We’re covering all the bases.
LJC: Is it going to only be Arsenio that night?
AG: No other music, no other composers. All Arsenio. There is quite a bit of music in his career to be able to pick music for more than one concert. We could do three or four concerts with that music.
LJC: Do you feel like people are looking to Arsenio today?
AG: If they hear it . . . it’s like Field Of Dreams – if you build it they will come! If they hear it, they will be immediately converted into Arsenio fans.
LJC: Those old recordings really have so much life. They’re so different than a lot of the commercial salsa that is out there right now.
AG: The school of Arsenio Rodriguez is about swing. This is dance music, this is black ghetto Cuban dance music of the highest order. It hits you in the face and you can’t help but move to it. Arsenio recordings sound so good. If you put those early 78s on a good turntable and crank it up, Wow! The engineer really knew how to record that band. You can hear the bass like gangbusters. Then you hear everything else coming through that wall – what a sound!
LJC: Everything that I’ve heard of Arsenio is on CD at this point, that must be a totally different experience.
AG: Try to hear Arsenio from the late forties and very early fifties, before he moved to New York. Those are exceptional recordings. Everything about it is so upfront. The vocals, the rhythm section . . . everything. Especially the bass – that’s what I learned the most from Arsenio, how he would utilize the sound of the bass.
LJC: Weren’t his bass lines a little different? They weren’t straight-up tumbaos.
AG: They were part of his all-around structure. He played the tres, playing montunos and all that. He would not only play that, but he would come up with ideas for the bass line, like the kind of bass line that he wanted to hear. He had these genius players with him like Lili Martinez, a piano player – he was the one that used to write down his ideas for arrangements. It was such as perfect blend of things. I can’t say enough about him.
LJC: For those of us who didn’t get to check out Grupo Folklorico over the past couple of years, what’s the group like today?
AG: Well, according to the rehearsal that I had today at my house, with just the singers, the rhythm guitar, the tres, and the bass, Wow! I just looked Rene; we looked at each other and smiled. This is going to be something out of this world. It sounds so good already and we haven’t even put the rhythm section on it yet.
LJC: You mentioned that you might travel.
AG: We’re going to try to set up a tour of some sort or fly the band out for some special concerts. There’s interest, so as soon as the word spreads, you’ll probably see us out there.
LJC: What about a new recording – is that in the works?
AG: That’s in the works also. It depends on how well it comes out, but it might be the concert that we’re going to do. If it’s well recorded enough, and we could use it, then we’ll release it.
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DON’T MISS THE GRUPO FOLKLORICO Y EXPERIMENTAL NUEVAYORQUINO REUNION THIS WEEKEND!
The legendary Grupo Folklorico Y Experimental Nuevayorquino will be performing in a rare reunion this Saturday March 20th at The Hostos Center For The Arts. If you’re in the New York area, you don’t want to miss this – the group will be doing a tribute to the important Cuban tresero Arsenio Rodriguez. It should be a night of amazing music, so make a point of being there!
GRUPO FOLKLÓRICO Y EXPERIMENTAL NUEVAYORQUINO
WHEN: Saturday 3/20/10
WHERE: Hostos Center For The Arts
450 Grand Concourse
Bronx, NY
TIME: 7:30 p.m.
TICKETS: $25 – $35
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Make sure that you check out the Part 1 of our interview with Andy Gonzalez where we talk about the early years of Grupo Folklorico Y Experimental Nuevayorquino, from the first gigs to the legendary albums and memorable performances. You don’t want to miss this – check it out HERE.
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Check Out These Related Posts:
Latin Jazz Conversations: Mark Weinstein (Part 2)
5 Latin Jazz Bass Players That You Must Hear!
7 Unforgettable Latin Jazz Bass Solos
Revisiting Latin Jazz Classics: Concepts In Unity,Grupo Folklorico Y Experimental Nuevayorquino
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