Once a musician has shaped a strong artistic identity, they inevitably need to find a context that allows them to explore their voice. There are many ways that a musician might find an outlet for their original voice, but most times they find some type of leadership role. Sideman work can still be a possibility, but a musician with an evolved artistic identity often find a way to become a more active participant in the creative process. They might write original piece or collaborate with the bandleader on new compositions. Arranging assignments always find their way to these musicians, allowing them to become a defining factor in the group’s sound. As these musicians continue to grow, they eventually find a place in the front of a band, either as musical director or bandleader. The music director gig suits many defined creative individuals nicely – they get to focus upon music and the band’s performance without dealing with all the logistics of running a band. They still share the concept with the bandleader though – a reality that suits some individuals while bothering others. Fate usually drives the most clearly defined identities into the role of bandleaders though, where they finally put their true selves into the public. In most cases, these statements turn heads and push the music into new and important directions.

By the time that he entered the eighties, pianist Oscar Hernandez found himself with refined musical skills that caught the eye of many musicians. He had built upon an early passion for the piano in the Fania era salsa scene, working with Ismael Miranda and more. An association with Andy and Jerry Gonzalez exposed Hernandez to a wide spectrum of music, which he got to explore with Grupo Folklorico Y Experimental Nuevayorquino and Libre. Hernandez rose to the top of the Latin dance music scene through a gig with important bandleader Ray Barretto, contributing to classic albums like Rican/Struction. He joined forces with popular salsa singer Ruben Blades, forming the ultimate back-up band, Seis Del Solar. Blades was looking for a distinctly different approach to the music, and he looked to Hernandez and Seis Del Solar for that inspiration. The group developed a distinct identity alongside Blades, creating some of the most important salsa recordings of the era. With their defined sound, Seis Del Solar built a repertoire outside Blades’ realm, releasing two Latin Jazz albums. These recordings made significant musical progress, but didn’t provide enough work for the seven in demand musicians. Hernandez worked as a sideman until an offer to produce an album led to the creation of The Spanish Harlem Orchestra. The group brought together some of the best musicians on the New York scene to create a long lost salsa dura sound. Audiences quickly applauded The Spanish Harlem Orchestra, the group earned consistent Grammy nominations, and they became a headline event at venues around the world. Now an experienced leader, Hernandez sits at the head of Latin music world, contributing actively to dance music and jazz.

Hernandez’s work with Seis Del Solar and The Spanish Harlem Orchestra has provided the momentum for major musical movements in the Latin music world. The events leading up to these groups tell a story of modern Latin music. In part one of our interview with Oscar Hernandez, we discussed his early musical development, his association with the Gonzalez brothers, and his time with Ray Barretto. In the conclusion of our discussion, we look at Hernandez’s work with Seis Del Solar, his Latin Jazz explorations, and The Spanish Harlem Orchestra.

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LJC: You’ve mentioned listening to jazz and Barretto certainly has that jazz edge in his work. I’ve listened to some of those albums that you did around the time with Dave Valentin – were you doing much Latin Jazz at the time?

OH: Well, as part of the scene at the Rican Village, we would do Latin Jazz. There would be nights when we would be doing instrumental stuff and I got to solo on changes and songs. That was kind of new for me. Even with Libre, we recorded songs like “Tune Up” and “Donna Lee,” which were jazz standards. That exposed me to that whole form of music and what it was about. People like Cal Tjader we were very much part of some of the things that we were listening to or Mongo. Then I got the gig with Dave Valentin and that was a whole different thing altogether. That was another great experience for me because Dave was part of the whole GRP thing with Dave Grusin and Larry Rosen. That was a great opportunity for me. Dave started to work as a solo artist and we would be doing jazz clubs. So I had to switch my head to play like a jazz player. It was all part of me developing as a pianist and musician. I would do stuff like that occasionally. Working with Dave – that kind of cemented his sound. It wasn’t Latin anymore. It had elements of Latin, but it really wasn’t Latin per say.

LJC: How did that all transition into the gig with Ruben Blades?

OH: I had become friendly with Ruben when he first came here. I think that we crossed paths, did a couple of things together, and hung out. Then, lo and behold, I saw him at The Village Gate one day and he said, “I want to talk to you.” By that time, he was very popular through his whole thing with Willie Colon – they were huge. He said, “Look, I’m making my own band, would you be interested in being part of it?” I said, “Yea, of course.” That was the start of that. We talked, and we assembled the band as it was going to be – Sies Del Solar. That was now the start of something new and beautiful; a great association that I’m really proud of. That music went on to influence a lot of people.

LJC: One of the things that I thought was very interesting was that it never seemed like it was Ruben with a backup band. It seemed like Seis Del Solar had a real identity and was as much a part of that music as Ruben was.

OH: You’re definitely right, it developed that way. He was the spearhead of that for sure, but the band developed it’s own sound. It was all based around Ruben’s compositions though. He would sing the songs into a tape and then we would take it and arrange it. He always had kind of cool ideas, and as an arranger, sometimes you use what the composer is giving you – that’s your obligation if it’s good, to really use it. We developed our sound. At that time, it was myself and Mike Viñas doing all that arrangements for the band – and Richie Marrero also. So it was all within the group. We developed a sound and it was different. Part of Ruben’s concept was he didn’t want to sound like Willie Colon; he didn’t want to seem like he was stepping on Willie’s stuff. That’s the reason that he didn’t use trombones. I think that he was always a Joe Cuba fan – he loved Cheo Feliciano. Joe Cuba’s group was a sextet, so he decided to go with that sound. Not many people were using it I think. For us, we were now discovering the keyboards of the day, which was very much part of what was changing music. So we integrated that into the band. Synthesizers became kind of popular. All that kind of melded into the sound of what we created in those days.

LJC: It is such a modern approach that links to the eighties with the whole synthesizer sound. You guys recorded quite a few albums together and played together quite a bit – what were some of the high points of that band?

OH: It started from nothing and we didn’t know where it was going to go and then it started developing – we started working and traveling. We developed a great camaraderie; I think that the individual players were all great people. We used to have a great time. It was a fun band; we always used to have a great time on the road and then on top of that, we used to get up on stage and kick ass. It was fun for us. It started becoming popular and more popular. We were traveling, but in the middle of all that – especially later on – Ruben was always taking time off to do a movie or go to school, because he went to Harvard – so we had a lot of time off. So I’d always be doing other stuff myself whenever I could. It was another great experience, and another great way of discovering ourselves musically – finding out what we’re all about in terms of creating music.

LJC: The last album was Amor y Control in 1992; why did Ruben stop working with the group?

OH: I don’t know, I never really asked him. I think maybe he felt the pressure of the group on a financial level. I think that maybe he wanted to go a different route – he just wanted to try something different. He had done this already for X amount of years, so he tried to go in a different direction for a while. I think part of it was that he got to hear this group in Costa Rica – Eidtus – and he really loved their concept and he kind of formed an association with them. Then he said, “Well, I can use this as my next musical adventure.” I would say that was it. I don’t know if that’s the reason, you’d have to ask him, I never really asked. But it was cool for us, it was great, because we left after thirteen years – it was time to move on for everybody, including me. I’m glad that he made the decision to move on; I got to do other things. At that time, I was starting to work with The Capeman; I was very much involved with Paul Simon. So I was always working, thank god.

LJC: Right around that time too, Seis Del Solar did the first Latin Jazz album, Decision . . .

OH: Right, we asked Ruben about it and said, “We want to do this.” And he said, “Yea, absolutely.” In fact, he encouraged us; he lent us the money to record. Once we recorded and got a record deal, we gave him the money back; he was very generous that way. It led to the first record. Both of those records, they were not successful. One thing that I can say about them – I went back and listened to them, especially now that we’re doing these gigs – and thought, “Wow, that is great music.” But they weren’t successful either. So we did the first album, and then we decided that we wanted to not use the synthesizer because it really dates everything. We didn’t like the sound that it created, so we changed it to sax on the second album. We did some things back then, so it was great.

LJC: Was the band gigging much at the time on that material or was it more of a recording project?

OH: No, we did the recording and we did some gigs. It never took off for whatever reason. I think there were a lot of different reasons. I don’t think that we really had the experience in terms of doing the business part of it correctly. So, who knows? Then we all got involved in other things, so it became difficult to make it happen. It was a great group; we felt that the last version of the group we had was really good and we felt comfortable musically. We always felt like this was something we’d like to come back to maybe, revisit it, and maybe do another record – which we’re talking about now possibly. That’s the good thing about this gig at Yoshi’s – we’re revisiting all that great music and it still sounds fresh, it doesn’t sound dated.

LJC: After your time with Ruben, there were a few Latin Jazz albums that you did that I wanted to quickly get your thoughts on – the first is Daniel Ponce’s Chango Te Llama . . .

OH: They called me to produce that record – I think it was Island Records – and you know, in a sense, that might have well been my own record. I produced everything. Daniel really wasn’t a musician in that sense. He was a player, but he didn’t have the wherewithal to really produce things and put them together. So I did everything on that record. I put the concept together, got all the songs, I did all the arrangements. It’s another record that I’m proud of, because I think it’s really excellent music. I got to really now put my foot more into composing – three or four of the songs are my compositions. I’ve gotten a lot of great feedback from that album.

LJC: What about the two albums that you did with Carabali?

OH: Those are two albums that people always ask me about. It’s like inevitable, especially in South America and Europe. People always ask me about Carabali. Those are two records that again were unsuccessful because they weren’t on any kind of label. They were independently produced and released. They had a lot of good music on them; people loved them, for whatever that was worth.

LJC: The last one on the list is the Bronx Horns albums – how involved in those were you?

OH: Very much. Mitch Frohman is the leader, and we’ve been friends for a long time. We’ve performed a lot together. So I was very much involved in making that sound happen during the recordings. They were great records – you had great players, the concept was really good. Some of my arrangements were on there also. We were working. I still work with that band – when they come around, I’ll do it.

LJC: The next major thing for you was putting together The Spanish Harlem Orchestra. How did that group come together and how did you get started with that?

OH: It wasn’t my idea at all originally; it was the idea of a gentleman named Aaron Levinson. He was a music producer, and I think he was a DJ; I didn’t know him. He called me and said that he had a deal with Warner Brothers to produce a record and he wanted me to be involved. So I said, “Yea, O.K., great.” He had all these ideas of songs that he wanted to record, and I kind of honestly, didn’t like most of the songs that he wanted to record. So we went back and forth as far as material. To make a long story short, we discussed the concept, discussed the songs, and came to a resolution as far as the songs. I went out and put everything together. I did the arrangements, I chose the musicians, we went into the studio and recorded it. I think the project was dropped by Warner Brothers and it was put on the shelf for about a year and a half. He then sold it to a small label called Rope-A-Dope Records. They put it out, and boom, lo and behold, it hit.

I put the band together and it’s been the biggest blessing in my life. It’s given me the opportunity to lead my own band. Again, I feel divine intervention – people would ask me all the time, “Hey, when are you going to make your own band? When are you going to do your own record?” I don’t know, I wasn’t motivated that way. Finally, this was put in my path, and I think that it was really put in my path for a reason. I’m really clear on it now – this is what I’m supposed to be doing. I’m supposed to have my own band. It’s become really evident to me that it’s what I’m supposed to be doing. And I’m blessed to be able to produce music that comes from my heart with all the experience that I have. To encompass everything in my life and put it into this one project and then be successful at it, I really feel blessed.

We’ve had so much success with Spanish Harlem Orchestra, it’s been amazing. Three records and three Grammy nomination; we won a Grammy. Now we have a fourth record coming out!

LJC: One of the things that I love about Spanish Harlem Orchestra is that you go back to that classic New York hard core salsa sound that just isn’t on the scene today – what inspired you to choose that direction and why do you think people have responded so positively?

OH: Well, it really wasn’t a conscious decision, other than saying, we want to re-record these songs and make new arrangements of them. It wasn’t like we said that was our intention. I think the timing was perfect. When we came out with the sound, people had forgotten what that sounded like. For me, it was doing the music that I love to do. That’s all it came down to; I wasn’t thinking like that. In doing that, we put out this record and then subsequently the other records. I think they touched a nerve with a lot of people, because people forgot that this is the way the music sounded. This is the way it’s supposed to be made. Before that, records had become mass-produced, they were recorded with click tracks, and that was the music of the day for about fifteen years before we came out. I think that it turned heads. Although, it wasn’t mainstream commercial music, because we weren’t part of the people that were pumping money into being played on the radio. We developed a pretty big underground following of knowledgeable fans.

LJC: With Spanish Harlem being so popular now, do you think that it might influence some of the younger musicians and bring the New York sound back onto the scene?

OH: Well, I hope so, but these are such different times. It’s really hard. Apart from the fact that things have become financially difficult here, it’s really effecting everything, everywhere in the world. The scene in New York is nowhere; it doesn’t exist at all. It’s nowhere near what I grew up with. It is really different, there’s such a different dynamic happening . . . which is kind of sad in a way. But, it’s good music, and I hope that it’s here to stay. It’s going to keep influencing people, but it needs to become more mainstream. People need to educate and make people aware – we need to keep this alive. And it’s not happening right now. The dynamic was that when I grew up in the seventies, it was a time of cultural awakening for Latinos in New York, and music was very much a part of that. I don’t think that exists on this level today. There’s so many factors, so many variables that come into play – the internet and all. It’s ironic that things have slowed down to a crawl at a time when people are listening to music more than ever in the history of the world. I think that we’re saturated with so much music now; all kinds of stuff. To me, the music is one of the best musics in the world, and I’ll stand by that. I try to keep it alive on my end, do my little part. We have another great record coming out, so I really feel good in that sense.

LJC: When can we expect the new album?

OH: I’m negotiating a deal as we speak. It looks like things are progressing nicely. I wanted it out by May or June, but I don’t know if that’s going to happen. If it’s not June, then it will definitely be September.

LJC: Is it more of the great stuff that you guys have done in the past?

OH: Yes, it’s more of the same. When you hear it, it’s a different take on it, but it’s more of the same. It’s what I love. To me, the ultimate criteria is that if I’m at that studio, it’s because I love what I’m listening to. That’s my bottom line. You know, I’m not going to change; I’m doing music that I feel. People tell me, “You should do a reggaeton!” I say, “No, I don’t think so . . .” It’s not what I do. I don’t think in terms of making a commercial hit. I just do music that I love to do and let the chips fall where they may. So far it’s been pretty good, and I think it’s going to be the same with this one.

LJC: You’re back out with Ruben and Seis Del Solar – how did that come together?

OH: They wanted to celebrate twenty-five years and it’s a way of him coming back out. It’s been successful. We’ve done a lot of really good things, it’s been fun. It’s the same guys in the band, we all get along, and the music has been great. It’s been sounding great and the production end of it has been taken care of nicely, so it’s fun.

LJC: You’re doing the gig with just Seis Del Solar here at Yoshi’s – are you doing more of that or this a one-time shot?

OH: Well, the plan is to see how it goes, see how we feel. I’d like to think that we’re going to do more of it. My booking agent with Spanish Harlem keeps asking me, “Should I start booking?” And I told him, “Hold off for now.” It’s a good possibility, because the one thing about Spanish Harlem is that it becomes difficult to book thirteen people. That’s thirteen airline tickets, thirteen hotel rooms – it’s not that easy in today’s economy. Although we’ve been blessed; with Spanish Harlem, we’ve traveled everywhere – Europe, Hong Kong, Japan, Israel, Australia, Indonesia . . . it’s been amazing what we’ve done. Now things have slowed down and it’s really not easy in this economy. This might be an alternative to fill in those dates and also do some great music. It might be the time.

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Make sure that you check out the first part of our discussion with Oscar Hernandez. We take some time to look at his musical development, his association with the Gonzalez brothers, and his time with Ray Barretto. It’s a great look at Hernandez’s early career – check it out HERE.

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Check Out These Related Posts:
Album Of The Week: United We Swing, The Spanish Harlem Orchestra
Latin Jazz Conversations: Mitch Frohman (Part 1)
Latin Jazz Conversations: Jose Madera (Part 1)
Weekly Latin Jazz Video Fix: Robby Ameen

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