DJ Yuca
Son Montuno
Feel free to finish that sentence.
Latin jazz - anyone!? please!
- Thread starter Pedro El Cubanito
- Start date
Feel free to finish that sentence.
I’m also curious of the end of this sentence.
the movie is sh*t IMO but it had a big impact in Latin Jazz. Jerry Gonzalez started to play with the Flamencos, Chano Domínguez with Marsalis’ big band, Bebo Valdés with el Piraña, Tomatito and Michel Camilo, all of this started there.
DJ Yuca
Son Montuno
Why? For all its defects, the majority of it is footage of amazing music.
Personally, I don’t like some parts of it. And it is just too superficial, some short blabla about who is going to play and then one tune. It’s not really a movie, and to be something like a catalogue of Latin jazz it’s just not complete enough. I also have some very little inside information about it that shows that some of the performances were miserably prepared. However, this “B-side” or bonus material is really worth it.
Richie Blondet
Son Montuno
On any typical evening in NYC circa the late 1980s, seven days a week, you could see artists like Mongo Santamaria (West End Cafe, Village Gate, Fat Tuesdays), Hilton Ruiz (Fat Tuesdays, Sweet Basil's, Demerara's), Fort Apache Band (Sweet Basil's), Dave Valentin (Iridium, Village Gate), Mario Rivera's "Salsa Refugees" (one of the hippest names ever. Evoking a desire to break away from the 1,4,5 montuno-minded music of Salsa and pursue a more expanded repertoire of music genres. Mario also branded and presented his rendition of Merengue fused with Jazz. He'd appear at the Gate, SOBs, Nuyorican Poet's Cafe and the New Rican Village when it was on 125th street, among other locales). In the 1990s (not too long after this documentary was released) the scene exploded. Seemed like nearly every sideman who was regularly accompanying a big name Salsero, launched their own projects, only they were Jazz-oriented. Which made the scene far more diverse. In the 1980s NYC was either Son/Salsa bands, Charangas, and Merengue outfits. The Latin jazzer was spread out but limited to specific clubs. At times the repertoire could become "repetitive." (God forgive me but listening to TP's band do "Castellanos" and Mongo play "Sofrito" for the umpteenth time wore me out and got me hooked onto other music. But in the 1990s the Latin Jazz community grew exponentially and it wasn't just 12-15 musicians making noise. Suddenly any instrument you could think of (a harp, an accordion, a Tres guitar, a tuba, a Colombian gaita, bata drums, percussionists playing these weird atypical set ups like having an Indian tabla with Afro Cuban drums, two bongos with pailas, and one cymbal, etc) Things got real funky and for the better IMHO. But by 2001 there was a decline as far as opportunities to record or perform. As many ensembles as there were they just didn't sell units in terms of CD sales. Mainstream Jazz venues like Birdland, Blue Note, etc, would only book the name artists (Puente, Palmieri, Mongo, O'Farrill Sr, D'Rivera, Sandoval, Poncho, Jerry & Andy, Hilton, Dave Valentin, etc.) That was the reason why I got myself involved into the live music event/promotion game in 2001. Musicians I knew who weren't gigging as much, or had been forgotten were getting opportunities. I got the Joe Cuba Sextet a gig at Gracie Mansion (courtesy of Willie Colon). A couple and more decent gigs for Vitin Aviles, who had been reduced to performing at a hole in the wall bar in the Bronx, across the street and in the shadows of the Wild Palm nightclub, using a tape recording as his musical accompaniment. Some dates for Patato at the Smoke's jazz club. A monthly residency for Nicky Marrero at the Village Underground. Pucho Brown and the Latin Soul Brothers. But I literally made zero profit from any of it. There just wasn't any money in it UNLESS you were shady and ripped the musicians off. To promote latin jazz and, to an extent "Salsa," you needed to have a bankroll or alternate sources of revenue, like many of the bigger name promoters had (wink-wink). In my case it was my 9 to 5 job.
There are musicians in the scene who will disagree. But for me, the live music scene ended as I knew it in the aftermath of 9/11. That event literally eliminated 4 venues I used to frequent regularly in the lower Manhattan area. A spot called Clasicos, one called Tony's of Worth, a really hip venue (with really hip programming) called the Knitting Factory, and on the 107th floor of World Trade Center tower 1, the Windows on the World restaurant-cabaret. Where bands like El Gran Combo, Tito Nieves, El Canario, La India, Ismael Miranda, Andy Montañez, Willie Rosario and others would perform at.
I read articles in Rolling Stone, or the New Yorker magazine stating how the live music scene in NYC was decimated in the aftermath of 9/11. But experienced an eventual recovery. What they are referring to is mainstream music like pop, rap, rock-alternative and a segment of the Jazz scene (the big names). But as far as "Latin Music" in NYC (Salsa, Latinjazz, Merengue and now even Bachata. BTW-By bachata I'm not referring to dance socials put on by the On2 crowd. I mean places to experience Anthony Santos, Aventura, etc. in a live setting), it never came back. The remnants of the scene continues to die a slow death with the passing of a big name artist, and none of the leftovers able to successfully fill the void, or excite a new generation. It has truly become a niche market that continuously gets smaller and smaller.
To sum up NYC today, with regards to "Latin Music," it's now for the tourists during the Summer. Winter, Spring and Fall have been reduced to concerts at a university auditorium, or a small ensemble playing in a bar. Or the annual Salsa Congress. Which will be hit or miss under the new management. The live music scene in the Salsa-only nightclub days in NY are OVER!《echo》
Richie Blondet
Son Montuno
Yes, thank you. Check now.
Richie Blondet
Son Montuno
I'm not referring to Calle 54, which I loved. What I was referring to was the 1991 documentary on Latin Jazz in New York. Which is just more of the same bait and switch these "gatekeepers" often engage in. Sell the product one way, but then make it about something else or on the fringes of the subject matter.
El sinsonte
Changui
Yes, of course! Rubén Rada is awesome. Other great musicians of contemporary Uruguayan music include Nico Ibarburu, Trío Ventana, and many more!
I understand that when we talk about Latin jazz, we refer to the fusion of jazz with Salsa, latin music. A more accurate reference would be Michel Camilo, Tito Puente, or Calle 54 sound. However, it's good to acknowledge that there are other ways to approach that sound!
Trío ventana makes awesome fusions of Brasil and Uruguay:
Oh, sorry! I misunderstood.
I don’t know the other movie.
I didn’t know trío ventana, will check them out, thanks!
PS. I don’t think exclusively of Cuban music when I think of Latin jazz. It’s what Richie commented, probably the term is complicated, everybody has his own associations.
Like jazz by the way. Some think of Bebop, some of New Orleans, others free Jazz (“I don’t like jazz, it just doesn’t have a melody blablabla”) etc
Can you name some that are not older than me?
Of course!!! Clare Fisher, another important name! More as arranger and composer IMO and not only latin jazz. I had the privilege of taking a workshop with him ages ago.
I'm looking for musicians in their 20s, not 50s. Many of these I've heard already.I don't recall your exact age, can you tell me?
PS Strange request...
Representative Latin jazz musicians in their 20s I really don’t know, sorry… No idea
I saw Alfredo Rodriguez and Richard Bona on my 44th birthday last year. Pedrito Martinez didn't come for some reason. Thing is, first I saw Richard Bona was about 25 years ago.
Ok. 44-25 plus last year, minus Pedrito Martínez + Latin Jazz = you’re in your doubled twenties.
Someone here you didn’t know?
www.grammy.com
10 Jazz Artists Blending And Expanding The Sounds Of Latin America: Miguel Zenón, Roxana Amed, Gonzalo Rubalcaba & Others | Grammy
“Latin jazz” is not — and will never be — a single, easily-defined entity. “I think it’s still constantly unfolding,” one visionary artist says. “I think we are still looking into the question of who…
www.grammy.com