As singer Claudia Acuña launched into her first song at her concert at Festival Miami at the University of Miami, in Coral Gables, FL, a few weeks ago, her group´s swing, her own ease at coiling and releasing the melody, even her body language, all said jazz. But the words were in Spanish, and the …
How about The Great Latin American Songbook? (JazzTimes column) Read More »
“Jazz is not a what, it is a how,” said pianist Bill Evans. It is a deceptively simple statement with profound implications. Rather than defining jazz by a certain canon — demanding, for example, that it includes a direct connection to the blues, have swing or some other distinctive, essential element — Evans suggests jazz …
Paquito D’Rivera plays the music of Armando Manzanero Read More »
It’s an early summer Saturday afternoon in El Barrio, in New York and the guys have taken the chairs to the sidewalk, right on Second Avenue, right next to the Old Timers Lounge, and are just sitting around, hangin’ out, making plans for the big stickball tournament next week – and talking about Tito. They …
Tito Puente: The Complete RCA Recordings, Vol. 1 Read More »
In the music of Deep Rumba tradition is a point of reference, no less but no more. Back home in Havana or Matanzas, the rumba is a music of neighborhood and solar, daily life, romance, and African spirits made Cuban, family stories, and dares among friends. It can’t be played without heart — but it …
Singers Ana Moura, from Portugal, and Buika, from Spain, are two of the most distinctive voices in world pop. Each has taken an indigenous, popular genre—fado in the case of Moura, copla for Buika—mastered it, imprinted it with her own style, and used it as a point of departure for other explorations. Their searches have …
Old Sounds, New Voices: Ana Moura and Buika (Carnegie Hall) Read More »
The geographic distance between New Orleans and Havana can be measured in miles. Musically, talk of distances can be deceiving. Cuban pianist and composer Jesus “Chucho” Valdés (pictured) likes to illustrate the point with an elegant sleight of hand; he begins by playing Scott Joplin’s classic “The Entertainer” as a ragtime, and then subtly, imperceptibly …
Chucho Valdés, Pedrito Martínez & Wynton Marsalis (Jazz at Lincoln Center) Read More »
Haitian drummers in performance in Miami Music is not a universal language. It cannot be. We might be the same under the skin, but the fact is, we sound different — and we should. Music is about a specific experience of life. It expresses someone’s ideas of beauty and truth, shaped by history and geography, …
Drummin’ Sessions Highlight the Diversity of Miami (Miami Herald) Read More »
Andy González, for the past half-century, one of the premier bass players in Latin music, died in the Bronx, New York, Thursday. According to his sister, Eileen González-Altomari, quoted by The New York Times, the causes were pneumonia and complications of diabetes. He was 69. González had long made his mark as a key member …
Proclaiming the death of jazz every so often has been, well, a jazz tradition. It has been part of the ritual of renewal that is at the heart of the music. Now jazz seems to be in its best shape in decades and no one talks about death. Carnegie Hall has added a jazz season, …
Jazz Should Be Wary Of Moving Uptown (The Boston Globe) Read More »
The subway line that passes by where I’m staying in Madrid begins (or ends, it depends) at Paco de Lucía station. It’s a new extension and the place was going to be called something else. But then the extraordinary flamenco guitarist and composer died and when the station opened in March 2015, it carried his …