Hmm...I;m not sure I would call things like danzon, guajira, salsa, and mambo "Latin Jazz". The danzon, salsa, and mambo are dances. The guajira is an early form of Cuban folks song with traditionally improvised verses (guajiro=redneck in Cuban slang). A descarga is a jam session with lots of improv, so that would very likely qualify as jazz. Salsa is not TRULY Cuban...it really came our of NYC and Puerto Rico, although a lot if Cuban musicians in exile were of course part of it (e.g., Celia Cruz). Other traditional formal Cuban music forma are the guaganco (not a dance, percussion heavy, and NOT jazz)and the cha cha cha (a dance). For me, true Cuban jazz is more recent - starting with a group called Irakere - whihc is where Paquito D'Rivera, Arturo Sandoval and of course Chucho Valdes came from. Other poprular Latin dance music types are the merengue (Domican Republic), the cumbia (Colombia), and the samba (Brazil). All cool in their own way..but not necessarily jazz. Other Cuban performers to explore in addition to Chucho/Bebo valdes are Albita (first two CD's after defecting to the US) and early Celia Cruz (the stuff in her twenties, before she left Cuba). Arturo Sandoval had a great CD featuring Tito Puente on tow tracks (I think its called Hothouse Flowers). For more traditional Cuban stuff, try Orquesta Aragon (the top Cuban "big band" for years). For salsa, Willy Chirino and Ruben Blades had some great stuff in the 70's/80's. The weirdest one would be a Japanese group called Orquesta de La Luz who play nothing but latin music (and sing in Spanish) - they are actually pretty decent. Gloria Estefan's Spanish CD's are pretty good too. And hey..if you want some Latin flavor in a contemporary group, I think Pink Martini is pretty brilliant - albeit they mix genres a lot (yes - I am Latin - Cuban, in fact..:-))
Who likes LATIN JAZZ?
NOT ME, at least not for a long time now (other than JOBIM- i am referring more to cuban, afro-cuban, etc. material) but rather suddenly (within the last month or so) i started to enjoy the upbeat nature of alot of the tunes as well as the sophisticated rhythms and the exceptionally talented players. plus it so happens that a bass player named CACHAO just passed away (last week), and there were numerous musical tributes on the radio (miami). the more tracks they played, the more i appreciated the musicianship of this extremely talented player, allegedly the composer of 3000 songs. in addition, Cal Cjader, Tito Puente, Paquito D'Rivera, even Mongo Santamaria, and many others got my anglo foot tapping. i don't dance particularly well, and am not going to take mambo lessions; but the music is interesting enough even when seated. the only thing that sometimes turns me off is if the percussion, particularly too many bongos doing a "how fast and loud can you play" segment, dominates a particular song. but it doesn't happen all that often (thank goodness!), and i can go back to listening to alot of other instruments interpreting the music such as fiddles, marimbas, bari saxes, etc. SO, who shares my new-found interests in this medium, and does anybody here have any recommendations if i wanted to put together a collection of cd's representing "the best of the best"? for starters, i would have to say
CACHAO'S master sessions #1 and #2 would definitely be on my list, along with Cjader... can anyone name some cd titles for me? thanks!
CACHAO'S master sessions #1 and #2 would definitely be on my list, along with Cjader... can anyone name some cd titles for me? thanks!
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- 27 posts total
- 27 posts total