• Home
  • About
  • Contact

Jazz With an Accent

~ Global music in the 21st century

Jazz With an Accent

Monthly Archives: October 2018

Meet Me At The Border, Bring Your Horn

12 Friday Oct 2018

Posted by Fernando González in Home, In Other Words, Jazz, Latin Jazz, On Music

≈ Leave a comment

Banda
Arturo  O’Farrill and the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra with guests recording at the Casa de la Cultura at Playas de Tijuana, Mexico, in May 2018. Courtesy Arturo O’Farrill.

There is a rich tradition of political and social activism in jazz, and in recent months it has taken on a distinct accent. Confronted by an administration that has attempted to sabotage the recently restored relations with Cuba; implemented brutal border enforcement tactics, and offered a callous response to the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, several Latin artists have taken it upon themselves to push back, speaking out from the stage, but also through their recorded work.
None perhaps has been longer at it or has been more outspoken and ambitious in his proposals than pianist, composer, bandleader, and educator Arturo O’Farrill.

Recorded in Tijuana, San Diego, and New York City, O’Farrill’s latest work, the two-CD set Fandango at the Wall (Resilience Music) brings together musicians representing several countries and music traditions and is a moving and powerful statement on border walls — both the physical as well as the ideological.

“The irony of the situation is that the wall actually brought us together,” says O’Farrill who was actually born in Mexico of a Mexican mother, Guadalupe Valero, and a Cuban father, the Cuban arranger, composer, and bandleader Chico O’Farrill. He was five when the family relocated to New York City, where he has been living since. “So in point of fact, through his hatred and stupidity, this president is uniting the very people that he wants to divide.”
Continue reading →

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Miguel Zenón, Puerto Rico, And What Might Be Beyond The Next Corner.

02 Tuesday Oct 2018

Posted by Fernando González in Home, In Other Words, Jazz, Latin Jazz, On Music

≈ Leave a comment


Saxophonist and composer Miguel Zenón. Photo by Jimmy Katz.

On Yo Soy La Tradición (I Am The Tradition), his first full album featuring a string quartet, Puerto Rican saxophonist and composer Miguel Zenón re-imagines Puerto Rican musical and cultural traditions utilizing the tools of European classical music and jazz.
It´s an intriguing proposition — just don´t expect musical postcards from home.
Zenón is a creator and an explorer, not a nostálgico. He brings to his searches an intense, serious-minded curiosity that tends to give his work a sharp, probing edge.
It´s demanding music, deliberately constructed and surprisingly emotional, but the rewards are worth the effort.

Continue reading →

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Trumpeter And Conga Player Jerry González, A Jazz Innovator, Has Died

01 Monday Oct 2018

Posted by Fernando González in Home, Jazz, Latin Jazz, On Music

≈ Leave a comment

Jerry González & The Fort Apache Band at Getxo Jazz in 2010. 

Trumpeter, conguero, and bandleader Jerry González died Monday morning of cardiac arrest produced by smoke inhalation suffered in a fire at his home in Madrid, Spain, the previous night, reported the Spanish newspaper El Pais. He was 69.
Of Puerto Rican descent but born in Manhattan and raised in the Bronx, González had moved to Spain in 2000.
He was an extraordinary musician who crossed with ease and inimitable flair between tradition and experimentation; jazz, salsa, flamenco, and back — and left his mark every time, in every style.
His enormous musical legacy includes his work with the Grupo Folklórico y Experimental Nuevayorkino in the 1970s (a one-of-a-kind ensemble that produced the exceptional albums Concepts in Unity and Lo Dice Todo); his brilliant debut as a solo artist, Yo Ya Me Curé (1980); the Fort Apache Band, a high watermark in Latin Jazz (find Rumba Para Monk, The River Is Deep, or Obatalá); and his explorations in flamenco with singer Diego El Cigala, and guitarist Niño Josele (Jerry González y Los Piratas del Flamenco)
He had celebrated his 50 years in music with a series of concerts in Madrid in 2016.

Spanish film director Fernando Trueba, who featured González in Calle 54, his love letter to Latin Jazz, once called him “the last pirate of the Caribbean.”
He was a musical adventurer and innovator, but throughout his many explorations, a basic idea served him as North: know the tradition.

“I don’t care what you want to do,” he told me in an interview for The Boston Globe in 1991, “if you want to preserve and build on the classic styles, first you have to learn them well.”

 

 

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Search

Categories

  • Home
  • In Other Words
  • On Music
    • Jazz
    • Latin Jazz

Recent Posts

  • The Palladium Ballroom Alive Again in Miami Beach
  • Astor Piazzolla and a GRAMMY Nomination
  • Gustavo Matamoros and the mysteries (and possibilities) of sound
My Tweets

Archives

  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • September 2022
  • June 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • October 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • October 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • January 2015
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • December 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • May 2011
  • December 2009
  • September 2009
  • December 2007
  • January 2001
  • September 1995
  • December 1994
  • November 1987

Archives

  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • September 2022
  • June 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • October 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • October 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • January 2015
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • December 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • May 2011
  • December 2009
  • September 2009
  • December 2007
  • January 2001
  • September 1995
  • December 1994
  • November 1987
My Tweets

RECENT TWEETS

Error: Twitter did not respond. Please wait a few minutes and refresh this page.

Categories

  • Home
  • In Other Words
  • On Music
    • Jazz
    • Latin Jazz

Archives

CONTACT INFO

P.O. Box 402702 Miami Beach FL 33140 - 0702 USA fernando@fgonow.com

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Jazz With an Accent
    • Join 29 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Jazz With an Accent
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: