Andrew Bird (left) and Richard Bona at the Ground Up Music Festival in Miami Beach, Friday. The set was promoted as the festival version of Bird’s “Live From the Great Room.” In case you wonder how loose things were, as they talked on stage to figure out what to play next, Bird said to Bona “I know little about you except that you’re a badass.” Mr. Bird, Mr. Bona; Mr. Bona, Mr. Bird. And yes, it worked out fine. 
Photo courtesy Luis Olazabal /The Rhythm Foundation ©.

The Ground Up Music Festival at the North Beach Bandshell in Miami Beach opened yesterday with a Chamber-of-Commerce-wish-list combination of strong performances,  good vibes, and 70-degree weather with a slight breeze from the ocean.
That’s one way to spend a Friday evening hanging out outdoors in February.

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Trombonist and composer William Cepeda (right) addressing the ensemble class of vibraphonist and composer Victor Mendoza (left), as drummer Patrick Cleland looks on, at Berklee College of Music’s Valencia Campus.

VALENCIA, Spain. Perhaps because we live in a world of increasingly shorter news cycles tailored to our increasingly shorter attention span, after a few days we move on from catastrophes such as Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico following the next bright shiny object. The people dealing with the aftermath of such disasters can’t.
Reality is funny that way.

Trombonist and composer William Cepeda, 53, one of the most influential Puerto Rican jazz musicians of his generation, is living off a suitcase these days. He spent last week in residence at the Valencia Campus of Berklee College of Music, lecturing, conducting workshops, and teaching private lessons.

Like so many others who have left the island, Cepeda, who lost his job of seven years at the University of Puerto Rico, is looking elsewhere for a fresh start. “I mean, I love Puerto Rico,” he told me in a conversation between classes. “But my partner, she’s unemployed too, and there’s no work, so we are looking for a place where we can settle for a while.”

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