Honoring Paco De Lucía by keeping his sound alive

23 Monday Oct 2017

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

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From left to right, Israel Suárez “Piraña,” percussion; Alain Pérez, bass; Antonio Sánchez, guitar; Antonio Serrano, harmonica; David De Jacoba, cante, and Farru, dancer. Photo by Luis Malibran

There are few artists who have had the impact in their disciplines that guitarist Paco De Lucía had in flamenco. There is a before-and-after De Lucía in flamenco. He expanded the harmonic vocabulary and guitar techniques, incorporated instruments from outside the tradition, and had a curiosity that led him to collaborations with artists as disparate as jazz guitarist John McLaughlin and Brazilian pop star Djavan and also opened new vistas to flamenco artists.

He also worked with unorthodox (for flamenco) ensembles, most notably his revolutionary sextet, which included sax, electric bass, and cajón, in the 1980s and ‘90s and then later, for 10 years, until his passing in February 2014, his septet.

This remarkable group has been re-assembled by producer Javier Limón, a long-time friend, and collaborator of De Lucía, and will be performing a tribute at the Olympia Theater in downtown Miami this Sunday, presented by The Rhythm Foundation.

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Cuba, Haiti And A History In Music

20 Friday Oct 2017

Posted by in Home, Latin Jazz, On Music

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For more than 20 years, dear friend and former colleague from The Miami Herald, photographer Carl Juste has been working on Havana-Haiti, an extraordinary project exploring the connections between Cuban and Haitian history and culture.
He has assembled a terrific group of photographers and writers, each addressing a different issue –from labor and religion, to history and hope.
It will be a privilege to be part of the project and contribute an essay about the cross-pollination between the Cuban and Haitian musical traditions.
One of the artists we are focusing on to tell that part of the story is pianist and composer Omar Sosa, from Camagüey, Cuba. His work explores the culture of the African diaspora and the seemingly endless permutations and combinations of African-rooted musical traditions.
Sosa is currently crowdfunding a sextet project featuring saxophonist Jacques Schwarz-Bart and singers and players from both the Santeria and Vodou traditions.
The video is from his Transparent Water project with Seckou Keita.
(Sosa and Keita will be presenting Transparent Water in Miami in March.)

A Passion For the Piano, a Story of Perseverance and Chucho Valdés in a New Cuban Film

09 Friday Jun 2017

Posted by in Home, Latin Jazz, On Music

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Esteban (Reynaldo Guanche) conversing with his great love, the piano.

Artburst Miami, June, 2017

Esteban, the debut of Cuban director Jonal Cosculluela being premiered at The Miami Light Project tells the story of a 9 year old, living in Havana with his mother, who’s raising him as a single parent, and his perseverance following his dream of becoming a musician. The challenges seem overwhelming. Esteban and his mother struggle to make ends meet – his estranged father offers little, and unreliable, support; Esteban has to help out selling their home-made beauty products door to door; his school snack is a bun and a bottle of water with sugar. But the heart wants what the heart wants, and Esteban falls in love with the piano.
Convincing a cranky teacher to give him lessons, scamming enough money to pay for them, and getting his mother to go along are just bumps on the road. He has to learn to play the piano.

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