I don’t remember the first time I ever heard Celia Cruz, however my grandmother had a vinyl record of hers. I remember getting a CD in the early 1990s called “Boleros” and to this day it is one of my most loved and played CDs. Celia Cruz sang these songs that were soothing lullabies to my young troubled soul.
Boleros originated in Cuba and descended from the trova. It traveled to the rest of Latin America, where composers put their own style on this beloved musical form. The bolero transports me to another place and time and reminds me of an era I never knew, but that of my grandparents. This music also reminds me so much of my late father, who use to embarrass me as a teenager by singing boleros to me at the local Denny’s. How I wish I savored those moments so much more than I did. And asked him the names of all those amazing songs. (more…)
Hey y’all. Missed ya. I’m still here – listening and digging deep for the best in roots and roots-inspired music. I felt inspired tonight listening to the heart and soul of LA music on public radio. Yesterday a legend of Latin music passed away, Bebo Valdes, and over at KJazz (88.1), they were playing his incredible discography.
LA’s public radio scene is truly too diverse and voluminous to even begin to do it justice (not to mention the amazing radio stations around the country – KUT Austin, WWOZ New Orleans). Later in the evening, I heard ska and old school reggae over at KSPC (88.7) and then over at KCSN (88.5), they were playing some mean-ass classic rock, Derek and the Dominoes and the always welcome Jimi Hendrix. I would be remiss if I did not give a shout to two of my favorite DJ’s in LA including Miss DJ Moonbaby who will be guest DJing next Saturday night/morning (March 31st), Easter morning, at 4 a.m. for Morgan Rhodes’ The Listening Station on the always stellar KPFK (90.7). DJ Moonbaby will be playing some great soul music from 1980 on the show which features “progressive soul and alternative electronica.” I can listen to that for hours. I love me some down-tempo house or Portishead. Also back on KSCN, my friend Kat Griffin hosts Americana Matinee on Sunday mornings from 9-noon as well as an internet radio show on Wednesdays 5-7 pm called Madly Cocktail. Kat’s shows are truly balm for the soul, I promise you. So please head on down left of the dial or if you’re around the world, check out these folks on the radio working hard for your listening pleasure via the magic of the world wide web.
In the meantime, here is the Maestro, may he descanse en paz:
Since September is traditionally back-to-school month, I thought I’d do a short history lesson on some of the most influential roots piano players. Whether barrelhouse, boogie woogie, boogaloo, or rumba, hard pounding rhythmic piano playing has found its home in the brothels and the concert halls, with styles traveling that swath of land and sea from the Caribbean up through the blues highway to Chicago.
Let’s start our journey at the barrellhouse, defined as both a 1) disreputable old-time saloon or bawdyhouse and 2) an early style of jazz characterized by boisterous piano playing, free group improvisation, and an accented two-beat rhythm.
Champion Jack Dupree was the epitome of New Orleans boogie woogie and barrelhouse blues piano. His birthdate disputed, but the year was between 1908 and 1910. He lived a long life, passing in 1992.
James Edward “Jimmy” Yancey was born in Chicago in 1898 and was a famous pianist by 1915 influencing the boogie woogie style of Meade Lux Lewis and Albert Ammon, who were the predecessors of many blues pianists. Despite his musical prowess, he kept his job as a groundskeeper for the Chicago White Sox his entire life.
We all know that New Orleans has birthed some of the greatest jazz and blues piano players including Professor Longhair, Allen Toussaint, Fats Domino, Dr. John, Harry Connick, Jr. and Henry Butler. Less well known outside of the Crescent City is one who left all those guys in awe, James Booker, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest geniuses of New Orleans piano. Often people unfamiliar with his playing will mistake his sound as two simultaneous piano players:
Up to Chicago by way of Mississippi, Otis Spann was a blues piano player most notably with Muddy Waters, but an artist in his own right. Here he is with “Jangleboogie:”
Born in Havana, Cuba in 1913 and considered “one of the greatest pianists in the history of Cuban music, Pedro “Peruchin” Justiz made his name in Havana’s descarga (jam session) craze of the ’50s; along with Ruben Gonzalez, Lili Martinez, and Bebo Valdes, he was instrumental in shifting the piano into a much more rhythmic role in Afro-Cuban music (source)”. Here is “Peruchin”:
Puerto Rican pianist Noro Morales, born in 1912, was an innovator of combining rhythm and melody, rising to the top of the mambo and rumba word. He played with some of the mambo and salsa greats including Tito Rodríguez, José Luis Moneró, Chano Pozo, Willie Rosario and Tito Puente.
I couldn’t leave out Nuyorican Charlie Palmieri. Less well known than his brother Eddie Palmieri, Charlie gave us really solid boogaloo from the 60s to the 70s. He played with Mongo Santamaria among others. If you have the chance to pick up his album, Either You Have It Or You Don’t, do it!
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention country great Floyd Cramer, who did his own rolling country style piano playing, supporting everyone from Patsy Cline, Chet Atkins to Elvis Presley. Here he is with Chet Atkins:
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