Latin Jazz – ROOTNOTEMUSIC BLOG

Public radio inspiration and homage to Bebo Valdes

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:

03/23/2013

Bio Ritmo: psychedelic salsa dura

All the photos in this blog are by Chris Smith.

Richmond-based salsa band Bio Ritmo has been playing their progressive, original, 70s Puerto Rican-style salsa for over 20 years. The lineup has changed over the years, but one thing has remained the same – true, pushing-the-limits, road-warrior musicians. I first saw this band at an art show in Washington, DC and was instantly a fan.

Marlysse Simmons, the keyboard player and the only female in the band (what a trooper!), eventually became both a good friend and my piano teacher. She was amazing – teaching me theory, music history, son montuno, and bossa nova styles. Keep your eye on Marlysse, because you will be hearing about her. Marlysse has a side project – doing her Brazilian electronica stuff – another love of hers. For now, we’ll focus on the amazing salsa of Bio Ritmo and we’ll check out Marlysse’s alter ego in another post in the near future.

Bio Ritmo is getting some of the recognition they deserve after many years playing festivals and show after show. They consistently put out innovative, original, avant-guarde “indie” salsa. Recently they were featured on PRI’s The World and NPR and other blogs and magazines. Please listen and baile if you feel it and sent this off to your salsa-music-loving friends!

Here they are playing “La Verdad” which features that more edgy contemporary electronic sound.

They can also hang with the classic, straight-up salsa played by legends like La Sonora Ponceña. Here they are playing a festival in France with special guests doing their original song “Tu No Sabes”:

Here’s an interesting video from a song off their latest album. The song is “Majadero”:

You can listen to clips of their entire album of the same title and download the album on their website here.

04/15/2012

Mulatu Astatke & Ethio-jazz

Wow, hello there! Sheesh – been awhile! I’ve been a hiatus for the past few months, but hopefully I’m back for good. I’ve been recuperating from a surgery so spending a lot of time plugged into what is going on in the world (prayers to Japan and the Mid-East/North Africa most definitely) and also pop culture (American Idol – Casey Abrams please!). Couldn’t do much else than just sort of watch the world from a distance, but finally I’ve felt my energy levels return and I thought I’d get back to doing some blogging about music.

Let me get right to some great roots music from East Africa – Ethiopia to be exact. Mulatu Astatke is an Ethiopian jazz musician who studied all over the world including Berklee School of Music in Boston. He merged his love of jazz, especially Latin jazz, with his own cultural traditional sounds creating a distinct genre of music called “Ethio-jazz”. He released an album last year, “Mulatu Steps Ahead” his first solo project in decades with some top jazz musicians helping him out. Most of his music is instrumental, making it a favorite of 70s vinyl funk/jazz collectors and artists like Nas, Damian Marley, Cut Chemist and Knaan, who have sampled many of his songs in their own music. Here is a smattering of songs I found scouring youtube for your listening pleasure and to get a taste of his flavor.

Thanks for reading and I’m so grateful for each and every person who visits this blog. I’m shocked that after months not posting, my older posts continue to get a steady stream of music loving visitors every day! I hope to find my groove again in 2011. Peace, love and soul to you all!

Links and Resources:

Mulatu Astatke bio on wikipedia
Mulatu Astatke’s Myspace page
http://bigheadstevenson.blogspot.com/2009/05/mulatu-astatke-ethiopiques-vol-04-ethio.html
http://worldmusiccentral.org/2009/10/31/mulatu-astatke-the-remarkable-story-of-ethiopian-jazz/
http://ribaldschmaltz.blogspot.com/2007/01/ethiopian-jazz-catchup-playlist.html
http://newblackman.blogspot.com/
www.theroot.com/views/ethiopian-jazz-thrilling-music-you-should-hear

03/28/2011

Legends of the 88s: Cuba to Chicago, New Orleans to New York

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:

Resources & Links:
Ragtime
Jimmy Yancey
Champion Jack Dupree
Albert Ammons
Meade Lux Lewis
James Booker
Bayou Maharajah: The Life and Music of James Booker Trailer for documentary
New Orleans Pianists including Allen Toussaint, Dr. John, Fats Domino, Henry Butler, Harry Connick Jr. and others
Otis Spann
Pedro Peruchin Justiz
Perez Prado
Cuban Jazz
Noro Morales
Charlie Palmieri
Eddie Palmieri
Floyd Cramer

09/06/2010

Dizzy Gillespie, Bebop, & Latin Jazz

I was watching this amazing video below (the “United Nations Orchestra”) of master jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and a friend commented that because he lived until the age of 75, he didn’t get the same iconic status as Charlie Parker. We couldn’t see him as the true jazz prophet he actually was, because we saw him grow into an old man who wore bad suits! That made me laugh and also ponder this particular jazz icon.

I have to agree there is something about musicians who died tragically young that leave a mythic quality to their legacy. Dizzy Gillespie lived a long life, was married to the same woman his entire life until death, so there was no drama surrounding wild drug days or stories of womanizing as with many legendary musicians, just pure love of music.
Born John Birks Gillespie, he was nicknamed Dizzy because of his on-stage antics. Gillespie was in fact one of the most important and influential musicians of the 20th century. He was the creator of two extremely important movements in jazz – bebop and Afro-Cuban jazz. An important album seems to be Dizzy Gillespie’s Afro which features all the important compositions he made famous. He was a teacher to both Miles Davis and Arturo Sandoval, legends in their own right. Here is the United Nations Orchestra performance that is just pure magic featuring Gillespie’s famous (and one of my favorite songs of all times) composition, “A Night In Tunisia”:

Dizzy Gillespie spanned the generations…It’s just awe inspiring the people he worked with including Louis Armstrong:

Here is a 1982 performance of the Chano Pozo composition “Manteca” performed by Dizzy Dillespie’s “Dream” Band and features the trumpet legend having a good ole time.

Dizzy Gillespie including Stan Getz and Max Roach play “Bebop”:

This is a beautiful, performance by the Dizzy Gillespie Quintet “Tin Tin Deo” – sweet, stripped down melodic slow jazz….ahhh it’s like a five minute vacation: