Search Results for: Latin Music

Gabriela Anders studied classical guitar privately, and music and piano at a conservatory in Buenos Aires

Gabriela Anders was born to music amidst the grace, paradox and tradition of Argentina.

Gabriela studied classical guitar privately, and music and piano at a Conservatory in Buenos Aires.

Adding to the musical medley was her father’s influence (a noted jazz saxophonist and arranger) which became even stronger than her classical studies. After finishing high school, Gabriela decided to move to New York.

There she studied orchestration for brass and strings in a class conducted by Don Sebesky and composition at Hunter College. Gabriela started to write her own material. Her studio and club work took off leading to a record deal with major label Warner Brothers Jazz.

Gabriela Anders’ debut album on Warner Bros. Records, (1999) “Wanting” is brimming with vocal subtlety; although smooth, it is anything but simple. It features arrangements and production by Paul Brown, George Duke, Allain Mallet and Anders herself.

The album elicited much praise for Anders’ vision and impassioned vocal style.

Recording with Questlove and Christian Mc Bride

Her unique marriage of Brazilian, Latin and Jazz led to Vogue and People Magazine describing Anders and her music as “exotic and bold”, “wonderfully soulful”, and “one of the most distinctive new voices to hit the music scene in years”.

Her second record for Warner Bros Records was a European release entitled “Gabriela” which featured an array of world-class sidemen, including Christian McBride, Amir “Questlove” Thompson and Kirk Whalum. Again, she contributed ten of the album’s twelve tracks.

Her next CD “Last Tango in Rio” was released in 2005 by major label EMI. “Last Tango in Rio” is a collection of songs closely associated with Billie holiday that have been uniquely transformed by Gabriela’s interpretation and orchestration.

Hailed by critics (Los Angeles Times, Billboard magazine and People magazine)) as highly -original and creative presentation of standards, “Last Tango in Rio” represents a fresh and effervescent take on a classic song book that has previously defied reinvention.

In October of 2009, JVC Japan released her CD “Bossa Beleza“. “Bossa Beleza” blends her own immediately recognizable sound with that of her first musical love, classic Bossa Nova.

Singing with Rihanna for the NYC Bone Marrow foundation

Gabriela Anders‘ 2015 album, “Cool Again”, beautifully displays the significant gifts as singer, vocal orchestrator, songwriter and bandleader she has steadily developed through her previous releases. The mix of original and cover songs on “Cool Again” finds Gabriela at her best.

The soulful funk of the original title track is a classic example. Its message of empowerment can be considered a core theme in Gabriela’s lyrics and a source of her resonating appeal as a performer, entertainer and artist.

2020 CD ‘The Ring‘: While facing the fear and uncertainty of the virus in New York City, Gabriela recorded a piano/voices collection of songs at her home studio, creating intimate portraits of inner struggle and redemption against the bizarre backdrop of the pandemic.

The project’s three pianists – Jim Ridl, Jean-Michel Pilc and Jon Cowherd – are radically different stylists from different corners of the world, here each offering their unique sensibilities to Gabriela’s voice and music.

2021 CD release Gabriela Anders’ ‘Los Dukes’! Los Dukes is a new 9 piece band arranged and directed by Gabriela Anders, featuring songs from the Duke Ellington’s catalog done in wildly distinctive Latin American styles. A Latina’s tribute to the music of Duke Ellington.

Los Dukes, pays loving tribute to the elegant GENIUS of Duke Ellington and includes some of the best Latin Jazz players on the New York scene.

Hailed by critics (Los Angeles Times, Billboard magazine and People magazine) as ‘highly original and creative artist’, a ‘multi-talented artist who is destined to leave her mark on the jazz world’ and the ‘most promising jazz influenced artists today’.

Gabriela Anders – Último Tango En Rio (2004)

Temas:

Te Subes A Mi Cabeza
Abracadabra
El Amor Llegó Para Quedarse
Dios Bendiga Al Niño
Abrázame
Buenos Aires Mix, El
Cuerpo y Soul
All Your Love
Meant To Be
‘Til The End of Time

Músicos:

Gabriela Anders (Voz, teclados)

Romero Lubambo (Guitarra)

John Benitez (Bajo)

Wayne Krantz (Guitarra)

Portinho (Batería, percusión)

Gabriel Rivano (Bandoneón)

H. Martignon (Teclados)

Tito Castro (Bandoneón)

Donald Edwards (Batería)

Jorge Anders (Saxo)

Jorge Alfano (Flauta, flauta andina, charango)

Información realizada (22 de abril de 2009)

Also Read: Samuel Quinto Feitosa is a Brazilian virtuoso jazz and classical pianist

Mulatu Astatke, the first African to earn a PhD from Berklee College of Music

Mulatu Astatke (or Astatqé) (Jimma, Ethiopia, December 19, 1943) is an Ethiopian musician, composer and arranger. He is considered the father of Ethio-Jazz.

His musical training took place at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London, where he studied clarinet, piano and harmony, New York and Boston, where he was the first African student and also the first African to earn a PhD from Berklee College of Music; there he was trained in vibraphone and percussion.

Mulatu Astatke, the first African to earn a PhD from Berklee College of Music

Later he combined the influence of jazz and Latin music with traditional Ethiopian music.

My desire to start making Ethio-jazz began in London while I was studying there in the 1950s; then I knew I wanted to be different with my music. I looked for musicians from different African backgrounds and saw that they were successful and promoted the culture of their country.

However, there was very little from East Africa and Ethiopia, so I decided at that point that I would create something unique based on the rich heritage of our music and show how much we have contributed to the world of music in general.

That journey began to take shape at Berklee College in Bastan. I was the first African musician to study there and that period was very important for me.

I learned the technical aspects of many different musical forms and my teachers gave me the confidence to move in my own direction, teaching me that it was okay to be different in my music and try something completely new.

Ethiopian cultural music is based on four modes tezeta, bati, anchihoy and Ambassel and within my music, I knew that those modes could not be played.

They had to remain at the center of my music or the whole character of the sound would change and become distorted. I began to add beautiful colors with chords, voicings, bass lines and rhythm sections, writing progressions that fit together well. It’s very difficult to write 12-note music around the Ethiopian modes without destroying them.

In the mid-’60s I returned to Addis, but I kept going back and forth to the United States.

At that time, no one was fusing Ethiopian music with jazz.

In my country there was the First National Theater Orchestra, and both the police and the army had their own orchestras.

There were also bands like the Echoes and the Ras Band.

Musicians at that time based their melodies strictly on the four Ethiopian modes, using techniques like the “canon,” with melodic lines echoing each other.

With Ethiopian jazz, I consciously wanted to expand and explore the modes in different ways.

Mulatu Astatke (or Astatqé) (Jimma, Ethiopia, December 19, 1943) is an Ethiopian musician, composer and arranger. He is considered the father of Ethio-Jazz.

I formed a group called The Ethiopian Quintet in New York, made up of a mix of Ethiopian, Latino, and African-American musicians (there weren’t many Ethiopian musicians in the United States at that time).

The band included trumpeter and pianist Rudy Houston, who later played with Yambu, and Felix Torres, who played with Sonora Ponceña.

I have always felt a deep connection between Latin and African music; I traveled to Cuba to find out where the first American landed, I heard their musicians play and dance and although they sang in Spanish, the tempo, rhythm and feeling were very similar to aspects of African music.

So, with the Ethiopian Quintet, I wanted to show the African contribution to Latin music and it was my first opportunity to experiment and start developing my vision of Ethio-Jazz with this band.

With the American and Puerto Rican musicians in the group we created a different atmosphere and arrangements.

It was a great opportunity for me and they loved what I was writing and the direction I was trying to take.

We did quite a few concerts, some Spanish weddings, events upstate New York and in Manhattan.

We played at the Village Gate with Dave Pike, a great friend of mine at the time, one of the world’s greatest vibraphone players. He played a lot with Herbie Mann and I remember sitting in to watch one of his recording sessions.

I saw a lot of other great musicians in concert, from Coltrane to Bud Powell and Bill Evans. On the New York live circuit I met a producer called Gil Snapper.

His musical training was at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London,

Gil was a very nice and interesting guy and worked with musicians of many different styles.

He picked up on my music very quickly; we got on well and he invited me to record with The Ethiopian Quintet, so our first albums with him were ‘Afro Latin Soul’ Volumes 1 and 2, both recorded during 1966.

On the first volume, I performed an adaptation of an old Ethiopian warrior song, ‘I Faram Gami I Faram’.

I would have liked to have an Ethiopian singer for the song, but it was sung in Latin and the lyrics were translated to the singer so he could sing it in Spanish.

Nevertheless, it turned out to be a nice combination. The album included other compositions that were important steps for me: ‘Mascaram Setaba’ (Summer is Coming), ‘Shagu’ and ‘Almaz’. On the second volume, Rudy Houston suggested a piece of music that we called ‘The Panther’, in reference to the animal, but also in recognition of the Black Panthers, who were very active in the civil rights struggle in the United States at that time.

On this album, one of my favorites is my composition ‘Girl From Addis Ababa’, which worked very well as a fusion of Ethiopian modes and R&R rhythms, an indicator of the more refined Ethiopian jazz sound of my later album for Worthy, ‘Mulatu Of Ethiopia’ (1972). It also included my new arrangement of the 1950s tune ‘Lover’s Mambo’.

Both albums include nice arrangements also by Oscar Garcia, Rudy Houston and Gil Snapper as well.

I feel proud of the recording when I listen to it again. It was an important moment in my career and it was a very interesting and progressive time to be in New York in the mid-60s.

I was there at the same time as Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba and Fela Kuti and, each in their own way, we tried to do our part to put Africa on the map of contemporary jazz.

Mulatu Astatke, April 2018

Mulatu Astatke & His Ethiopian Quintet – Afro-Latin Soul (1966, R-2018)

Tracks: Afro Latin Soul: 01. I Faram Gami I Faram (Mulatu Astatke)

02. Mascaram Setaba (Mulatu Astatke)

03. Shagu (Mulatu Astatke)

04. One For Buzayhew (Mulatu Astatke) ke)

05. Alone In The Crowd (Gil Snapper)

06. Almaz (Mulatu Astatke)

07. Mulatu’s Hideaway (Mulatu Astatke)

08. Askum (Rudy Houston)

09. A Kiss Before Dawn (Gil Snapper & Weiss)

10. Playboy Cha Cha (Oscar Garcia) Afro Latin Soul Vol. 2:

11. The Panther (Boogaloo) (Rudy Houston)

Konjit (Pretty) (Oscar Garcia)

Soul Power (Rudy Houston)

Lover’s Mambo (Traditional, Arr. Mulatu Astatke)

Love Mood For Two (Rudy Houston)

Jijiger (Rudy Houston)

Girl From Addis Ababa (Mulatu Astatke)

Karayu (Oscar Garcia)

Raina (Rudy Houston)

Musicians:

Mulatu Astatke (Vibraphone, Piano, Drums)

Rudy Houston (Piano, Trumpet)

Robert Cuadrado (Bass)

Felix Torres / John Perez (Congas / Bongos on Vol. 1)

Pete Iglesias (Congas on Vol. 2)

Tony Pearson (Timbales)

Information provided (October 5, 2024)

Also Read: Flora Purim has earned her two Grammy nominations for Best Female Jazz Performance

Latin America / November 2024

DIRECTORY OF NIGHTCLUBS
ARGENTINA	ARUBA	BELIZE
BOLIVIA	BRAZIL	CHILE
COLOMBIA	COSTA RICA	CUBA
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC	ECUADOR	GUATEMALA
MEXICO	PANAMA	PERU
PUERTO RICO	VENEZUELA

Eddie at 80: Eddie Palmieri and his Latin Jazz Septet

North America / USA / Miami

Eddie at 80: Eddie Palmieri and his Latin Jazz Septet. Sábado, 2 de junio de 20:00 a 22:30

Entradas: https://tickets.olympiatheater.org/eventperformances.asp?evt=186

NEA Jazz Master Eddie Palmieri is celebrating his 80th birthday this year with a gorgeous album Sabiduría, and a tour of select cities that brings him to the beautiful Olympia Theater in downtown Miami. Tix are available through the theater box office: http://olympiatheater.org/, $37, $47 and $57 + fees.

Born in Spanish Harlem to Puerto Rican parents and raised in the Bronx, Eddie Palmieri learned to play the piano at an early age, and at 13, he joined his uncle’s orchestra, playing timbales. He joined popular New York bands during the 1950s before forming his own band La Perfecta in 1960. Eddie Palmieri’s landmark 1970 release Harlem River Drive was a first to merge what were categorized as “Black” and “Latin” music into a free-form fusion of salsa, funk, soul and jazz. In 1975, he won the first-ever Grammy for Best Latin Recording for The Sun of Latin Music (he’s won ten Grammys altogether to date, including two with Tito Puente).

In addition to the Grammys, Eddie Palmieri has received numerous honors: Eubie Blake Award (1991); BBC (2002); Yale University’s Chubb Fellowship, usually reserved for international heads of state, but given to Palmieri in recognition of his work building communities through music (2002); Harlem Renaissance Award (2005); and more. In 2009, the Library of Congress added Palmieri’s composition Azucar Pa’ Ti to the National Recording Registry, which at the time only included 300 compositions documenting the history of all of recorded music history in the U.S.

In 2013, Eddie Palmieri was awarded the coveted Jazz Master award – the highest honor for a jazz artist – by the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA). That year he was also awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences. This June 2nd, MasterEddie Palmieri is celebrating his 80th birthday this year with a gorgeousalbum Sabiduría, and a tour of select cities that brings him to the beautiful Olympia Theater in downtown Miami. Tix are available through the theater box office: http://olympiatheater.org/

Welcome back to Miami, maestro!

Edgardo ‘‘El Bambino’’ and his extensive and interesting musical career

Edgardo ”El Bambino” Otero Lugo is the one to whom we want to dedicate some of the lines of this edition in International Salsa Magazine. The talented Puerto Rican vocalist has given us a few minutes of his time to talk exclusively about his beginnings, his career and other unpublished details that are not read in other media.

Edgardo’s childhood and music

As Edgardo’s childhood took place in his hometown of Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, the artist recalls that he would sit on the balcony of his house and play with buckets and sticks to pretend to play music. His mother, fed up with the noise he made, decided to enroll him in the school choir so that he could explore his curiosity about music in a more professional way. That was when he was in the fifth grade of the elementary school.

As the years went by, the boy’s love for music just kept growing, until he got his first big opportunity thanks to singer-songwriter Edwin Crespo, who had already written for famous groups such as La Sonora Ponceña at the time. Back then, Edgardo was only 14 or 15 years old, so he still needed a lot of guidance on these issues, so maestro Crespo was the ideal person for that.

It just so happenes that Pedro Crespo, Edwin’s father, was the founder of his own orchestra and grandfather of some of Edgardo’s cousins. Since they all lived nearby, Edwin heard him singing one day and liked his voice, so he offered to teach him how to sing professionally and invited him to join his Orquesta Ética, which is where it all began.

By being part of the Orquesta Ética, Edwin decided to spend two or three days a week explaining to Edgardo what to do and how to do it so that everything would go wonderfully for the young vocalist, and that is exactly what happened. So much so that Edgardo spent about three years singing for the group, in which he claims to have learned much of what he knows today.

Edgardo ‘’El Bambino’’ next to Frankie — Edgardo ”El Bambino” next to ”El Sonero del Barrio” Frankie Vazquez

The Rukanos

After having left Orquesta La Ética, Edgardo was also part of Orquesta Los Rukanos, which was much bigger, had more instruments and more musicians. Therefore, it represented a bigger and more complex challenge.

In 1981, he was invited to join the group by a Guyanese friend and colleague named Ferniand Pudia, who asked Edgardo to join him in a musical project he was working on, which he would name Los Rukanos, paying homage to the term used to refer to peasants and working class men in the South American country.

Alongside with this orchestra, of which Edgardo was also one of the founders, he managed to perform in completely new stages and to follow his path in the learning of this complex and rich world that is music.

Conjunto Quisqueya

During a concert in his hometown, the members of Conjunto Quisqueya heard Edgardo singing and liked his voice so much that they invited him to play with them in a project for Nelson García, who at that time was the second trumpet of the orchestra.

Having accepted the offer, the group recorded a whole LP called ”Nelson García y Merengue ’86”, which was a very nice experience for Edgardo since he had never had the opportunity to record in a studio before and finally he was able to do so. And it was not just any studio, but one of the most important in Puerto Rico, which was Tele-Sound Recording Studios.

”Playing with the members of Conjunto Quisqueya was a spectacular experience. Their musicians are wonderful human beings with whom I still have very strong friendship bonds” said Edgardo about his experience in the ensemble.

Edgardo ‘’El Bambino’’ in the army — Edgardo ”El Bambino” singing during his time in the army

Orquesta La Nueva Época de Ángel Rivera

There were some years that merengue was gaining a lot of popularity in Puerto Rico, so the artists and groups of the moment had to adapt to fulfill the musical taste of the audience. Such was the case of saxophonist Angel Rivera, also originally from Vega Baja, who created an orchestra and invited several musicians to play with him, including Edgardo.

The result was good acceptance from the public to the extent that the orchestra participated in competitions and won some awards thanks to the work done.

This was very useful for Edgardo’s career, since he succeeded in diversifying his rhythms and learning to play new things and genres, which made him acquire a lot of knowledge. Until such time as he played with Conjunto Quisqueya, he had only done salsa, so trying merengue was really enriching for the musician.

Service time in the army

Edgardo was in the Puerto Rico National Guard for about 24 years in total and he remembers a time when he was mobilized to the Iraq War in 2006, the year in which he met Edwin ”El Calvito” Reyes, who was part of the 3rd Infantry. El Calvito” had a group whose lead singer could not speak Spanish, so he learned the lyrics phonetically in order to perform them.

The chemistry between all the members was so great that they even played a few times at the U.S. base in Baghdad, where he stayed until 2008. It was then that he returned to Puerto Rico to adapt gradually to civilian life again, during which time he met Raphy Santana and joined his Tribute Orchestra, which made music to pay homage to maestro Héctor Lavoe.

Permanent move to the United States

In 2019, both Edgardo and his wife were retired from their jobs, so they thought it was a good time for a change of scenery, as they felt that nothing interesting was going on musically. This led them to move to the United States to settle permanently there, although he continued to travel to Puerto Rico to meet some commitments with La Corporación Latina, of which he was still part at that time.