Search Results for: New York

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

Louie Ramírez. The Hidden Talent of Salsa Ahead of its time

North America / USA / New York

Louie Ramírez.

Music often requires characters who are always behind the scenes and support the work of singers and performers with their talent, who are ultimately the ones who “put on their face” and become popular. Sometimes, however, these anonymous characters rise to fame in order to perform their own work and even become more popular than any popular singer.

In the case of Pop, this character is called Quincy Jones, of whom it is enough to say that he has been an arranger for Frank Sinatra and a producer for Michael Jackson. A nobody”. In the case of Salsa, these characters have been symbolized by Jones’ emulator, a guy named Louie Ramírez who has done everything with everyone.

One afternoon in 1994, Ramírez was driving his car down the highway that would take him to Variety Studios in New York. It was going to be a quick session since he only needed one song to complete his 20th album as conductor. Perhaps that was why he was nervous and that filled him with anxiety. Minutes later he couldn’t resist the feeling and had to pull over to the side of the car. He had not finished doing it when a cardiac arrest ended his life.

Louie Ramirez was a genius. The classic man to whom everyone turns for advice and solutions to their problems. It didn’t matter if they were young or old musicians. The fact was, Louie had the answer, and visiting him was like rubbing Aladdin’s lamp. That was a characteristic that always accompanied him, from that first recording “Conozca a Louie Ramírez” in 1963.

He was 20 years old at the time and had already stood out for composing some pachangas and arranging for Pete and Tito Rodríguez’s orchestras. The commentator Dick Sugar then presented it like this: Ramírez breaks the image of the director of a group that uses the talent of other composers and becomes a follower of a rhythm. No, Louie Ramírez is a creator in his genre.

That talent did not go unnoticed by the new Czar of Latin music in New York, Jerry Masucci, who hired him as a star for Fania Records and at the same time, as an arranger for the orchestras and ensembles that belonged to the record company. Ramírez was soon involved in work and was only able to record two albums during the sixties, “Good news” and “Alí Babá”.

On that last album appeared the hit that allowed him to be a famous artist, El Títere, a true Salsa classic. The theme was sung by Rudy Calzado, the third of the soneros that Louie had used without finding the ideal. That was a burden that accompanied him as a director during the seventies, when he used singers of the stature of Pete Bonet, Tito Allen, Jimmy Sabater, “Azuquita” Rodríguez, Adalberto Santiago, and even Rubén Blades.

It was with Blades, precisely, that he made an anthological album, “Louie Ramírez and his friends”, in which the song Paula C was included, with an arrangement of those that deserve -hats off-. By then, Ramírez was considered in New York as the most progressive arranger that Salsa had, thanks to the brilliant work done for the Fania All Stars. An excellent job had been the instrumental arrangement of Juan Pachanga, to be sung by Blades, of Canta Canta for a performance by Cheo Feliciano, and of the entire album “Algo nuevo” that Tito Rodríguez sang with Louie’s orchestra.

But the high point of Ramírez’s career came in 1980 when Joni Figueras, representative of the K-Tel International label, hired him to arrange the ballads Todo se derrumbó and Estar Enamorado de Manuel Alejandro. The album, which included these and other tracks, was released two years later under the title “Hot Night” and was recorded by Louie’s own orchestra.

Louie Ramírez - Salsa Progresiva — Louie Ramírez – Salsa Progresiva

This is how the Salsa-ballad or Salsa-romántica was born in a job that Ramírez continued until his death, making attempts at Latin Jazz from time to time, which he loved. That is why he recorded an album in tribute to Cal Tjader, where Louie was director, producer, composer and arranger, in addition to playing the timpani and his favorite instrument: the vibraphone.

Louie Ramírez was a genius in arranging, in a career where those of Guantanamera and Isadora stand out for Celia Cruz, El Guiro de Macorina for Johnny Pacheco and El Caminante for Roberto Torres. Apart from this, there are his works for the Alegre and the Cesta All Stars. Regarding this profile of Ramírez, the critic Eleazar López defined it very well:

Louie Ramírez - salsero — Louie Ramírez – salsero

It is not easy to arrange for a dance band, especially when it comes to a group that cultivates the hot tropical genre. Many musicians feel influenced by Jazz and the result of their orchestrations leaves a void in the dancer. Others arrange simple, but so simple that they repeat and copy themselves, and the result is tiresome music, without any degree of creativity: music that says nothing, that leaves nothing. Louie Ramírez has found the perfect balance… that’s why he always stays current.

Andrea Brachfeld

North America / USA / New York

Andrea Brachfeld (Flutist), Graduated from the High School of Music and Art and Manhattan School of Music. During the last 20 years he has recorded more than a dozen CDs with many artists, including Africando, Noel Pointer, and Timbalaye. Her big break as the flutist for the popular Latin band Charanga 76 catapulted her into Salsa history and fame as the first female flutist to play this music in the United States.

While in high school he received the “Louis Armstrong Award for Outstanding Alumnus” for Jazz Interactions. Study with Hubert Laws, Jimmy Heath, and Mike Longo helped him develop his own style. Downbeat magazine referring to Andrea as “one of the best jazz flautists around”.

She has twice been the winner of the Latino Award in New York, as a flutist. He has performed with Dave Valentín, Néstor Torres, and Ray Barretto, among others. While in Venezuela, he had the honor of opening for Chick Corea and Paco de Lucía. She recently received the Chico O’Farrill Lifetime Achievement Award from Latin Jazz USA. Her first Latin jazz CD, “Remembered Dreams” combines Latin originals with contemporary jazz cuts. His second CD, “Back With Sweet Passion,” is a dynamic salsa recording featuring Grammy winner Oscar Hernández on piano, and Alfredo De La Fey on violin.

Her third CD “Beyond Standards” is a collaborative effort with Chembo Corniel, featuring jazz greats Hilton Ruiz on piano and Steve Turre on trombone.

She has appeared with the Winnepeg Jazz Orchestra as a soloist performing her own compositions as well as those of Mike Longo, Dizzy Gillespie’s longtime musical director. He is currently performing with his own group, including Phoenix Rising, with a new CD out, “Into The World: A Musical Offering” with guest artists Mike Longo, West Paul and Brian Lynch.

Red Profile Andrea Brachfeld

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!

Shine the Movie is coming to all US Theaters on August 24th

North America / USA / New York

Hang out on August with the best Latin thematic movie on August 24^th in all US Theater. Shine is a Latin American musical film that is framed in the drama genre with a very current content that will immerse you in the life of two young brothers, SALSA dancers with broad and recognized trajectories that after the death of their father years later, return to meet, each in a different city and in opposite poles of the gentifricación.

This musical with sound track based in the Golden Age of the Salsa Sound Bands and the Hottest Latin Urban Scene of the Moment has a leading cast mostly made up of famous dancers from Latin Music and Pop.

This movie that also narrates the cultural and political moment that we are currently crossing was shot in the Puerto Rican area of New York, has its own musical themes due to an alliance with Fania Records and the Latin titans of Sony Music, Marc Anthony and Romeo Santos, “El Sabor” of New York hip-hop of the Puerto Rican rapper and winner of the Grammy Award Big Pun, and the rap duo The Beat Nuts.

Shine has been the Latin thematic film with the highest collection on Kickstarter and with this Latin musical its director Anthony Nardolillo sought to remind viewers of the power that exists when members of Latino communities in the US join.

“Its marketability on various platforms is the direct result of a team of passionate creators with a unifying message on a cultural level, and we are very proud to bring this film to the public”. Geno Taylor of GVN Releasing.

“Shine is a passionate, vibrant film with a current theme. It’s the perfect film for the launch of Forgiven Films, where we want to share unique voices and stories and bring quality entertainment to the less represented audience”. Steven Belmont, president of Forgiven Films.

In September 2017, the film won the Audience Award for “Best Film” at the Urbanworld Film Festival, sponsored by HBO and supported by Ava DuVernay. Tickets for this projection were sold out 48 hours in advanced setting a new record in the history of this festival.

“In 2017 Latin music and dance globally dominated record sales, streams and headlines in unprecedented numbers. There is no better time than now for a film like this”, said Brian O’Shea of The Exchange.

Director:

Anthony Nardolillo, director and also actor has produced several national and international projects related to Latin dance, such as the short film “Mano” acclaimed by the specialized critics.

Starring:

David Zayas

He was born on August 15th, 1962 in Ponce, Puerto Rico. He joined the United States Air Force, where he was able to acquire the experience to become a New York police officer, which served him for roles later. He is an actor of Cinema, Theater and Television recognized for his work on Skyline (2010), The Expendables (2010) and Dexter (2006) and the series “Gotham” by Warner Bros playing the mobster Salvatore Maroni.

Alysia Reiner

She is best known for her role as Natalie “Fig” Figueroa on the Netflix hit series Orange Is the New Black (2013), for which she won a Screen Actors Guild award as part of the ensemble cast. She also worked in the FX show Better Things (2016). Additionally she played District Attorney Wendy Parks on ABC’s How to Get Away with Murder (2014), Lilian Izikoff on Rosewood (2015) and Fiona in the TNT series Search Party (2016).

Reiner starred with Anna Gunn in Equity (2016) about the first female-driven Wall Street film, which she also produced. Other recent films include “School Spirits” and Whitney Cummings’ “The Female Brain”. She was recognized as an Intelligent Optimist in Ode Magazine and profiled by New York Women in Film and Television as a woman to watch.

Kimberli Flores

She is an actress, known for her work in important films, such as: 30 Beats (2012), Actors Anonymous (2017) and Bad Twin (2016).

Gilbert Saldivar

He is an actor and professional Mexican-American dancer, known worldwide for his works in blockbuster movies like: Dexter (2006), From Justin to Kelly (2003) and Magic Hour and for being the choreographer of great celebrities such as: Jennifer Lopez, Christina Aguilera, and Madonna.

Jorge Burgos

Better known as Jorge “Ataca” Burgos is an acclaimed bachata instructor who debuts as an actor in Shine.

Music by Eduardo Reyes Napoles.

Premier: August 24^th.

“Los bailes latinos continúan creciendo en popularidad cada año y los vemos en algunos de los mejores programas televisivos. El mensaje sobre el orgullo que debemos sentir por nuestra comunidad y herencia no podía resultar más urgente y de actualidad. SHINE fusiona estos elementos con un set ardiente y excitante, con una banda sonora interpretada por estrellas musicales latinas, todo ello entrelazado con una poderosa narrativa. Esta película está narrada con nuestra propia voz, por un reparto donde los intérpretes poseen talentos brutos muy diversos que no han tenido cabida en las películas de Hollywood – hasta ahora”. Anthony Nardolillo.

For more information about SHINE the Movie, please visit

www.shinethemovie.nyc or like them on Facebook: www.facebook.com/shinefilm

Vídeo (Trailer): https://youtu.be/9EUs0eh_js8