Search Results for: Orchestra
Latin America – November 2019
Jorge Bautista
Latin America/ Mexico / Mexico City
Jorge Bautista, Musical director and percussionist of the Irawo Orchestra
Jorge Bautista is a musician from Mexico City, he began his percussion studies at the age of 5 due to family tradition.
The timbal, conga and bongo are the first percussion instruments that he studies empirically until at the age of 15 he studies at the autonomous music school for 5 years and then diversifies his knowledge in percussion from various places in Latin America such as : Colombia, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Peru and Brazil among others as well as in Africa.
Accompaniments Sauce
The experienced percussionist musician Jorge Bautista has performed important musical accompaniments with great exponents of our Afro-Caribbean music such as: Jerry Rivera, Maelo Ruiz, Tito Nieves, Willie González, Alfredito de La Fe, Oscar D`León, Larry Harlow, Ismael Miranda. , Ritchie Ray, Bobby Cruz, Roberto Roena, Oscar Hernández, Alberto Barros, Arturo Ortiz, Arturo Ortiz, Jimmy Bosch, Tito Allen, Viti Ruiz, Ray Sepúlveda, Herman Olivera and among others.
Latin Jazz Accompaniments
Among the stars of Latin Jazz, percussionist Jorge Bautista has performed accompaniments, among them we have: Arturo Sandoval, Ed Calle, Waney Bergeròn, Hector Infanzòn, Ola Onabule, Tlaxcatecalt Latin Jazz, Papo Sánchez, Ofunan, Daniel López, Latin Jazz On, Latin Hot Band, Density 6 and among others.
Other accompaniments
The Mexican multi-instrumentalist has also accompanied great music performers such as: Armando, Manzanero, Susana Zabaleta, Emmanuel, Kalimba, Samo, Víctor García, Carlos Cuevas, Alexander Acha, María León, Lisset, Aleks Syntek, Maria del Sol and Raul D’blasio.
Due to his great versatility, he has been invited to give clinics in different cities of the Mexican Republic as well as in several countries in the United States, Honduras, Colombia and Guatemala.
Currently the musician is sponsored by several major instrument brands worldwide: Gon Bops, Tama, Sabían, Promark, Remo, Rockears, GR, NND Percusión, and Veerkamp.
We spoke with Andrea Chaparro from Lulada Club
Lulada Club is a group composed entirely of women that plays a good number of Latin music genres such as salsa, bolero, cha cha chá, boogaloo, among others. These girls have a very interesting concept that caught our attention as soon as we checked their social networks, so we decided to get in touch with their director, Andrea Chaparro, who kindly agreed to talk to us and give us more details about the group she leads.
Name of the orchestra ”Lulada” and how it emerged
We found the name they chose for the group very curious, so Andrea went on to explain that Lulada is a Colombian drink, specifically Cali (the capital of salsa) that comes from the lulo fruit. She and her partner, who is also part of the orchestra, wanted to pay tribute to this city so important for their careers and for salsa in general.
The idea came from several sessions and rehearsals in which they were deciding what name to use, but they always knew that they wanted it having to do with Cali. In the end, they thought that ”lulada” sounded very good and mixed the term with ”club”, which originated a result that they all liked.
Why only girls?
Andrea recognizes that having a Latin female orchestra is not a novel idea, far from it. In fact, she saw this concept in Cali in several all-female orchestras that have been around for decades, so she wanted to replicate that idea.
About six or seven years ago, it was when she wanted to create an all-girl group and the opportunity was given to her in the framework of the pandemic. In Colombia, the artist had been playing with other all-male groups, but she began meeting other female musicians and instrumentalists and had the opportunity to organize a group for an event to which she and her saxophonist partner were invited.
When we wanted to know more about the selection process of the members, Andrea noted that she did a sort of search on Instagram to see their work directly, but several of the girls were brought in and recommended by other members.
Some of these girls had not had the opportunity to develop their skills because they were always underestimated in the Latin salsa scene for being female or very young, so Lulada Club has been a great opportunity for them to grow and evolve in music.
She considers that they have all fit together very well with the group and understand each other perfectly most of the time, which is why she considers that they have been very fortunate to find each other and join their professional lives.
Andrea and Lulada Club in New York
At the moment, all of the members of Lulada Club live in New York and have no plans to move to any other place, since their greatest opportunities have been given to them in this city.
She does say that they are completely open to the possibility of touring both nationally and internationally whenever they find it possible. Indeed, at present, they already have many invitations to attend concerts and festivals in many other cities in the United States, but they will not base the orchestra anywhere else.
Both Andrea and the rest of the girls feel that their biggest audience is there and many people in positions of power are seeing what they are doing and taking them into account. People, club owners and event organizers have received them with open arms and have taken them into account for events of all kinds.
One such event is SummerStage on August 2, whose main attraction will be the maestro Eddie Palmieri, who will be offering one of the last concerts of his career after announcing his retirement. It is a great honor for the girls to be able to open for this world-renowned artist who has contributed so much to salsa and Latin music since his beginnings.
The news about their participation in the event made them very happy and feel that all their hard work has paid off.
Genres played by Andrea and Lulada Club
As we have mentioned at the beginning of this edition, there are several Latin genres played by Lulada Club such as salsa, cha cha chá or boogalo, but each one has its own audience.
In that sense, Andrea said that they play a lot of hard salsa for dancers and classical music coming from the clubs in Cali. There are certain songs that can never be out of their repertoire such as ”Llorarás” by Oscar D’ León, ”La rebelión” by Joe Arroyo, ”Brujería” by El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, among others.
In cases where we get a quieter audience, we can play a bolero or cha cha chá, but everything will depend on the reaction of those present to our performance,” said Andrea on this subject.
In terms of their original songs, they have two recorded and their names are ”La Palma” ”Lulada ya llegó”, which has been very well received by those who have heard it.
Undoubtedly, Lulada Club has a lot to offer to the audience and fortunately festival organizers and club owners are realizing the great potential of this group, and every day that passes they are taking more into account in their lineups.
Read also: Allyson Briggs ”La Rubia de La Salsa”
Musical director of VibraSÓN Jake Jacobs is here
VibraSÓN is a musical group that makes life in the state of California, specifically in the San Francisco Bay Area, which has become one of the best options for festivals and nightclubs seeking fresh sounds in terms of salsa, swing and Latin music in general.
I was pleased to know about this great orchestra, its members and sound thanks to its work at Charley’s LG, Bar and Nightclub where Eduardo Guilarte, our editor, was working and directing everything related to the lineups and musical programming for Latin music nights, more specifically on Tuesdays.
When I made contact, the person who was kind enough to reply was musical director of VibraSÓN. Jake Jacobs, who at the same time works as a producer, percussionist and backing vocalist.
Talk with Jake Jacobs from the group VibraSÓN
Jake Jacobs comes from a very interesting background. His first contact with music took place with his father and uncle, both of whom were professional musicians, but Jake says he has always been interested in this world.
He studied classical piano and music theory at the University of Illinois and took some jazz piano lessons in his passage through the University of California. During these years, the musical director spent roughly 13 hours a day practicing with this instrument to master it as well as possible.
With time, he became interested in Latin music and dance, which also led him to take dance classes at university. With that knowledge acquired up to that moment, he went to visit New York and his trip coincided with the National Puerto Rican Day Parade (an event held annually in New York and other states to celebrate Puerto Rico and its traditions in the United States).
This event inspired Jake so much that he returned to the Bay Area with the intention to switch his dance classes to salsa classes. He became so good that he began to teach salsa dance classes himself to numerous students interested in learning these rhythms, something he has been done for over 20 years in widely recognized clubs and dance studios.
He used to provide these classes twice a week at the Cocomo Club, which was very important at the time and attracted more than 600 people every day. When bands performed live, the future leader of VibraSÓN began to know musicians, who, in turn, gave him music lessons and his first opportunities to play in bands.
Apprenticeships and classes with great musicians
One of the most impressive credentials that Jake can have is to have studied with some of the best musicians in the San Francisco Bay Area such as Edgardo Cambón, Karl Perazzo, Michael Spiro, Louie Romero, among others.
Evidently, all these luminaries have taught the producer much of what he knows and applies today, but he ensures that it was not easy to learn from so many ”teachers” at the same time, in both dancing and music performance.
Ensures that some of the most important things he learned have to do with technique and tips to be applied such as how to play the drums, the notes at the right times, silences and much more.
He points out that they all taught him valuable and important things, which are still very useful to this day. One of those great lessons was to practice and practice until he achieved the sounds he wanted, especially in Latin music.
VibraSÓN
Finally, in 2014, Jake decided it was time to put into practice everything he learned and create his own musical group with his own original details. This is how VibraSÓN came about.
The origin of his band’s name came from Luis Morales, one of its members. It is based on vibraphone, which is not widely used by the orchestras from the San Francisco Bay Area, but by the dancers and by this new group in their performances. As for the end of the name, it comes from ”son cubano”, a typical genre of the island Jake likes very much.
Although Club Cocomo unfortunately closed the following year, that didn’t stop VibraSÓN from making its way and becoming one of the most demanded groups in the Bay Area in recent years.
One of the things that Jake thinks makes his group unique is that there are very few people who use the vibraphone and, due to his training as a dancer, he is always looking to make the most appropriate music for that part of the audience for whom dancing is very important.
How Jake and VibraSÓN read the crowd
For Jake and the rest of the band, it is very important to read the crowd and see how people react to the music they play at any time. They pay a lot of attention to the dance floor to see what works and what doesn’t with the people they play for that night.
Having played at clubs such as Charley’s, Bar Fluxus, La Peña Cultural, The Cigar Bar and Space 500, they have prepared a very generous repertoire for each performance. Just as they have written original music, they have also dedicated themselves to perform covers of the most buzzed-about artists in recent times in certain contexts, something that worked out for several orchestras when they need to draw on these resources to entertain the audience.
This wide repertoire that they now enjoy is what has allowed them to make diverse shows with lots of variety so that those present never get bored, even if they usually go to the same place.
Another thing they tend to do is add new arrangements and change genres to the covers they do so that they do not sound exactly like the originals and they can inject some of their essence, even if they are not songs written or sung by them originally. ”Even if they are covers, we always try to add our original arrangements so that the dancers enjoy them that much more” said Jake.
They have also learned to connect with the audience and know what the dancers and the general public want in order to give them exactly what they want. And they did not learn this overnight, but have observed in detail what other orchestras do to imitate what is good and useful.
Tours and future plans of VibraSÓN
At the end of the interesting talk, Jake told us that, for now, they only plan to record new music and other activities that are comfortable for all the members, since many of the musicians are in other orchestras and record for other people, so it is too complicated for them to tour with VibraSÓN. In addition to that, several of them have small children to care for, so it is impossible for them to travel for a long time.
He is so considerate because he always tries to keep the same members and preserve the unity of the group above all else. It has worked for them, as they have managed to made a name, which will continue to become popular over time.
Read also: Fausto Cuevas Y La Moderna in International Salsa Magazine