martes, 12 de marzo de 2024

Aldemaro Romero: "Father of Venezuelan Jazz", born 96 years ago



Aldemaro Romero was born in Venezuela in 1928 and established himself internationally as a pianist, composer, author and arranger.

At the age of 22 he signed a contract for RCA in New York as an arranger.

The following year he released his most successful album, "Dinners at Caracas”, which became a best-seller in America.

His notoriety continued to grow and over the years he was invited to work with orchestras and great artists including Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Stan Kenton, Ray Mc Kinley, Machito, Noro Morales, Miguelito Valdés and Tito Puente.

While he was in Italy, Romero composed many soundtracks among which stood out the one for "The Saga of Simon Bolivar”, a film by Alessandro Blasetti with Maximilian Schell and Rosanna Schiaffino, that won the Peace Award at the Moscow Film Festival in 1969 .

His greatest contribution to music was certainly the introduction of a new genre, called "Onda Nueva", which became the main theme of the Caracas Music Festival from 1971 to 1973.

The artistic director of the event was Aldo Pagani, a dear friend and exclusive editor of Romero.

As conductor and arranger, Romero won numerous awards including the First Prizes at the Mallorca Music Festival, the Music Olympiade in Athens and the Latin Songs Music Festival in Mexico.

In 1979, Romero fulfilled a long-pursued dream: he became conductor of the Caracas Philharmonic Orchestra.

The orchestra was composed of 90 musicians from all corners of the world and the chorus of 150 voices was conducted by Elaiza, Romero's daughter.

Romero also founded a music conservatory in Caracas.

In the following years he conducted some of the most important orchestras in the world, including the London Symphony Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Philarmonic Orchestra and the Roumanian Radio and Television Orchestra.

In his career as a composer, Romero wrote for orchestras, choirs and ballets and, later, he also dedicated himself to the composition of some concerts.

In 2002 Aldo Pagani founded the "Aldemaro Romero Best Soloist Award", in association with the "Piazzolla Music Award".

In 2002 and 2003 the competition took place in Italy, while in 2004 it moved to Caracas, with the participation of 4 orchestras, numerous soloists and conductors of international fame.

The later editions took place in Japan and in the United States of America.

Romero was also involved in writing, publishing several books on music and collaborating with various music magazines, including “El mundo de Caracas” and “Notitarde”, and regularly presented radio programs.

He was appointed Life Senator of the Venezuelan Congress and became a member of the Tourism Committee and of the Administration and Public Service Committee of the Congress.

He founded PACI, the Congressman Friends Association of Italian Culture.

He died in Caracas in 2007.

domingo, 3 de marzo de 2024

Afro-Peruvian New Trends Orchestra Cosmic Synchronicities

 


This instrumental music project of multi-project artist Corina Bartra is multi-rhythmic and multidimensional, filled with swing and danceable South and Latin American Rhythms. Corina Bartra originals, a majestic, Afro-Peruvian Festejo modulating to a swing groove, “Osiris,” the exuberant, Amazon-inspired “Ecstasy Green”, the moving Landó Ballas “Purple Heart,” “Bailan Todas las Razas”, and “Ebano Sky,” are full of beautiful melodies, exciting and colorful rhythms. “Baila y Goza” modulates between a Cuban Guajira and an Afro-Peruvian Festejo. “Vinilo y Café”, “Latino Blues” is Cuban-inspired and filled with catchy, danceable melodies and hooks.” Far Away,” a Brazilian inspired tune intermingling with swing rhythm, is a breath of fresh air intertwined with surprising moments. There are also three tracks that feature the Marinera style of Peruvian Creole music. An original, "Marinera Jazz," and the traditional, “Palmero Siguayayay," and a medley from Chabuca Granda, “Tun tun tun”- La Herida Oscura, filled with challenging grooves and rhythms to play, which all these top-notch players in this recording have far met.

Let's enjoy, below, this video dedicated to "Vinilo y Cafe", Medellin City and the rumbera Mariana Lara:

https://youtu.be/dFgirdSCZus?si=9lLySEC_XF_dkd-0

THE MUICIANS:

Dave Morgan on tenor, Cecilia Tenconi on alto, Marvin

Carter on alto, Roger Garcia on trumpet, Eli Asher on

trumpet, Erick Stockman on trombone, Santiago

Belgrano and Holman Alvarez Dávila on piano, Juan

Carlos Polo on drums, and Pedro Diaz on the Peruvian

cajon and conga. Engineering and recording; Peter

Karl Mixing and Mastering: Paul Schellak

 

1. Ecstacy Green 4:57 Corina Bartra

2. Bahia 6:20 Corina Bartra

3. Palmero Siguayayay 3:41 Traditional

4. Osiris 8:33 Corina Bartra

5. Latino Blues 7:13 Corina Bartra

6. Tun Tun Tun - La Herida Oscura 5:03 Chabuca Granda

7. Vinilo y Café 5:43 Corina Bartra

8. Ebano Sky 5:28 Corina Bartra

9. Purple Heart 4:56 Corina Bartra

10. Far Away 3:35 Corina Bartra

11. Baila Y Goza 6:27 Corina Bartra

12. Marinera Jazz 6:27 Corina Bartra

13. Bailan Todas la Razas 6:05 Corina Bartra



Viva The Latin Jazz!!

www-jazzcaribe.blogspot.com

jazzcaribe2001@yahoo.com

Note: If you want to know more about Corina Bartra's extraordinary and honorable musical career, we invite you to consult the book "The Bible of Latin Jazz" (available on Amazon).

miércoles, 27 de diciembre de 2023

The long-awaited sensational return of Marlon Simon and The Nagual Spirits

 


Drummer, percussionist and composer Marlon Simon has traveled myriad different paths over the course of his nearly four-decade career. There is the personal journey that has led him from a small town in his native Venezuela to pursuing jazz in Philadelphia, New York, and now his current home in Katy, Texas, a small city near Houston. Then there are the parallel musical paths in which he’s excelled – playing straight-ahead swing with pianist Hilton Ruiz, traditional Afro-Cuban rhythms with the Fort Apache Band and Chucho Valdés, Latin jazz grooves with Dave Valentin, and progressive jazz propulsion with Bobby Watson.

With On Different Paths, his seventh and most ambitious album to date, Simon merges those disparate trajectories into a single new pathway that stretches far off into a hybrid future. Due out January 26, 2024 via Truth Revolution Records, On Different Paths is Simon’s fifth outing with his eclectic band The Nagual Spirits and one that vaults forward from the venturesome fusion of pan-Latin jazz and classical influences on its predecessor, 2007’s In Case You Missed It.

The album, funded in part by Simon’s 2022 Guggenheim Fellowship, features the percussionist’s acclaimed younger brothers, pianist Edward Simon and trumpeter Michael Simon, along with bassist Boris Kozlov, trumpeter Alex Norris, saxophonist Peter Brainin, and percussionist Roberto Quintero. They’re supplemented on several tracks by bassoonist Monica Ellis and French horn player Kevin Newton, expanding the group into a chamber ensemble.

“I think with this record I’ve finally found the authentic voice for this band,” says Simon. “In the past, although The Nagual Spirits has explored a lot of different territory, I’ve always played strictly authentic Latin jazz with a touch of Venezuelan folkloric rhythms. For On Different Paths, I took elements from a number of countries, rhythms and traditions and blended them into a mixture that’s specific to this band.”

To take just one example, the vibrant title track commingles elements of Venezuelan joropo, Brazilian samba, and Cuban 6/8 rhythms in the intricate weave of drums and congas underneath the forward-looking modern jazz harmonies. It’s a bracing, invigorating sound that evokes a captivating solo turn from Edward Simon, but the rich tapestry of cross-cultural sounds is as philosophically as it is musically driven.

“The isolation that we all went through during the pandemic made me start to meditate on a different way to live,” Simon explains in somber tones, a spate of recent shootings in his adopted home of Texas weighing heavily on his mind. “On top of Covid we were seeing so much violence, with racism, police brutality and mass shootings. “I wanted to express through this music that we really need to find a different path as a society.”


The expanded scope of Simon’s compositional vision for The Nagual Spirits can be heard from the album’s opening moments, as “Searching” kicks off the proceedings with a Baroque fanfare that gives way to a moody meld of stealthy Latin groove and lush classical hues. “Walking” is a briskly swinging piece whose palette is boldly enriched by the full array of horns, drawing a bright and probing solo from Norris and a bout of constrained combustibility by the leader.

The sharp-angled melody of “Above Thought” blossoms with Simon’s layered harmonies, while the deceptively conservative title of “Straight Ahead” is a proposition, not a definition, suggesting a multi-cultural standard for future traditions – one version of which is vividly realized on “Un Canto Llanero,” as Venezuelan merengue evolves into joropo, the whole enveloped in a gorgeous orchestration.

The presence of brothers Edward and Michael spotlights the centrality of family to Simon’s life and music, a core value illustrated through several pieces throughout On Different Paths. The impassioned ballad “Missing Them” is a dedication to the Simons’ late parents, father Hadsy Simon and mother Daisy Morillo, while “Pa” is dedicated specifically to Hadsy, who passed away on August 17th, 2017. The date of his death provides the title for the album’s closing track, which blends Venezuelan folkloric rhythms and progressive jazz harmonies to pay homage to a man who Simon cites as not just a father but a mentor and an indefatigable supporter for his children.

“He dedicated his life to his children,” says Simon (in addition to the three musician brothers, the family also includes their sister Heidy, a speech and language therapist based in Curaçao). “He worked his entire life to give us a better life.”



Of course, Simon’s family has expanded over the years to include the members of the Nagual Spirits, which has been together since 1996, and the many musicians who have mentored and collaborated with the percussionist. That includes the late, great Andy González, bassist and co-founder of the legendary Conjunto Libre and Fort Apache Band and whose innovative approach to Latin jazz provided a foundational path for Simon to follow. The drummer repays that debt with the lively “Rumba Pa Andy.”

Finally, “Variations on Ericka’s Theme” revives a piece originally recorded by the Nagual Spirits on 2000’s Rumba a la Patato and, in an arrangement with strings, on In Case You Missed It; as well as by Edward on his album La Bikina. The heartfelt song was inspired by the 1999 death of Marlon’s daughter; its reprisal here is dedicated to Roberto Quintero’s daughter Kimberly, who died in 2020.

Marlon Simon stands at a crossroads with On Different Paths. The stellar music represents the meeting place of multiple journeys: musical, emotional, personal and cultural. At the same time, they lead away down promising new paths – destination unknown, but guided by Simon’s stunning vision, surely routes to creative discovery.

NOTE: If you are interested in learning more about Marlon Simon's honorable musical career, I invite you to read or consult the book that is fashionable in musical literature "The Bible of Latin Jazz".(Amazon).

https://youtu.be/ebDBwN9uIqs?si=aW8vatKd_J2xeL6P

Viva The Latin Jazz!!

www.jazzcaribe.blogspot.com

jazzcaribe2001@yahoo.com


sábado, 16 de diciembre de 2023

Renowned musicians praise the book "The Bible of Latin Jazz" (IV)

 


Luis Raul Montell is immensely grateful for all these encouraging and uplifting expressions about "The Bible of Latin Jazz", coming from excellent musicians...who are wonderful people: 


Otmaro Ruiz

Piano, Composer, Educator

"A Million thanks to Luis Raúl Montell for including
my story in his wonderful book "The Bible of Latin Jazz".
Honored and grateful"



Henry Brun

Timbales, Bandleader, Productor, Educator

"Congratulations on the publishing of your book. 
I loved it! I would venture to say, probably the most 
comprehensive book about Latin Jazz artists that 
exists today. Many cover areas within their reach. 
You went above and beyond, making sure nobody was 
left out.

Thank you for keeping the torch alive and recognizing 
the efforts of our brothers and sisters!"



Bob Baldwin

Piano, Author, Arranger

"Great concept!!

Imust pick one up. Great work"



domingo, 26 de noviembre de 2023

Renowned musicians praise the book "The Bible of Latin Jazz" (III)



Luis Raul Montell is immensely grateful for all these encouraging and uplifting expressions about "The Bible of Latin Jazz", coming from excellent musicians...who are wonderful people: 


Steven Kroon

Congas, Percussion, Bandleader

"I'm enjoying my copy of "The Bible of Latin
Jazz". It such a historical read! I'm also very 
honored to be mentioned in the book. There 
are so many great articles and interviews on 
the percussionists of our time. So to Luis, 
thanks and congrulations on your great 
contribution and knowledge of  the arts!"


Ligia Franca

Vocal

"La Bibblia del jazz latino: la guida commentata
alle registrazioni di jazz latino 1947-2021 de Luis 
Raul Montell.
Between Brazil and Italy!!"



Boris Sudres 

Guitar, Tres, Bandleader

"C'est un veritable honneur et plaisir d'etre 
mentionnedans cette Bible du Latin Jazz par Luis 
Montell pour monalbum Boris y Los Amigos del 
Montuno, un fuerte abrazo y muchas gracias a ti 
Luis y Que Viva The Latin Jazz!".


Hamid Cooper

Percussion, Teamleader

"The Bible of Latin Jazz by Dr. Luis Raul Montell!
Book overview:
This book is dedicated the musicians that dedicate 
their musical art to the Latin Jazz, not caring their 
origin, and the recordings that have carried out in 
that genre, as leaders or companions (sidemen)..."


Viva The Latin Jazz!!

sábado, 18 de noviembre de 2023

Renowned musicians praise the book "The Bible of Latin Jazz" (II)



Luis Raul Montell is immensely grateful for all these encouraging and uplifting expressions about "The Bible of Latin Jazz", coming from excellent musicians...who are wonderful people: 


Wilson "Chembo" Corniel
Congas, Percussion, Bandleader

"I just received my copy of "The Bible of Latin Jazz" 
by Luis Raul Montell, thank you for the mention and 
the intensive work you've done! Gracias"


Corina Bartra
Vocal, Percussion, Bandleader

"I want specially to thank Luis Raul Montell for 
includingme in his book, I haihly recommend, 
The Bible of Latin Jazz"


David Cantrell
Latin Jazz Lover

"A real labor of love"


Patricia Fuertes 
Vocal

"Estoy en shock!!! Me siento increiblemente 
honrada y agradecida con el renombrado 
escritor y periodista, especializado en Jazz 
Latino Luis Raul Montell por haberme incluido
en su mas reciente libro "La Biblia del Jazz 
Latino" 


Viva The Latin Jazz!!

domingo, 17 de septiembre de 2023

Renowned musicians praise the book "The Bible of Latin Jazz" (I)



Luis Raul Montell is immensely grateful for all these encouraging and uplifting expressions about "The Bible of Latin Jazz", coming from excellent musicians...who are wonderful people:

David Chamberlain
trombonista, bandleader, arranger

"Thank you Luis Raul Montell for including me and my 

Band of Bones in your Bible of Latin Jazz! There is a bio 

and reviews and personnel listings for all four of  our 

Band of Bones CDs!!! Honored that you have thought 

enough of our work to mention it in this extremely 

comprehensive volume!"


Victor Rendon

Timbalero, educador, bandleader

"The Bronx Conexion Latin Jazz Big Band and other works of 

mine made it into "The Bible of Latin Jazz" by Luis Raul Montell. 

Thank youLuis for including mw and many of my colleagues in 

this colossal workthat you have done!"


Gabriele Tranchina
Vocal

"Today I received "The Bible of Latin Jazz" by the wonderful 

Luis Montell. There is so much love for the music and 

thoughtfulness in here.. An extra thrill is a very generous write 

up of moi. I am now "offcicially" a lady of Latin Jazz".


Socrates Garcia

Director de Orquesta, Educador


"Journalist and Latin Jazz specialist Luis Raul Montell

published this book, The Bible of Latin Jazz and included 

me and my album Back Home. You can get the book as an 

ebook and softcover. Thanks! It is an honor to be included!"