Latin Jazz and Jazz in the Antilles and South America beyond the U.S Latin Jazz scene.

Leon Salcedo

Pittsburgh PA, November 25 2011

In the origins of Latin Jazz, names like Machito, Mario Bauza, Chico O'farrell, Chano Pozo, Dizzy, and Tito Puente are an indispensable reference. It is indisputable that these artists are the most recognized musicians in the creation of this musical style. However, beyond the New York City scene and the presence of Cuban and Caribbean musicians who were immigrants there, the dialogues between jazz and other styles of popular music from Latin America, was something that was happening through the Americas long before and followed a parallel evolution to the NYC and LA scenes. This article is a starting point of a more exhaustive research project on the evolution of jazz in the Antilles and South America through its entire geography. In that sense, it presents a general view with important moments and names in the development of jazz in this region.

First Dialogues Between North and South Since the sixteenth century, European countries with American colonies brought slaves from different countries and ethnic groups: the slaves of the Spanish were Yoruba (Nigerian people who spoke Lucumi); the English preferred the Ashantis, while the French used the Dahomey, and the Portuguese owned mainly the Senegalese. However, places like Havana and New Orlans were centers of slave traffic, in which strong ethnic mestization of people with African origins occurred. This mixing resulted in a cultural and musical blending as well. Gradually, this music found other cultures and traditions; the musicians assimilated new rhythms, new melodic formulas. The Afro-Cuban music was combined with the bomba and plena, from Puerto Rico, joropo from Venezuela, Dominican merengue and cumbia, and porro and vallenato rhythms from Colombia.

Early Twentieth Century After the end of slavery in Cuba (1886), many Afro Cubans went to New Orlans. With them, the Contradanza and other Caribbean and South American rhythms accompanied them. These immigrant musicians played music with the locals, and developed their own ideas. At the same time, many North American companies came to South America to exploit natural resources and established headquarters of their companies. American radio stations became each day more popular and many North Americans went to Latin America. Soon, through 78 LPs, African American music (jazz, represented under the label of foxtrot) became popular in the main cities in

the Caribbean and South America; the local musicians discovered the blues, the music of the banjo, the fox trot, and collective improvisation with trumpets, clarinets and trombones. American cinema also helped promote this discourse. Hollywood glamor was reinforced by the appearance of the famous swing orchestras, some of which (such as Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington or Count Basie) had a special appreciation for an audience attracted not by dancing but by sections improvisation by outstanding soloists. In terms of the social function of jazz, it was part of the desire for modernity represented by the growing impact of American culture on the periphery of the western world. American culture began to have an increasing presence in everyday life in Latin America, a presence that was based on economic dependency and technological development. It is no coincidence that major labels were active in the region RCA Victor and Columbia, US companies pioneer since 1902 in the dissemination of popular music through the LP.

First Steps to a Musical Integration of Jazz and Tropical styles In articles like the one published in 1927 by the Chilenian magazine Marsyas under the title of "swing y msica de salon", there are registers of different jazz bands and orchestras in South America, like the one conducted by Pal Whiteman in Santiago in 1924 formed by 3 violins, 3 saxes, 2 trumpets, clarinet, trombone, tuba, banjo, drums and piano. In Venezuela some bands were the Jazz Band of Carlos Bonnett (1924) and Le Perroquet Royal Jazz Band (1927). In Argentina the bands of Francisco Canaro and Roberto Firpo played varied repertoire that included swing, Dixieland and Ragtime. During this whole period Jazz was danced under the generic label of swing, was sung in the form of fox-trot and was recognized under the name of melodic jazz written in orchestral arrangements which there was no possibility of improvise solos. The orchestras of popular music incorporated all this music on their repertoire, and the influence of this music was quickly reflected in music composed in local rhythms. In 1931, the Brothers Castro (Cuban) recorded a version of St. Louis Blues (WC Handy), where we can hear the opening lines of The Manisero: the first attempt to mix these rhythms (the bolero-son), with jazz melodies and harmonies. In 1939, the clarinetist and saxophonist Syndney Bechet recorded twenty-one Hatian titles with his orchestra, a composition that shows jazz improvisations with Cuban rumba and Haitian merengue. Luis Maria Frometa Pereyra better known as Billo, came to Venezuela from the Dominican Republic in 1937, he founded the band "The Billo's Happy Boys", then known as the "Billos Caracas Boys." This orchestra entertained parties and social gatherings in Caracas, and had for many years a space in the radio station "Radio Caracas" called "A Gozar Muchachos." The

orchestra played tropical dance music, after completion of dance sets and between breaks taken by the couples, it was normal to hear the orchestra playing themes popularized by the great American bands of the forties. A sort of tropical versions of Satin Doll, American Patrol, String of Pearls, Moonlight Serenade among others.

More Orthodox Approaches vs Descargas While these dialogues between jazz and local music took place in Venezuela, Cuba and Puerto Rico, further south in countries like Chile and Argentina the first hot jazz clubs were born around 1948. There were groups of musicians interested in a more academic and conservative approach to jazz. These situations did not generate any mixture initially between jazz and local music, but became the basis on which musicians learned the language of jazz in these countries. This later became the basis for more mixed musical expressions. Jazz had an exclusive place on the Santiago Jazz Club (CJS), an institution founded in 1943 by fans, who in some cases were also amateur musicians. Initially the CJS was a meeting place for these fans, which met to exchange information, made audition of records and play their instruments in an emerging jam session. Fans took jazz in a new concept, which was contained in Title I of the Statutes of CJS, formalized in 1951: "The Santiago Jazz Club is committed to assemble in a stable and permanent way everyone who interested in studying, practicing and propagate the art called jazz. " They even ventured to a characterization of what was considered jazz as an object of worship. For them this music had to meet 5 criteria: 1) African American musical origin; 2) binary rhythm, continuous and syncopated c) creative Interpretation, 4) predominance of improvisation based on a rhythmic and harmonic preset structure 5) Employment of some typical elements of African American music, which are impossible to write by conventional signs, because their ultimate value is not determined on the staff (melody inflexions and phrasing). Between 1944 and 1945 the CJS produced the recording of the first phonograph records under the RCA Victor: Hot jazz Chile, with the Chilean Jazz Combo. The forties and fifties would have much more activity for jazz in Latin America. Then, the first jazz clubs were founded in Colombia, Venezuela, Chile, Peru, Chile and Argentina, always with an almost academic approach and frequented by intellectuals attracted to music that took status of cultured and refined. However in the Caribbean the musical expression known as "Descarga" became more popular each day. Descarga was developed as a jam session over Antillean traditional music rhythms. In 1854, the Gazette of Havana evokes a descarga in which Louis Moreau Gottschalk was invited. Later on, many concerts were often finished with a "rumba" or descarga, the words

"Descarga" and "Jam Session" became synonymous. In those descargas the musicians began to blend jazz and Afro-Cuban rhythms. While Mario Bauza created the Latin jazz in New York, latin jazz also was created in Havana by almost anonymous musicians.

Looking for identity Until the late forties it was common to observe an approach to jazz, based on isolated scores achieved in the U.S music stores or those that scarcely could be found in major cities. This approach was merely a reiteration full of personal expressions of each artist, in the context of their place of origin had an important meaning, which was sometimes lost when moved to other contexts. The audience eager to hear live jazz attended concerts. However, musicians considered testing new ways of performing after exhausting these possibilities. Different jazz groups began incorporating more and more rhythms and traditional music of each region. From the Caribbean to Patagonia, jazz in the Antilles and South America was building its identity from the research on its own musical reality. In the late forties, Venezuelan musician Aldemaro Romero was invited by Alfredo Sadel, to New York. He formed there Al Romero Latin Jazz Quintet , the quintet was composed by Micky Clarke on bass, Willy Rodriguez on drums, Sabu Martinez on congas, Hal Macuse on sax and Romero on piano. In New York this group recorded twenty titles in the format of 45 rpm, unfortunately lost in time. Romero recorded the LP Dinner in Caracas (RCA Victor, 1951) in New York City,. Romero made arrangements of popular Venezuelan repertoire doing it accessible to all audiences, both Venezuelan and foreign. This, of course, was criticized at the beginning. However, the quality of the work exceeded all these attacks, broke all records sales and was in the nineties still a catalog piece. Romero returned to Venezuela in 1954 and settled there permanently. At the end of the sixties, he developed with Frank "El Pavo" Hernandez and Jorge Romero the Onda Nueva. The Onda Nueva is a mixture among jazz, modern and traditional music of the ColombianVenezuelan plains. This trend continues to develop today as an interesting musical movement in Colombia and Venezuela. In Peru jazz began in the 60s with Jorge Delgado Aparicio. He was a young pianist who, after winning a school competition for piano, went to finishing his studies at Berkley College of Music in Boston. Returning to Peru, he gotten down to spread this style and formed several bands, in addition to promoting concerts in theaters in the city Lima during the 60s and 70s. But perhaps his most important work was "The Contemporary Music Orchestra", which he conducted for years. In 1970 Delgado was hired as musical director by the recording studio Sono Radio, the Peru's

most important studio, and from that position, he dedicated to supporting new tendencies and new musicians, giving opportunity to those who were under his tutelage, to experiment and create their own language. Great musicians as Richie Zellon and Oscar Stagnaro, came out from these projects. This was a creative generation with an intense energy and above all, wanting to experience the limits of what could be done from the tradition of Peru. "Hijos del sol" was born, in this research; it was a project to record an album, whose goal was to create a new language that openly merged Peruvian music with modern jazz arrangements. This band was formed by great Peruvian musicians such as, Alex Acua on percussion, Lucho Gonzales on guitar, Eva Ayllon on vocals, Oscar Stagnaro on bass and international guests as saxophonists Paquito D'Rivera and Wayne Shorter. In the Chilean jazz scene, Guillermo Rifo founded with other major Chilean musicians, Aquila group in 1973 and the sextet Hindemith 76 in 1976. These were the first groups that played Chilean traditional music mixed with jazz. In the eighties Andrs Pollak, Pablo Lecaros and Peter Greene, formed Marraqueta group. This work proposed an encounter among jazz improvisation, Chilenian folk and roots music of the Mapuche indigenous. In Colombia, recordings of first jazz artists appear in the middle fifties. The first recording of jazz in Colombia was made in 1959 by the Luis Rovira Sextet. This recording included arrangements of traditional Colombian music from the Atlantic coast composed by Lucho Bermudez and Pacho Galan. Francisco Zumaque recorded Macumbia in 1984. This production was a pioneer in a style that combines jazz, pop and traditional Colombian music. Colombia Caribe is another example that shows the flexible and eclectic style of the composer. This piece became the anthem of the Caribbean Music Festival in 1985 and is one of his most popular compositions. Argentinian acclaimed bandeoneonist Rodolfo Mederos recorded Fuera de Broma 8 in 1976. This album influenced a generation of Argentinian musicians in the seventies and eighties who explored the tango- jazz fusion.

Present and future Since the seventies many musicians who work from Latin America have been current protagonists in the development of Latin Jazz with music as varied as is the musical diversity of Latin America. Some examples are, Chucho Valdes and Irakere, Rodolfo Mederos, Joe Madrid, Oscar Acevedo, Dino Saluzzi, Teresa Briceno, Leonardo Blanco, Antonio Arnedo, among many others.

Today the Latin American jazz scene brings a number of musicians influenced by traditional, academic and urban music. Just to mention a few examples of this, we can name from Argentina guitarist Fernando Tarres and Quinteto Urbano. Lecaros family in Chile has a lineage renovator exponent in bassist Paul Lecaros, from Peru guitarist Andres Pardo ventures into variety of jazz genres, in Colombia exponents such as Puerto Candelaria and Juan Sebastian Monsalve incorporated in their mixtures of traditional Colombian music and jazz other influences from world music and the avant garde music. Several South American jazz musicians have migrated to other countries and there have begun musical projects. We can see a renewed Latin jazz scene in places like New York City. Names of new musicians have becoming more frequent. Artist such as Gabriel Alegria and his Afro-Peuano sextet, Lucia Pulido, Gregorio Uribe, Pablo Mayor, Pablo Aslan, Ricardo Gallo and Yuri Juarez. All these musicians like in the old days of Machito and Mario Bauza, inspire and support their proposals in a musical dialogue that has been happened through several centuries through North and South America and the Antilles. Some of the most important jazz festivals in Latin America are: Al Fin Festival in Buenos Aires, Jazz al parque Festival in Bogot, Peru Jazz in Lima, Jazz Festival of Sucre Theater in Quito, Hajazzgo in Cali, Jazz festival of Margarita, Providencia Jazz Festival in Santiago. The jazz scene in Latin America often remains dependent on state subsidies, but it has managed to form an inclusive and growing audience. This is reflected in the increasingly active assistance and participation in jazz festivals all through the region. South America and the Antilles have already found many ways and styles to interpret itself through jazz and share its vision of this genre with the rest of the world.

Bibliography

Calle, Rafael Arvelo. Historia del Jazz en Venezuela. Caracas: Grupo Editorial Ballgrub, 1997. Delannoy ,Luc and Neira, Mara Antonia. Bigorra.Caliente: Una historia del jazz latino, Mxico: Fondo de Cultura Econmica, 2001. Gonzlez, Juan Pablo and Rolle, Claudio. Historia social de la msica popular en Chile 1890 -1950. Santiago: Ediciones de la Universidad Catlica de Chile, 2004. . Leymarie, Isabelle. Jazz Latino: Cuba, Brasil y Sudamerica en el Jazz. Barcelona Ediciones Robinbook, 2005. Leymarie, Isabelle. Cuban Fire: La Musica Cubana y sus Estilos. Oxford Bayou Press, 2003.