Featured artist: SONIDO ISLEÑO
Spandex
may be passé for rockers, but it’s still all about
how well you shred. For jazz musicians, you’ve got to shred
and swing -- not to mention the necessity of having a complete
command of harmony. For Latin jazz musicians, add another dimension
to the mix: La clave -- the signature pulse that has
found its way into many forms of American music. The rhythmic
feeling is so integral to Latin music that playing out of clave
will drive dancers off the dance floor. (This beat is most easily
described as, “Shave and a haircut: two bits.”) Better
still, think of Bo Diddley’s trademark rhythm in his tune
“Who Do You Love.”
Ben Lapidus,
leader of Sonido Isleño, shreds, swings and negotiates
the clave on the tres, a guitar-like instrument
with three double strings, found in Cuba and Puerto Rico. Lest
you think of the tres as an exclusively ‘folkloric’
instrument, check out “La Suegra,” (The Mother-in-law,”)
on the group’s fifth album, titled Vive Jazz. Lapidus
sizzles. If you hear Chicago blues, don’t be surprised.
It’s a family affair.
Without
Latin music, American music would be unrecognizable. From the
outset, as if by divine orchestration, music from the Spanish
Caribbean was not only welcomed in America, it made an indelible
stamp on American music, especially jazz and later rock. Jelly
Roll Morton, the self-proclaimed inventor of jazz, referred to
this impact as the “Latin tinge.”
At the
turn of the century, massive migration of Spanish speakers from
the Caribbean to New Orleans jump-started the ongoing marriage
of African-American music north and south of the border. Starting
in the late 40s, Dizzy Gillespie brought Latin jazz to the forefront
of jazz when he collaborated with Cuban musicians Chano Pozo,
Machito and Mario Bauza. Dizzy even referred to trumpeter and
bandleader Bauza as “my father.”
In the
40s and 50s, Americans of all ethnicities danced the mambo at
New York City’s Palladium, while Beat poets in San Francisco
recited poetry to the beat of the Afro-Cuban bongos. The fusion
conintues today and it is not confined to one style.
Ben Lapidus
is a torch carrier for Latin music, and not just as an amazing
tresero. He also holds a Ph.D from City University of
New York, and adds to his worldwide gigs frequent lectures as
one of Latin music’s foremost scholars. The title of Sonido
Isleño’s most recent cd is taken from the poetry
of Manuel Antonio Dueñas Peluffo, a 14 year-old Colombian
poet, whom the band met while playing at a festival in Colombia.
“I
believe that in order to play any kind of music, you must live
it, hence the title, Vive Jazz, (Live Jazz),”
says Lapidus. Latin jazz lives in his playing, and a quick spin
of Vive Jazz removes any doubt of the power of the tres
as a strong jazz voice.
Listen
to Sonido Isleño perform "La Suegra"
HERE.
