[Dixielandjazz] The Modern Spanish Tinge -was -Jazz for kids in Cuba

[Stephen G Barbone]

On Oct 11, 2010, at 3:08 PM, Ken Mathieson wrote:

> Hi Steve et al,
>
> The Article posted by Steve about the Lincoln Centre Orchestra's  
> visit to Cuba and, particularly, the comments about a bridge between  
> jazz music and Cuban music being formed by Dizzy and Chano Pozo in  
> the 1940s started some bells ringing.
>
> I used to work occasionally with Benny Watters when he visited  
> Scotland in the 1970s and 80s and more frequently with a fine  
> Scottish bassist and guitarist, Francis Cowan. Both are sadly no  
> longer with us (Benny had a good long innings, but Francis's was  
> sadly cut short in a traffic accident by a truck driver who fell  
> asleep at the wheel), but I recall Francis recounting a conversation  
> he had with Benny.
>
> He had asked what was hot in NYC when Benny first arrived from the  
> Boston area - what did Benny go to hear once work was over -  
> expecting to be regaled with tales of epic cutting contests in  
> Harlem. Instead Benny said "we all went over to Spanish Harlem to  
> hear the Puerto Rican bands. They were playing something very  
> different." When Francis asked in what way was it different, Benny  
> replied that it was way ahead of what was being played in New York  
> dance halls and that the trumpet players played a way out style  
> "like Dizzy Gillespie." When asked when this was, Benny said "around  
> 1925."
>
> It might be anecdotal evidence, but it suggests that the bridge had  
> been around a while before Dizzy and Chano got together. That could  
> be an interesting research project: the story of Puerto Rican music  
> in NYC and its impact on jazz.

Right on Ken. It is well to note that the great Cuban trumpeter Mario  
Bauza joined Chick Webb's band in 1933 or so. About that time Bauza  
was teaching Dizzy Gillespie how to play Cuban rhythms, while Chick  
Webb was teaching Bauza how to play like a black jazz musician.

In 1940/41 Bauza helped form Machito's Afro Cubans in NYC. This was  
perhaps the first popular afro-cuban jazz band. It had a huge impact  
on jazz rhythm. (modern jazz that is. <grin>) And a huge impact on the  
use of electric bass and electric organ. When Lionel Hampton added  
those instruments (and the heavy back beat) to his orchestra's  
arrangements, he got the idea from Bauza.

Then in the late 1940s, after Dizzy had commented in Downbeat that  
"jazz was probably going back to where it started, a man beating a  
drum",  Dizzy asked Bauza to recommend a Cuban Conga Drummer. That man  
was Chano Pozo and when he joined Gillespie's band, the results were  
songs like Manteca, Cubana Be / Cubana Bop and others. Great stuff  
which I saw first hand at Birdland.

BUT, when Pozo and Bauza played with 100% cuban bands, the results  
were astounding. I walked into the Palladium next to Birdland in NYC  
one night in the 1950s. It was a latin dance night club. Pozo and  
Bauza were there with an afro-cuban jazz/dance band. Besides marveling  
at the hot latin chicks dancing, I was blown away by the band. They  
played with a preciseness and fire that was far ahead of anything the  
Gillespie band ever did.

Don't take my word for it, just go out and listen to some of Pozo's or  
Bauza's work with "Machito's Afro Cubans".

Here they are with a prescient version of dancing with the stars. <grin>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPKSs_25fuE&feature=related.

Or this one, a little jazzier.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqeks0gDaF8

Or this one on the Bill Cosby Show (in Spanish)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IE5qLVS66Ek

Great music just taking Jelly's "Spanish Tinge" to another level.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband