Blog, Cuba
The organization is called RitmaCuba.com and it’s headquartered in France, Pierrefitte to be exact, just north of Paris.
Their work focuses on Santiago de Cuba.
Over the years, they’ve assembled a treasure trove of Afro-Cuban music video and have been adding to their YouTube archive for ten years. Diving into it ought to keep you busy (and warm) all winter – and beyond.
Their complete video archive organized by category is here: Ritma Cuba
If you want to read the descriptions that accompany the videos (they’re all in French), you can use this instant translation service from Google. It’s pretty good for a machine translation and it’s free
Click here to translate French to English
Great news!
You can now watch this video – and all Spanish language videos – with English subtitles. It’s free!
Click here for instructions on how to turn on English subtitles.
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
P.S. Our unique programming is made possible by help from people like you. Learn how you can contribute to our efforts here: Support Jazz on the Tube
Thanks.
Blog
Music to accompany last week’s reading from Nathan W. Pearson Jr.’s book “Goin’ to Kansas City”
Includes a fascinating solo that 20 year old Parker self-recorded and four 1942-43 trio tracks with one of his unheralded music mentors guitarist Efferge Ware.
* Walter Page’s Blue Devils – Blue Devil Blues (1929) – (00:00)
* Lady Be Good (1936) – (02:44)
Lester Young and Count Basie’s – Vocalion recording of “Lady Be Good” (1936)
* Solo (private recording) (1940) – (05:51)
Reputedly made in a small recording booth of the time where the public could record themselves. He was 20 years old.
* Swingmatism featuring Charlie Parker Jay McShann’s (1941) – (08:55)
Cherokee (1942) – (11:33)
Charlie Parker, alto saxophone
Efferge Ware, guitar
Phil Phillips, drums
Vic Damon Studio, Kansas City
* Body and Soul (1942) – (14:42)
Charlie Parker, alto saxophone
Efferge Ware, guitar
Phil Phillips, drums
Vic Damon Studio, Kansas City
* My Heart Tells Me (1942-43) – (18:24)
Charlie Parker, alto saxophone
Efferge Ware, guitar
Phil Phillips, drums
Vic Damon Studio, Kansas City
* I’ve Found a New Baby (1942-43) – (21:41)
Charlie Parker, alto saxophone
Efferge Ware, guitar
Phil Phillips, drums
Vic Damon Studio, Kansas City
* St. Louis Mood (1942) – (25:11)
Charlie Parker with the Jay McShann Orchestra at the Savoy Ballroom, NYC
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
P.S. Our unique programming is made possible by help from people like you. Learn how you can contribute to our efforts here: Support Jazz on the Tube
Blog, Chroniclers, Podcasts
Download the mp3 here
Some essential gems of jazz history hidden in an obscure book I came across about about jazz in Kansas City
The book is built around dozens of great musicians who lived through its Golden Age telling the story…in their own words.
Some of the diamonds I uncovered:
* The essential differences between New Orleans, Chicago, and Kansas City-style jazz
* The very real trouble Lester Young had holding down a job and how Eddie Durham wrote arrangements specifically to make him and his unique tone employable
* What young Count Basie was like and why the extent of his genius is not fully appreciated
* A vivid picture of what a musical paradise Kansas City was in its prime and why it might have been THE most musician-friendly city in all of human history!
* The seldom-mentioned musical influences that produced a generation of master musicians in America’s Southwest – Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri – that fed Kansas City’s musical scene.
* A finely detailed description of exactly how Charlie Parker worked out his harmonic concept and two little-known musicians who coached him through the process.
* The extraordinary musical life of Mary Lou Williams from her teenage years on the road, to thriving in Kansas City, to mentoring young musicians like Thelonious Mon, Bud Powell and others and helping them work out their some of their classic compositions.
* A cogent argument for the case that Kansas City was where MODERN jazz was born.
Click here for music referenced in this reading
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
P.S. Our unique programming is made possible by help from people like you. Learn how you can contribute to our efforts here: Support Jazz on the Tube
Blog, Jazz on the Tube Interview, Podcasts
Download the mp3 here
Monika Herzig, Vic Hobson, David Wright in conversation with Jazz on the Tube’s Ken McCarthy.
The inspiration for the conversation was Vic Hobson’s revelation that Louis Armstrong’s art was built on top of his experience as a street corner vocal quartet singer as documented in his book Creating the Jazz Solo.
It seems that all the early jazz greats shared Armstrong’s experience: Jerry Roll Morton, W.C. Handy, Earl “Fatha” Hines, and Sidney Bechet were all members of “barbershop” groups in their youth.
Contemporaries say even Buddy Bolden got his harmonic ideas from singing groups.
So how do we apply this important insight to contemporary music and jazz education?
We take an initial stab at it. Maybe you have ideas too. If so, we’d love to hear your thoughts. You can post them below.
For more on this, you can listen to Vic and David at Satchmo Fest 2019
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
P.S. Our unique programming is made possible by help from people like you. Learn how you can contribute to our efforts here: Support Jazz on the Tube
Afro-Cuban culture, Blog, Cuba, The Cuba-US connection, Video and audio
Big news: You can catch Jane and her band in an intimate setting at the Falcon on the Hudson Valley this Sunday, September 15, 2019.
Jane Bunnett and and her husband Larry Kramer have provided the gateway to the larger world for countless young Cuban musicians.
Being from Canada helps. Unlike those of us from the “Land of the No-So-Free”, they’ve been able to travel back and forth to Cuba providing support to the musicians there uninterrupted for over 25 years.
This is Jane’s latest band that includes at least two super stars from the new generation: Daymé Arocena, vocals and Yissy García, drums and super stars to be, some of whom received their introduction to the jazz idiom from Jane: Melvis Santa, vocals & percussion; Mary Paz, congas & vocals. Danae Olana, piano: and Tailin Marrero, acoustic & electric bass.
Big news: You can catch Jane and her band in an intimate setting at the Falcon on the Hudson Valley this Sunday, September 15, 2019.
Other locations on their 2019 Northeast US tour
See them while you can. The jackasses in Washington are making it brutally difficult for Cuban musicians to tour in the US.
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
P.S. Our unique programming is made possible by help from people like you. Learn how you can contribute to our efforts here: Support Jazz on the Tube
Thanks.
Go to Cuba with Jazz on the Tube as your guide:
Click here for details
Afro-Cuban culture, Blog, Cuba, Cuban Jazz, Video and audio
A beautiful singer, a beautiful band, and beautiful footage of the beautiful people of Cuba.
The tune is “La Rumba Me Llamo Yo”
The singer and leader is Daymé Arocena, one of the great artists of the new generation of Cuba.
A comment from a YouTube viewer:
“I’m not Cuban or have any Hispanic descendant but I watched her on tiny desk here on YouTube and ever since I’ve been listening to her music. I don’t even understand half of what she’s singing about. Her voice is just so powerful and magnetic.”
That’s the magic of the music.
A little about Daymé:
Born and raised in Havana, her conservatoire training was combined with an upbringing grounded in Cuba’s own musical foundations. Accepted age 9 into one of the country’s prestigious music schools, she studied a choir directing course rooted in Western classical tradition. Meanwhile, she grew up with the day-to-day schooling in folkloric music that’s common to most Cuban households. At regular, intimate get-togethers, celebrating the island’s Santería religion, dancing and singing are the gatherings’ mainstays – a combination that’s meant she sees its deep-rooted traditions in a wider musical context.
Winning the prestigious Marti y el Arte award in 2007, her talent was spotted at a young age. Becoming principal singer with big band Los Primos at age 14, nods of approval followed from Wynton Marsalis, the Lincoln Centre’s teacher and trumpet player, and much-lauded saxophonist Jane Bunnett
Click here for more about Daymé and her music.
Great news!
You can now watch this video – and all Spanish language videos – with English subtitles. It’s free!
Click here for instructions on how to turn on English subtitles.
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
P.S. Our unique programming is made possible by help from people like you. Learn how you can contribute to our efforts here: Support Jazz on the Tube
Thanks.
Go to Cuba with Jazz on the Tube as your guide:
Click here for details
