Roberto Pla and His Latin Ensemble
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CDs of The Big Three Palladium Orchestra’s FreeStage 6.30pm – 7.15pm Live At the Blue Note are available to purchase exclusively from the MUSE music shop on the Roberto Pla and Ground Floor Foyer. his Latin Ensemble There will also be a post-show CD signing with Don’t miss the Colombian born salsa Machito Jr and Tito Rodriguez Jr after tonight’s percussionist Roberta Pla, performing with concert on the Ground Floor foyer outside his12-piece Latin Ensemble. The founder of the MUSE. UK’s first salsa band Valdez, internationally The Big 3 Palladium Orchestra set will broadcast acclaimed for his 1980s world-tour with pop on BBC FOUR at 10–11pm on Friday 29 January megastars Boney M and having also toured (after the first part of the Latin Music USA around Europe and America with Joe Strummer documentary.) (Ex Clash), legendary percussionist Carlos ‘Patato’ Valdez and Fania Allstars vocalist The La Excelencia set will broadcast on BBC Adalberto Santiago, Roberto is hailed as the FOUR at 10–11pm on Friday 5th February Colombian Godfather of Salsa music in the UK. (after the second part of the Latin Music USA documentary.) Dancing encouraged! This programme is printed on There will be one interval in tonight’s concert. 100% 100% recycled materials. Smoking is not permitted anywhere on the Barbican premises. No cameras, tape recorders or any other recording equipment may be taken The Barbican is provided by the City of London Corporation as part of its contribution to the into the hall. cultural life of London and the nation. Book Now do something different www.barbican.org.uk/ contemporary (Reduced booking fee online) 0845 120 7557 (bkg fee) Sun 31 Jan 7.30pm Fri 9 Apr Jan Garbarek Group The Triffids The defining voice in European A Secret In The Shape jazz returns with music from his new Of A Song album Dresden (ECM). Spectacular gathering of members of cult Australian heroes plus a Sat 20 Feb 7.30pm star cast of guests to celebrate the songwriting genius of their late African Soul Rebels leader David McComb Oumou Sangare, Orchestre Poly Rythmo, Kalahari Fri 16 Apr 7.30pm Surfers (Featuring Lesego Dee Dee Bridgewater: Rampolokeng) A triple bill of Africa’s finest talent. To Billie Holiday ClubStage: Afrikan Boy with Love A tribute to Billie Holiday from one Mon 1 March 7.30pm of today’s greatest jazz voices. 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Mario Grillo (Machito Jr) timbales, leader Without DJs to fill the spots between sets (who’d Tito Rodriguez Jr timbales, leader heard of such a thing?), the Big 3 went on in Larry Moses trumpet wham-bam succession, each trying to outdo the Steve Dawson trumpet other. Gauntlets were thrown. Jaws dropped. Neil Morley trumpet Neil Waters trumpet This was the 1950s; the mambo craze had Wilfredo De La Torre alto sax exploded. Faster than the rumba, looser than Carlos Lopez Real alto sax the cha-cha-cha (though these cats played Peter Wareham tenor sax those too), mambo rocked. Machito – singer, Martin Harman baritone conductor, maraca player, legend – released Gilberto Colon Jr piano Babarabatiri, Asia Minor and hit after mambo Guillermo Edghill bass hit. Tito Puente, El Rey of the timbales, struck Eddie Montalvo conga gold with Mambozooka and Ran Kan Kan. Tito Pedro Laboy bongo ‘El Inolvidable (The Unforgettable)’ Rodriguez Sammy Gonzalez vocals churned out Mambo Gee Gee, Pop’n’Mambo, Mambo Madness. The original mambo kings, Guests they burned up the Palladium bandstand, Larry Harlow piano playing their songs of love. Emo Luciano vocals The Big 3 Luis Rosario vocals mentored Latin jazz and salsa Jimmy Bosch trombone musicians subsequently snapped up by the Gabriel Fonseca violin salsa-defining Fania Records. They shared bills with Cuban giants Beny Moré, Orchestra On Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Aragon, Celia Cruz. On Wednesday nights Sundays the queue used to snake around the they made space for fun-filled contests: pie- block, from the corner of West 53rd Street eating competitions, skirt-raising showdowns right down around Broadway. The movie stars and Mambo dancing eliminations, where a would have jumped it; it’s hard to imagine discerning crowd got to judge couples wearing the likes of Marlon Brando, James Dean and numbers on their backs. Gorgeous George Hamilton waiting in line. But the Palladium was Latin music’s hippest, most The Big 3 invited guests onstage to play with famous nightclub. Here, at this open-to-everyone them; guests including bebopper Dizzy Gillespie, second floor concert hall, the musicians and blind pianist George Shearing, crooner Sammy dancers weren’t just good. Oye! They trailed fire. Davis Jr. and, in 1961, five-year-old Machito Jr - who played a timbale solo in Tito Puente’s To perform at the Palladium you had to audition, orchestra while standing on a chair next to El Rey. which meant that only the best got to play. The vibe was high quality, high energy, relentless. By the time the Palladium shut its doors in 1966, The bands were invariably hot. But as everyone tastes had shifted. The Big 3 kept on keeping on in the queue knew, three bands were hotter but separately, never on the same night. Their than others. Three bands, three bandleaders: sons grew up reveling in their legacy, listening to Machito Jr Larry Harlow Tito Rodriguez Jr and Machito Jr their vinyl and honing their musical craft. Then masters at different points in their musical life.” when the time felt right – when it seemed as if the whole world was listening to the music of A big Barbican welcome, then, to the Larry Harlow Machito, Puente and Rodriguez again – they set Orchestra’s guest soloists: , a about creating an orchestra that would perform living legend of Afro-Cuban music. The man original charts from their fathers’ golden era, behind the explosive trumpet and trombone and feature musicians who had played in the sound of contemporary salsa; the first-ever original Palladium Ballroom. piano player for the legendary Fania All-stars; a Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award Machito Jr, whose idea it was, had only winner and the leader of his own Latin Legends figured to do “one gig for the history books.” of Fania orchestra. But after the first show in 2001 blew everyone Jimmy Bosch away the offers kept on coming. Hollywood Welcome, : salsa’s Brutal Bowl, New York’s Belleayre Jazz Festival, festivals Trombone. El Trombon Criollo. A bandleader, across Europe… If anyone doubted that this composer and lyricist at the vanguard of was the most brilliant Latin jazz ensemble this modern salsa; and a veteran of over 70 side of Havana, a 2004 live recording, The Big recordings with some of Latin music’s greatest. 3 Palladium Orchestra: Live At the Blue Note, Welcome, too, to all of the Orchestra’s stellar with its ‘screaming horn section, frenzied rhythm guests. section and bone-crunching arrangements’, Tonight, for one night only, the Barbican is the sealed their reputation. The 2008 re-release Palladium. The heat is on. The vibe is high. Look underlined it. around. You never know who might turn up to And so the Big 3 Palladium Orchestra keeps on play. swinging into the 21st century, aided by heavy So, uno, dos, tres. Ready? Everybody mambo… hitters such as Machito Jr’s fellow timbalero Tito Rodriguez Jr (who has led a revival of Dancing encouraged! his father’s orchestra since 2008) and Puente orchestra veteran Joe Madera, the outfit’s current musical director. It’s not always easy to come together – just as Machito Jr. also La Excelencia maintains his own father’s orchestra, each of the musicians in this glorious line-up is in busy (from 7.30pm) demand elsewhere – but come together they do. José ‘Manos de Hierro’ Vazques-Cofresi “The selection of the musicians in the band is congas crucial for us,” Machito Jr. has said. “We want Julian Silva timbales many things from them: musicianship, vast Charles ‘Swing’ Dilone bongo / cowbell experience in the big band/orchestra format, Willy Rodriguez keyboard knowledge of the music of the masters, the ability Gilberto Velazquez vocals to bring it to life in the most authentic way we can and most importantly, having played with the Jimmy Bosch La Excelencia Edwin Perez vocals danceable dance styles.