DOCSLIB.ORG

Features, July 09 12/6/09 11:12 Page 21

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Features, July 09 12/6/09 11:12 Page 21 Features, july 09 12/6/09 11:12 Page 21 sacred in my house.” Fonseca is nothing if not eclectic, as his He recorded his first album En El Comienzo at career decisions testify – the track EGREM with Javier Zalba’s latin fusion group ‘Llego Cachaito’ even features on the Temperamento and received the country’s 1999 soundtrack to the Will Smith film, Cubadisco Award for best jazz album. Three solo Hancock. works followed. In 2001, he hit the international stage Oh, and then there’s his as the youngest member of the Buena Vista Social infamous sartorial sponsor, Club, shadowing their ailing maestro Rubén Agnès B. The Parisian González then replacing him on his retirement designer became his self- (“sharing the stage with him was a dream; I’d just appointed stylist after stand there watching him play for hours”). being blown away by But it was the subsequent world tours of Buena one of his concerts; he Vista solo artists Ibrahim Ferrer and Omara has since Portuondo that really saw him shine; not one international review of Ferrer, from Asia to South America, failed to mention his charisma and talent. “My generation had sort of lost touch with the traditional stuff,” he said when I interviewed him in played at Havana for Zamazu, an album that references hip- one of her hop, rap and drum ’n’ bass. “But the Buena Vista shows. The track ‘Como musicians were always introducing new ideas from En Las Peculias’ – a other styles and genres. Ibrahim taught me so many hazy, delicate piece on things: especially that music should be simple, and piano, bass and drums – played from the heart and that no matter how famous is dedicated to both and important you are, you must never forget where France and his savvy you came from.” stylist. “Everyone likes to The heir apparent in a long line of Cuban be well-presented before pianists/bandleaders – from Chucho Valdes to the the public,” he says breezily, likes of Gonzalo Rubalcaba – Fonseca continues to trademark leather hat in place. revitalise latin jazz with a body of work that variously “For me to have the support of Agnès draws on his country’s rich traditions, his thorough B is something very important in my life classical training, extensive experience playing jazz and I hope that we will always work and the world influences he’s absorbed after more together. She is a fantastic person.” than a decade’s worth of international touring. The designer would certainly be Where Zamazu announced the arrival of a major embraced in the dedication on Akokan. “I new player – magnetic, prodigious, brimming with dedicate this new album to all the people musical ideas – Akokan more than vindicates the that have welcomed me with open hype. Recorded in just four days with Fonseca’s arms,” writes Fonseca – by which he aforementioned long-time quartet, it is testament to must mean just about everyone. So the benefits of constant live work and an artist who what’s next? A more experimental has matured and keeps on maturing in confidence jazz album, perhaps? “I want to be and musical prowess. “I wanted to bring the magic, characterised as a musician, not strength and improvisation of my live shows into the as a jazz musician or a musician studio. I wanted to show the different styles. The that only plays traditional music different ways of playing.” or classical music. Music is so Akokan means “heart” in Yoruba, the Nigerian varied that I think the more language that features in the chants of Santeria – the knowledge of music you Afro-Cuban religion beloved of Fonseca and a high have, the more complete percentage of his country’s (mainly Afro-Cuban) you will be and the more population. “Growing up in Havana, Santeria played stories you will have. But a big role in my spiritual upbringing. I am a santero [a jazz for me is freedom.” priest of Santeria] and Chango [the god or orisha of He flashes a smile. “I thunder] is my saint. It is such a powerful and intense never know where I’ll feeling and it has had a huge impact on my music.” go.” It is his Santeria, one suspects, that keeps the Roberto Fonseca non-drinking, non-smoking, non-partying Fonseca plays the Harrogate grounded on these tours of far-flung locales. He has international just finished a wildly-successful tour of Australia and festival on New Zealand; jetlag might explain his downbeat 12 July. demeanour at the Paris showcase. He is fêted everywhere from Spain, where his record company is based, and Italy where he headlined the Umbria jazz festival, to Bulgaria – a country that has made a particularly strong mark, especially its “strong and emotional folklore” which “will always be present in my development as a person and as a musician,” as Fonseca’s sleeve note to the track ‘Bulgarian’ has it, a track woven with Alba’s sinuous clarinet runs. The famous choir’s eponymous Le mystère des voix Bulgares is also cited as a favourite album, alongside everything from Bob Marley’s Legend collection to, um, Sting’s 1986 live album Bring On The Night. Jazzwise \\ JULY09 35.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Omara Portuondo English Biography
    OMARA PORTUONDO Biography The story of the life of Omara Portuondo (Havana, 1930) reads like something out of a film script. The daughter of a well-to-do family and a mother of Spanish descent, she relinquished everything to marry a handsome black member of the Cuban national baseball team – a fact that she kept secret since mixed marriages were frowned upon in Cuba at that time – Omaraʼs first encounter with music was at a very early age. Just as in any other Cuban home, the future singer and her siblings grew up with the songs which her parents, for lack of a gramophone, sang to them. Those melodies, some of which still form part of her repertoire, were young Omaraʼs informal introduction to the world of music. However, before taking up singing as a career, a fortuitous event led her to first try her hand at dancing, following in the footsteps of her sister Haydee, who was a member of the dance company of the famous Tropicana cabaret. One day, in 1945, two days before the opening night of a big new show, one of the dancers gave in her notice. Having watched her sister rehearse for hours on end, Omara knew the steps by heart and so was offered the vacant place in the company. “It was a very classy cabaret”, Omara recalls, “but it didnʼt make any sense. I was a shy girl and was embarrassed at showing my legs”. It was her mother who actually convinced her not to let the opportunity go by and so she began a dancing career that led her to form a legendary duo with Rolando Espinosa and, in 1961, to become a teacher of popular dance at the Escuela de Instructores de Arte.
    [Show full text]
  • Folder Roberto Ohne Beschnitt Marken.Indd
    Roberto Fonseca AKOKAN Born in 1975 (Havana) into a musical family, Roberto Fonseca – career took an unexpected turn. “I went to the EGREM studios to re- despite having been described in many different ways (“the most cord Angá Díaz’s album, invited by him, and when I got there I saw promising and important talent in Cuban music”, “A true revelation many people who were legends to me …, Rubén González, Cachaíto who stands out among pianists of his generation”) – remains faithful López, Guajiro Mirabal…… in two months my whole life changed.” to the wish he has had since the beginning of his career: ”I want my music to reach people who don’t know me, and I dream of one day Shortly afterwards, he was invited to be support pianist to the great becoming a point of reference for my audience…” maestro Rubén González, as part of the renowned Orquesta de Ib- rahim Ferrer and that same year he joined the management com- He started studying piano at the age of 8, though his initial passion pany Montuno. “My God, sharing the stage every night with Rubén was percussion. This interest from such an early age would clearly González was a real dream; I’d just stay there, staring at him play influence his trademark “percussive” piano-playing style. His first for hours”. A dream that toured all over the world, with over 400 “job” was as the drummer for a band doing covers of Beatles songs. concerts, promoting Ibrahim Ferrer’s records next to great legends At the age of 14, he created his first compositions, drawing inspi- such as Cachaíto López, Guajiro Mirabal and Manuel Galbán, among ration from the Afro-Cuban genre: “At school we used to regard others.
    [Show full text]
  • Roberto Fonseca Band Feat. Omara Portuondo Roberto Fonseca Piano
    Autour du monde / iPhil 13–17 ans / Luxembourg Festival 2014 Mercredi / Mittwoch / Wednesday 12.11.2014 20:00 Grand Auditorium Roberto Fonseca Band feat. Omara Portuondo Roberto Fonseca piano, keyboards, vocals Joel Hierrezuelo Cuban percussions, coros Ramsés Rodríguez drums Yandi Martínez bass, double bass Omara Portuondo vocals Dans le cadre de Luxembourg Festival L’éternelle pulsation Roberto Fonseca Band feat. Omara Portuondo Guillaume Bregeras La main droite attaquant les aigus du clavier. La gauche suspen- due en l’air. Les yeux clos puis grands ouverts, le regard perdu loin. Très loin. Roberto Fonseca accompagne chacune des notes de «Llego Cachaito», hymne pour ses fidèles, par un trait saillant qui jaillit de son visage. Expressif, il l’est. Attachant, tout autant. Suspendu, au-dessus de tout, lorsqu’il s’installe derrière son pia- no, l’icône de la nouvelle génération des maîtres cubains marche sur l’air. La loi de la gravité ne semble pas s’appliquer à lui com- me à ses semblables, c’est aussi simple que cela. Pour compren- dre sa musique, il faut lâcher prise, la laisser infuser dans son esprit comme une évidence. Délicieuse évidence… Un tempo d’avance Sans en rajouter, il indique la route à suivre avec grâce. Il est de la trempe de ceux qui connaissent instinctivement la voie, la bonne voie. Ceux qui créent le chemin là où personne n’imagine passer. Comme un maître d’échec, il anticipe toujours un coup d’avance. Cette dynamique, aussi inexplicable qu’elle puisse être en musique, se comprend pourtant très bien. Elle est d’abord le fruit d’une réflexion, d’une préparation.
    [Show full text]
  • Roberto Fonseca & Fatoumata Diawara
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CAP UCLA presents Roberto Fonseca & Fatoumata Diawara March 23 at The Theatre at Ace Hotel DTLA "The Cuban keyboardist is a terrific example of what makes 21st century improvised music so exciting: Fonseca is part of a generation of musicians who feel that all sounds from all countries are accessible to them, either in acoustic, electric or digitized form — whether it's a traditional, ancient rhythm or a computerized studio effect." — Downbeat ​ "Fatoumata Diawara projects her strong songs with effortless poise." — The Telegraph ​ UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA) presents Roberto Fonseca & Fatoumata Diawara in a shared evening celebrating their musical roots on Saturday, March 23 at 8 p.m. at The Theatre at Ace Hotel Downtown LA. Tickets for $29–$59 are available now at cap.ucla.edu and theatre.acehotel.com, by phone 310-825-2101, ​ and at The Theatre at Ace Hotel box office. Both Fonseca and Diawara are masters of their craft and together, Diawara’s husky yet smooth vocals followed by Fonseca’s jazz genius create a remarkable evening. Considered one of the most innovative Cuban pianists in generations, Fonseca became a musical connoisseur after his time as a pianist with the Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club®. Fonseca found his exemplary sound between the crossroads of jazz, traditional music, and soul immersed from his Afro-Cuban roots. Hailed as one of the most vital standard-bearers of modern African music, Diawara mastered her craft as a back-up vocalist to her fellow Malian Oumou Sangaré. She is ​ ​ skilled in creating musical masterpieces that simultaneously offer a fresh, bold sound while also paying respect to her heritage.
    [Show full text]
  • ROBERTO FONSECA Biography
    ROBERTO FONSECA Biography Cuban music is currently thriving; musicians from all over the island are performing on the world’s most famous stages, and pianists are undoubtedly the stars of the multi‐faceted Cuban musical scene. A golden generation of renowned virtuosos, displaying incredible technical talents, have captivated and charmed us. However in the last decade no one has, until now, emerged who brings together virtuosity with technique while playing music that is imbued with such passion. As his unique, instrumental voice stirs the emotions, he leads us through different landscapes, constantly entering and exiting the island, with no destination necessary. Born in 1975 (Havana) into a musical family, Roberto Fonseca has been described in many different ways (“The most promising and important talent in Cuban music”, “A true revelation who stands out among pianists of his generation”) and he remains faithful to the wish he has had since the beginning of his career: “I want my music to reach people who don’t know me, and I dream of one day becoming a point of reference for my audience…” Roberto started studying piano at the age of 8, though his initial passion was percussion. This interest from such an early age would clearly influence his trademark “percussive” piano‐playing style. His first “job” was as the drummer for a band doing covers of Beatles songs “We used to listen to Beatles music on the radio, with my mother, I played the drums as though I were one of them, I loved it”. At the age of 14, he began composing his first compositions, drawing inspiration from the Afro‐Cuban genre, “At school we used to regard American jazz as a point of reference; I felt that my music would be a fusion of both genres … I liked lots of jazz musicians, such as Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett, but also old American funk and soul classics”.
    [Show full text]
  • Roberto Fonseca Biography
    ROBERTO FONSECA BIOGRAPHY Since the beginning of his musical career in the early 1990s, Cuban-born multi-instrumentalist Roberto Fonseca has stated his mission clearly: “I want my music to reach people who don’t know me, and I dream of one day becoming a point of reference for my audience.” Although still very young – by the standards of jazz, hip-hop, world music or any other genre – Fonseca has maintained a sharp focus on his mission that has already garnered him global recognition. The UK Guardian is just one of the many voices in both the music and mainstream press worldwide to have recognized Fonseca’s immense talent by heralding him as “a fabulously gifted pianist, composer and bandleader with a gift for melody that outshines more celebrated peers.” The Guardian further proclaimed him as “one of a new breed who can transcend musical boundaries through sheer quality.” Born into a musical family in Havana, Cuba, in 1975, young Roberto originally gravitated to percussion, but started playing the piano at age 8 (the interest in percussion would eventually enhance his piano style). His first musical performances was playing drums for a band that covered Beatles songs. He began composing at age 14, drawing inspiration from Afro-Cuban music. “In school, we used to regard American jazz as a point of reference,” Fonseca recalls. “I felt that my music would be a fusion of both genres. I liked lots of jazz musicians, such as Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett, but also old American funk and soul classics.” His appearance at Havana’s International Jazz Festival at the tender age of 15 was not only a revelation to audiences, but the launching pad for a musical education that resulted in a degree in musical composition from the Instituto Superior de Arte.
    [Show full text]
  • Omara Portuondo from the Buena Vista Social Club® 85 Tour October 1 / 7:30 Pm Bing Concert Hall
    PROGRAM: OMARA PORTUONDO FROM THE BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB® 85 TOUR OCTOBER 1 / 7:30 PM BING CONCERT HALL ARTISTS PROGRAM Omara Portuondo, vocals This evening’s program will be announced from the stage. This program was generously funded by the Koret With special guests: Foundation. The Koret Jazz Project is a multiyear Roberto Fonseca, piano initiative to support, expand, and celebrate the role of Anat Cohen, clarinet and saxophone jazz in the artistic and educational programming of Stanford Live. Regina Carter, violin At 6:30 pm, join the National Jazz Museum in Harlem’s Loren Schoenberg for a conversation with Roberto Fonseca about his genre-crossing style and about the legacy of Cuban jazz today. PROGRAM SUBJECT TO CHANGE. Please be considerate of others and turn off all phones, pagers, and watch alarms, and unwrap all lozenges prior to the performance. Photography and recording of any kind are not permitted. Thank you. 24 STANFORD LIVE MAGAZINE SEPT/OCT 2016 OMARA PORTUONDO As a soloist, Omara Portuondo accompanied label of Cuba, when an aborted Afro- While other much-loved Buena Vista stars like some of the great innovators like Arsenio Cuban project opened up some studio Rubén González and Ibrahim Ferrer were lured Rodríguez and Isolina Carillo. Her first solo time. She was due to tour Vietnam but out of retirement, Omara Portuondo never album was not, as with other Buena Vista immediately recognized the importance of stopped—she has been continually performing Social Club members, after the release of reviving the old-school music and became in public since the age of 15, a legendary that groundbreaking album but was way back the only female member of the gang.
    [Show full text]
  • Features, July 09 12/6/09 11:11 Page 20
    Features, july 09 12/6/09 11:11 Page 20 SPIRIT OF CHANGO Cuban pianist Roberto Fonseca cuts quite a dash with his contemporary montuno stylings. First spotted touring internationally with the Buena Vista Social Club after appearing on disc 10 years ago. On new album Akokan he moves from Ibrahim Ferrer-inspired son to Coltrane-inspired improvisations and beyond with a few additional tracks featuring singers Mayra Andrade and the highly-rated Raul Midón. Interview: Jane Cornwell ondon’s Institute of Contemporary Arts, May: Where Zamazu included cameos from a range of perhaps too smooth for a musician who lists John Roberto Fonseca is leaning away from his big name talent from Brazilian percussionist Coltrane, Miles Davis and Arsenio Rodriguez among L piano, head tipped back like a lizard in the Carlinhos Brown to Buena Vista stalwarts Omara his major influences. “The record company,” he says sun, fingers kneading a sound that’s muscular, Portuondo, the late Cachaito Lopez and the late when asked how their collaboration came about, swirling, percussive. His long-time quartet – including Ibrahim Ferrer (along with a cover of Abdullah before stepping away to pose for photos alongside bassist Omar González, drummer Ramsés Rodriguez Ibrahim’s ‘Ishmael’), Akokan leaves off the elder Andrade. Asked about Midón, he lights up: “Amazing. and collaborative partner Javier Zalba – keep up a states people in favour of two special guest vocalists: I hope we can work more together.” fierce, self-assured groove, underscoring just why Cape Verdean chanteuse and rising world music star Back home in Havana – the capital of a country this Cuban phenomenon has been compared with Mayra Andrade and the hugely talented African marking 50 years of revolucion – Fonseca has long the likes of McCoy Tyner and Herbie Hancock.
    [Show full text]
  • Roberto Fonseca En Fatoumata Diawara Bouwen Muzikale Brug Tussen Cuba En Mali “Hiermee Willen We Vooroordelen Onderuithalen”
    Roberto Fonseca en Fatoumata Diawara bouwen muzikale brug tussen Cuba en Mali “Hiermee willen we vooroordelen onderuithalen” Muzikale bruggenbouwers worden Fatoumata Diawara en Roberto Fonseca genoemd. Op 21 november verenigen de Malinese zangeres en de Cubaanse pianist in de schouwburg van de Warande stijlen en culturen. “Een absolute aanrader voor al wie zijn oren graag laat reizen tussen Cuba en West-Afrika”, luidt het. Hoe verschillend Fatoumata Diawara en Roberto Fonseca ook mogen lijken, ook raakvlakken hebben ze genoeg. Ze delen een passie voor muziek, een liefde voor de roots van hun land én een honger naar avontuur. De samenwerking van de twee jonge sterren leidt tot een boeiende en hoogst originele versmelting van Afrikaanse en Zuid-Amerikaanse klanken en ritmes. Als actrice, danseres en achtergrondzangeres geniet Fatoumata Diawara al bekendheid in Mali en omringende landen. Met het solodebuutalbum ‘Fatou’, waarop ze in de Wassoulou-traditie van haar grote voorbeeld Oumou Sangaré zingt en gitaar speelt, groeit Diawara in 2011 uit tot een wereldster. Ze werkt samen en deelt podia met groten als Dee Dee Bridgewater, Bobby Womack, Herbie Hancock en Paul McCartney, wordt in haar nieuwe thuisland Frankrijk geëerd als Ridder in de Orde van Kunst en Letteren en ziet de film ‘Timbuktu’, waarin zij acteert en zingt, met een César bekroond. In Cuba is multi-instrumentalist Roberto Fonseca, telg uit een muzikale familie, zijn carrière al in de vroege jaren negentig begonnen. Als pianist mag hij Ruben Gonzalez opvolgen bij de Buena Vista Social Club en spelen in de begeleidingsgroepen van Ibrahim Ferrer en Omara Portuondo. Op zijn zesde soloalbum ‘Yo’, uit 2012, leent Fatoumata Diawara haar stem aan het nummer ‘Bibisa’, wat zoveel wil zeggen als ‘laten we een feestje bouwen’.
    [Show full text]
  • 119 West 57Th Street, PHN, New York, NY 10019 | @Sacksco
    119 West 57th Street, PHN, New York, NY 10019 | t 212.741.1000 | sacksco.com | @sacksco Grammy-nominated Cuban pianist Roberto Fonseca plays Freight & Salvage in San Francisco on Saturday, March 7th February 6, 2020 ERNESTO ALTAMIRANO https://latino-edge.com/2020/02/06/grammy-nominated-cuban-pianist-roberto-fonseca-plays-freight-salvage-in- san-francisco-on-saturday-march-7th-2/ Roberto Fonseca is a Cuban pianist, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer and bandleader. Havana-born and based, he has released nine solo albums, collaborated across genres, been nominated for a Grammy Award and toured the world several times over. Along the way he has achieved the aim with which he began his professional career in the early 1990s: “Wherever people are, I want them to hear my music and say, ‘This is Roberto Fonseca’.” An artist of prowess and ideas, with a questing jazz sensibility and deep roots in the Afro-Cuban tradition, Fonseca continues to astound. ‘The most exciting pianist in Cuba,” avowed Britain’s Guardian newspaper. *Does something new with the old, without ever denying its origins, and opens himself to the world,” insisted France’s Le Figaro. “Makes all possibilities seem possible, and the moment feel perfect, intensely true,” declared the New York Times. Born in 1975 in Havana, Cuba, Roberto Fonseca has established himself over the last decade and a half as one of the most gifted — and most popular — pianists of his generation. After making his name with Ibrahim Ferrer in the legendary Buena Vista Social Club™, and after his recent GRAMMY© nomination for Best Latin Jazz Album, Roberto Fonseca has come to incarnate the meeting between jazz with the music of Cuba, both today and yesterday, and also its African roots.
    [Show full text]
  • Cuban and Proud: Roberto Fonseca
    ROBERTO FONSECA Cuban and Proud Jane Cornwell catches up with Cuban pianist Roberto Fonseca just prior to the launch of his latest album, a homage to his home country and its rich musical history oberto Fonseca stands on his roo!op ‘7 Rayos’ fuses Cuban patterns with classical music, balcony in Vedado, Havana and looks out West African instrumentation, electronica and across the ci" and the blue-green Florida rhythmic spoken-word poetry. “‘7 Rayos’ is the most Straits. “I couldn’t live anywhere other than important song I have ever done in my life,” Fonseca RCuba,” says the pianist, composer and bandleader, 41, told me just a!er Yo dropped. “I mixed all these as a potted palm sways in the breeze and unmu#ed elements, created a bridge between African tradition engines snarl along the street six floors below. and moved my music forward.” “Musically there is so much that inspires me, from the %ere have been giant steps since, including a stint traditional to the new, crazy, adventurous stu$.” with Gilles Peterson’s Havana Cultura project and a He sweeps a well-honed arm over the skyline and long tour with Malian singing star Fatoumata Diawara, by implication, the rest of this beleaguered, creatively whose guest vocals on Yo (on a cover of ‘Bibisa’ by fecund island. “It’s all going on out there,” he continues Malian griot Baba Sissoko) kick-started an acclaimed in accented English made fluent by a rigorous tour live collaboration. %ey went on to play venues such as schedule that, over the last decade-and-a-half, has London’s Barbican and the Philharmonie de Paris and taken him around the world several times.
    [Show full text]
  • English Musicians Biographies
    ROBERTO FONSECA Javier R. Zalba Suárez (flautist, saxophonist, clarinetist) Javier was graduated from the Cuban National School of Arts (ENA) as a clarinettist in 1976 and in as a flautist from the Professional Studies School “Ignacio Cervantes” in 1984. At the end of the 70s he started his professional career as a clarinet teacher at the ENA. During the 80s he took part of the “Orquesta Cubana de Musica Moderna”, and he became a member of the ensemble of the pianist and composer Jose Maria Vitier. He participated in different projects with Chucho Valdés, with Bobby Carcassés in the orchestra of the Tropicana Cabaret, or with the group “Oru”. In 1997 he created with Roberto Fonseca his own Latin jazz ensemble called “Temperamento”. In 2000 he joined the Buena Vista Social Club orchestra. Several times he has been invited as a member and soloist by the Cuban National Symphony Orchestra and many other chamber ensembles as well. He participated in diverse international tours including the most important Jazz Festivals around the world. Moreover he wrote three books, two of them about Cuban music; “Sax Soneando” and “Flute Soneando”, and a didactic one, “Technique for the Saxophone”. Joel Hierrezuelo Balart (percussionist) Joel was born in Habana in 1972. During his childhood he was surrounded by all kinds of musical instruments. When he was 12 he started singing and playing percussions in amateur bands. In the mid 90s he graduated as a music professor and started touring with Ricoson in France. Back in Cuba he began playing percussions in the band “Temperamento” with Roberto Fonseca.
    [Show full text]