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Cuba's Most Creative Band Goes North

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Cuba's Most Creative Band Goes North 2O IN THESE TIMES MAR. 21-27.1979 MUSIC Cuba's most creative band goes north ya," based on a Yoruba theme, with fast swirling baritone and dogmatic rock bass-playing, en- semble passages vaguely remini- scent of the old Tadd Dameron band, flaring guitar and trumpet solos, an Afro-Cuban voice-and- percussion jam pegged by bass and synthesizer stopnotes, a free- for-all between trumpet and en- semble, and an improvised vocal in the classic Cuban sonero's style. Unfortunately, their first U.S. release doesn't show adequately that while depth is one of Cuban music's glories, the other is joie- de-vivre. The gaiety of Irakere's first big Cuban hit, "Bacalao con Pan," with its delicious street- conjunto conga passage for drums and trumpets, and the gaiety of "El Coco," with its straightened quality and Caribbean trombone, are missing from this album. So is one of their masterpieces—"La Verdad," which blends a full-tilt traps-conga dialog before classic Cuban brass inspiraciones, a che- kere prominent in percussion", dan- cing congas and heavy ethnic per- cussion under rock guitar, an^fei- larious trumpet riffs culled from Jrakere members Paquito Rivera (far left) and Carlos Aver/toff (far right) with Monica and Stan Getz at Carnegie Hatt last summer; their everywhere—Cuba, jazz, even, current album displays only one side of their creativity. - . ....: - Mexican mariachi. All these pieces were recorded by Columbia. Their Editor's note: Irakere recently ap- most one in seven—were Latin tinged solo above them. Cuban jazz for anybody; but Valdez, on absence from the final issue isn't peared, with North American and in origio-or inspiration, most of also i« most of its standard rep- acoustic piano, takes matters fur- compensated by •the harmless but other Cuban musicians, in one of them Cuban. Only half as many ertory and almost all of its popu- ther in a long series of improvisa- overlong and self-indulgent "Ad- three "Havana Jam" concerts in jazz, blues and soul numbers lar rhythms: not only the mam- tions and cadenzas that stake out agio"—one of a long line of feeble Cuba* Presently they are on na- combined, and around 19 coun- bos and chachachas of the '50s, his claim to the territory also in- jazz attempts to be funny about tional tour with Steven Stills. try songs, have made the same list. but the common rhythms of mod- habited by McCoy Tyner and classical music—or the rather self- For almost a century, in fact, ern New York salsa: the implac- Keith Jarrett, where "jazz," consciously "out" "Aguanile." "Latin" music has been a funda- able son montuno, the nostalgic "popular" and "conservatory" Despite evidence of almost "a By John Storm Roberts mental part of every aspect of country-based guajiro, the up- are labels whose ink has faded. hundred years of U.§."pt$"music U.S. popular music history. And tempo guaracha, and the med- Then Cuba returns in more crea- history, the Latin basis of disco For some years now the buzz without minimizing the signifi- ium-paced guaguanco. tive iconoclasms—three of the and the heavy Latinization of has been on, in the places where cance of Brazil and Mexico, the Irakere's music is in total big Nigerian rattles called chekere, current fusion-jazz, the big com- New York's salseros hang out: most important influence by far contrast to U.S.—salsa's estab- with wawa guitar behind, and panies are still scared of anything "Wait till Cuba opens up." Rum- has been Cuban. lished forms. Almost everything, busy jazz rock drumming that too "ethnic": Latin, the self-ful- ors of Afro-Cuban drum ensem- The habanera, the rumba, the it seems, has been thrown over- meshes perfectly with both. filling prophecy runs, doesn't sell. bles teamed with synthesizers, of conga, the mambo and chacha- board. Not just the obvious And so it goes, every number It's ironic that that theory has af- rock guitars among the charanga cha; creative leaders from Don fundamental of a given rhythm, a new mix of cherished roots and fected even Irakere. The result is groups' flute and fiddles. More Azipiazu, who introduced that or pattern of rhythms, holding joyous originality. Listen to "II- magnificent but one-sided. • recently, as the curtain slowly be- first huge runaway Quban hit, the structure together, but the gan to lift, and people traveled "The Peanut Vendor," through structure itself—the classic two- back and forth, rumors gave way Machito and his musical director and-three-part forms that have CULTURE SHOCK to a name: Irakere. Probably the Mario Bauza, who together pio- given Cuban music such balance. hottest, and deepest, and most neered the blending of jazz and In its place is a seeming mag- creative band on the Cuban scene Cuban music in the fullest rich- pie's museum of percussion pass- So Irs NOT CONTAGIOUS NOW THAT'S today. Once Irakere's music hits ness of each. All Cuban. ' ages, jazz solos, riffs and flour- JUST YOUR Kuala Lumpur now EQUALITY the Big Mango, the returnees Why Cuba, out of all the Afro- ishes. Even the division between has 15 discos. IMAGINATION * Psychology discov- said, the salsa scene will be up European lands of the Caribbe- dance music and concert music ' ered that female busi- an, Central and southern Amer- The latest Journal of lY^ * AU k for grabs. Now Irakere has ar- has gone under to Irakere's chang- &K +. ^* ness school grad stu- rived, with an eponymous album ica, is open to argument. A dozen ing tempi and long complex cierre Communications re- ports results of a dents were no more on the Columbia label—the first other countries drew from Spain breaks. likely to act ethically Cuban band recorded by a major and Africa to develop an entire - Yet true artistic revolutions study measuring sex on network TV from in a hypothetical U.S. company in 20 years. range of styles from folk t& con- are rarely a rejection of the past; business decision So, you may ask, what? servatory, based on each root sep- they are a rejection of worn-out 1975-77. Instances of physical suggestive- than their male So, potentially, plenty. Not arately, and every possible mix- ways of relating to it. Tradition counterparts. only the U.S. Latin music that ture of the two. Yet in Cuba, this lives by renewal, and what at first ness went up four- fold, seductive be- has come to be called salsa, but Afro-Spanish mix produced some- may appear a threat often turns its major hybrid, Latin-jazz, thing special. out to be a rescue operation. The havior increased AND WHAT'S and—through them—the rhythm- Most younger Americans know blues was saved, not sabotaged, threefold, and sexual AROSE innuendo went up and-blues funk and disco styles Cuban music through the hot by the electric guitar, and the THESE DAYS? seven-fold. that have been so revolutionized New York salsa style. This took iconoclasts of bop gave jazz a Nuclear energy execs by the Latin tinge during the '70s in other Latin influences—Puer- further 30 years of meaning. find arguing for nu- stand to be affected. to Rican, Dominican, even Bra- Though Irakere in no sense WHAT Is To MASS clear power so diffi- Almost every decade since zilian, and it developed a brash- play it the way it used to be played BE DONE? cult that they're WWI has seen styles from Cuba, er sound than the Cuban mix of their references to tradition are as The textile, factory PRODUCED going after a new Mexico, Brazil or elsewhere sweep fire and grace. constant as their exploration of that kept the Karl UNIQUENESS strategy: arguing the U.S.: the turn-of-the-century But for all the differences, New the how-it-is of jazz. Marx family eating Disco franchises are against anti-nuclear habanera; the teens and '20s Ar- York salsa is still Cuban at the The constant three-ways-at- has been sold by the budding in shopping groups. A utility exec •y- gentinian tango; the '30s rumba; core. Cuban in its basic structure: once references are at their most Engels family to a malls cross-country. from New Hampshire the '40s conga and samba; the the "head," or tune; the "mon- powerful in Missa Negra, 17-min- real estate firm that Franchises empha- wrote in Public Rela- '50s mambo and chachacha; the tuno," when the coro sings its ute suite that combines the per- intends to demolish it size, however, the tions Journal, "We '60s bossa nova. These were not two-or-four-bar riffs under a lead cussion-as-color of free jazz a la next year. The factory uniqueness of each need to go on the of- marginal fads, but mass move- singer's improvisations or an in- Return to Forever with the Afro- has been in poor fi- club; they fear being fensive. .it's time to ments. Out of 163 popular mel- strumental solo; and the "mam- Cuban roots, re-interpreted. Aver- nancial condition for labelled "Burger call a spade a dirty odies given more than one million bo" section, a series of interlock- hoffs fine alto solo, as fluent as years. Kings of Disco." rusty shovel." performances since 1940, 23—al- ing riffs that often bear a jazz- it is experimental, is heavy enough LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED IN THESE TIMES MAR. 21-27. W79 21 FICTION DONALD SHAFFER iontag Etc. ASSOCIATES, INC.
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