|
|
|
|
THURSDAY August 27, 1998 Chucho Valdés I've been REALLY getting into latin-jazz again. I picked up this Chucho Valdés album a few days ago. I never heard any of the songs on the radio or anything like that. I just saw it at Borders, noticed it was a brand new album by him, and bought it, knowing I'd probably hear a lot of fiery latin Afro-Cuban music. Well, I did indeed. I'm so glad I got this album! I've been listening to it every day since I bought it, and can't get enough of it. Chucho is one of the greatest Cuban pianists to ever come out of Cuba. He has these tasty chops, speed on the keys, and has all the fire and energy! His bassist, drummer and percussionist are all young cats from Cuba as well, and a few of them have studied at these prestigious Cuban Conservatories (the Cubans, being communist, have these special programs for gifted musicians and artists). This Idea About American Music It had dawned on me that all American music, whether it be from South America, North America, Central America or The West Indies, has so much richness and harmonic and percussive freedom to it, something that music elsewhere may lack. I was thinking about this the other day, that American jazz, Afro-Cuban music, Brazilian music, etc. have a close relationship to each other. All this music is from the western hemisphere, and so I noticed the uniqueness that all this music has over say, European music and Oriental music! I guess what I'm saying is that we tend to take this music for granted and it reallyis all beautiful music. The Application of Swing Well, playing swing music and getting into the whole essence of the swing era, I see all the relationships and developments of all the other American musics as a whole. For example, I can see how swing has that rhythmic groove that Afro-Cuban music has, and I see that Afro-Cuban music has that subtle swing in it also. Rethinking The Groove Aspect All this has been something I've been thinking through for awhile in my thoughts. I'm trying to rethink everything I'm doing on the drums as far as swing is concerned. I'm just trying to focus on the feel of everything I do on drums. And I think I'm having a personal renaissance in my mind about how I want to approach this swing music. And that's what people may or may not realize about me and my drumming. That in essence, it's all me up on stage as far as the rhythmic and groove responsibility is concerned. So it's quite a task for me to make sure the dancers, the people, everyone feels the rhythmic aspect of what I'm doing. Because it really is "all me" up there as far as the groove is concerned. Nobody realizes that I'm trying to apply concepts to swing that are crossing over from my latin-jazz experience as well as my rock and r&b experience. Maybe people can notice and that's great, but it is a very subtle thing that's being applied to the music, so it's something that should be at a more subliminal level and not that obvious. Footnote: I know this entry may seem like an essay on swing music, etc. but the above concepts are becoming very important to my drumming, and the relationship it has to the dancers and audience. CDs Played Today:
|
|
|
