Desde La Bahia - TT: From the Bay Area

Latin Beat Magazine, Dec, 2001 by Jesse Varela

While in town, Chuchito Valdés' Afro-Cuban Ensemble also performed at the Mother Jones Free Music Cuban Style at the Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco, with a group that included Laksar Reese (sax), Bill Theurer (trumpet), Saul Sierra (bass) and resident West Coast Cuban musicians Jimmy Branley (drums), Jesús Díaz (congas) and singer La Niña Rivera.

"Jazz is a different language for us. Bebop is as hard to play as is a danzón. So you have to study a jazz piece to be able to interpret it the best way possible. What we take from jazz is the harmonic changes. It's very advanced and stretches chords beyond the seventh note, with open and closed chords, polyphony and other things that are helping us enrich Cuban music."

See you all next year. chuyvarela@aol.com. Paz.