Desde la bahia—San Francisco

Latin Beat Magazine, Dec, 2002 by Jesse Varela

DOWN IN MONTEREY: This year, the 45th annual Monterey Jazz Festival hosted "A Tribute to Bay Area Percussionists," celebrating the virtuosity of resident artists John Santos, Michael Spiro and Orestes Vilató. The three honorees presented a special set of music on a Saturday evening at the Nightclub Stage of the Monterey Fairgrounds that showcased their musical vision in an unforgettable night of homegrown Latin jazz.

The night opened with a pre-concert conversation with the three honorees and this writer as moderator. It broadened after a couple of questions to include maestros Milton Cardona and Johnny Almendra, who were performing with Don Byron's "Music For Six" at the festival. I began with a question to John Santos on what percussion meant to him.

"Being brought up in a percussion tradition is like being in an eternal school," he said. "We're constantly studying and learning. You never really become a master at any of this stuff because there is so much to learn. Growing up on the west coast, we always looked up to percussionists from Cuba, Puerto Rico and other places but especially to the percussion tradition of New York City. That's how we became familiar with Orestes and his fantastic work in the '60s and '70s. We became students of his and of many other drummers, such as Milton Cardona and Johnny Almendra. These are some of the greatest percussionists in our field, and we continue to look up to them. That role doesn't change. We come in as students and go out as students."

Michael Spiro, the longtime San Bruno resident who in recent months has been getting recognition through his epic work Batá Ketu, is someone who has made great inroads into the folkloric drumming traditions of Cuba and Brazil. A one-time student of Francisco Aguabella, he featured a group that evening (Ara Meji) that performed orisha songs transformed into jazz vehicles. I asked Spiro how he has integrated into the Latino culture.

"You guys may be familiar with Ignacio Berroa, the drumset player," Spiro told the audience. "He's a good friend of mine and we talk a lot about what it's like to be from an outside culture to play the music. Ignacio is a cubano who likes to play straight-ahead jazz, and I'm an American who likes to play cubano music. We've even talked about trading names (laughs), we thought we might get a little more work. The conclusion is that if you fall in love with something, then you do it because you have no choice; it's a passion. And if you do your homework and study hard, you keep it going and have something to contribute." Vilató followed. A musician whose arrival in the Bay Area in the 1980s to play with Santana raised the bar for Latin percussion in the region lays claim to a fantastic trajectory: Belisario López, José Fajardo, Ray Barretto, Típica 73, Los Kimbo and others. The question for Vilató was where he saw himself and his instrument today.

"I still see myself as a beginner. There's so much to learn but I still have the same love when I started. That's what has kept me going all these years. It's been tough but if I had to do it over again I would. Where do I see the instrument going? Very far. The timbal was supposed to be a very simplistic instrument but there's been many different techniques adapted to it from traps and tabla drums. That's cool and I don't put it down but if you listen to typical timbal (playing), it was a little more simpler that what the newcomers are doing."

I then asked Vilató his thoughts on the Bay Area. "The Bay Area has a great future. It could be the New York of today, but we do need a lot of help from the media, record companies, club owners and agents. We need sincere people who not only use this music to make money, but actually have the heart to present this music for the art that it is."

CUARTETO CARIBE: Following the discussion, the music began with Orestes Vilató and his Cuarteto Caribe. Featuring Santos (congas), David Belove (bass) and pianist Elio Villa Franca (Cuban newcomer to the Bay Area), Vilató led the group through descargas reminiscent of piano legends Pedro Justiz (Peruchln) and Frank Emilio Flynn. Villa Franca proved to be the surprise of the night as he dug into the grand piano with a seasoned jazz flair.

The influences of Thelonius Monk, Herbie Hancock and Chucho Valdés were obvious, but it was a Garneresque rendering of Decidete, using block chords, that gave the melody a joyous harmonic lyricism. His intuition was right on mark, adding to the interplay and interaction of the quartet. Next, Santos flew on four congas that drew enthusiastic applause from the crowd. The tune concluded with a solo by Vilató, the Picasso of the timbal.chuyvarela@aol.com

¡Hasta la próxima! ¡Paz en el mundo en 2003!