JUSTO ALMARIO: Before & After Tolu - Artículo Breve - Entrevista

Latin Beat Magazine, April, 2002 by Rudy Mangual

Tolú, one of Los Angeles' most popular all-star Latin jazz ensembles, led by reedman Justo Almario and percussionist Alex Acuña, integrates the best of Latin music with improvisational jazz poetry

Rudy Mangual: Justo, where are you originally from?

Justo Almario: I was born in Sincelejo, Colombia, South America, and as a child, I never really liked my name. Kids were always making fun of my first and last name throughout my early school years. Justo is a very rare name; the only other person I know besides myself with this name is the Cuban singer Justo Betancourt. As for the name Almario, it's even more rare.

RM: When did you start your professional music career?

JA: In 1965, I traveled with a group from my country called Cumbia Colombia, to Miami, Florida, to perform traditional Colombian music and dances as part of a cultural exchange program with the United States. I was 16 years old, the youngest musician in the group. After the summer tour was over, we all returned to Colombia.

RM: Did you continue working with the same band?

JA: I did for a while but then moved on to play more contemporary music. In 1968, I returned to the United States with another Colombian band and then in 1969 I relocated to Boston, Massachusetts to attend the Berklee School of Music.

RM: Did you enjoy living and studying in Boston?

JA: I loved it! I made lots of friends and met many good musicians. Almost immediately I started to play with a group of Brazilian musicians that included trumpeter Claudio Roditi and Victor Brazil. Then one day, one of my instructors couldn't make a gig with the Duke Ellington Band and sent me to do the gig and I found myself playing with the Ellington band for about four concert performances. I was in jazz heaven. In 1971, Mongo Santamaría came to Boston to do a concert and his sax player for some reason did not make it on time, so I was called in to replace him. After the performance Mongo asked me to join the band, so I moved to New York City and spent the next six years playing with his band.

RM: Wow, that was a good gig Justo!

JA: It was more than just a good gig; it started many other opportunities for me. During those years in New York City I also got to work with the wonderful musicians and bandleaders Tito Puente, Machito and Mario Rivera. I also got to play and tour with Ismael Rivera, getting to travel to Puerto Rico and back to South America. On the jazz side, I worked with Charles Mingus and with a young Hilton Ruiz.

RM: When did you finally come to the West Coast?

JA: Around 1978, I joined the Roy Ayers group in New York, as he was getting ready to relocate himself and the band to Los Angeles, California, to work with a new record label. Since my wife was originally from Los Angeles, we agreed to make the move and have been here ever since

RM: Besides the Roy Ayers group, who else did you initially work with on the West Coast?

JA: The first couple of years that I was living in Los Angeles I was mostly out of town touring. But previously while in Puerto Rico, I had met Peruvian drummer/percussionist Alex Acuña, who was now living in LA, as well as bassist Abraham Laboriel, who also attended the Berklee School of Music in Boston. We got together whenever we could. Around 1980, while I was playing with Freddie Hubbard, the three of us (Acuña, Laboriel & myself) formed the group Koinonia.

RM: When did the group Tolú emerge on to the LA scene?

JA: About 1981. I remember that back then many of the Latin musicians in town were anxious to get together and jam within the realm of Latin music, Latin jazz and Afro Caribbean rhythms freely, something that was not allowed in the local Latin dance clubs. So I congregated some of the best local musicians that were interested including Alex Acuña (who would co-lead the group), Luis Conte, Arturo Velasco, Harry Kim and Otmaro Ruiz, among others, and established the group as Tolú. I chose this name because it was the name of a Caribbean port town in Colombia next to my native town of Sincelejo, known for its natural beauty, warm people and good music. The group was meant to be like a cultural booster for many of us that were mostly playing pop, R&B, jazz or dance music. We had a few memorable dates at a club in Malibu called Pascuales, but most of our gigs were very far apart from each other because most of us were usually on tour or in the studios working. Around the mid-1980s, PBS produced a television music series called "On Stage LA" and Tolú was featured as the Latin music representative in the series. Through its airing on PBS stations nationwide we received great exposure for the band as well as very favorable reviews. After this significant event, we went for a period of about two years without getting together at all. In 1992 we were invited to attend a Latin music festival in Finland during the month of January. It was freezing cold and there was snow everywhere but the entire festival was held inside of a huge hotel building where all the groups performing stayed and all the concerts took place in the same building. We got to share the stage with the Cuban groups Los Papines, Opus 13, and Adalberto y su Son, as well as with some local groups from Finland. After this festival, once again the group did not get together for a while. Finally, in 1999 we recorded our debut CD titled Rumbero's Poetry on the Tonga Records label.