Desde La Bahia - San Francisco - TT: From the Bay Area - San Francisco

Latin Beat Magazine, April, 2002 by Jesse "Chuy" Varela

SAN FRANCISCO LATIN JAZZ: This Cinco de Mayo (May 5) will mark the 20th anniversary of the passing of Cal Tjader. What the renowned vibraphonist represents to the hybrid of jazz and Latin rhythms is tremendous. While Dizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo married bebop with Afro-Cuban beats it didn't go beyond jazzheads. In the 1950s, clean cut Joe College types like Tjader began to cross over jazz and Afro-Cuban spiced sounds to a young, white university audience with integrated bands that included Mongo Santamaría and Willie Bobo. At The Macumba and the Blackhawk in SF, Tjader made history and planted the seeds for a style of West Coast Latin jazz that continues today.

Since his passing there have been several Cal Tjader tribute bands that have sprouted. The first is Radcliffe (Cal's middle name) led by the late John Rae, who played vibes and timbal with many of the 1980 Grammy winning alumni bands -- Vince Lateano, Mark Levine, Rob Fisher, Roger Glenn and others. Certainly, the Estrada Brothers Band has kept the Tjader sound alive in Southern California and developed a distinct sound.

Soul Sauce, led by trap drummer Curt Moore and vibraphone/harmonica player Jon Erickson keep the guachi guara grooves going. Their self-produced album last year (Got Sauce, Guacamole Records) garnered them a spot on several festivals and regular stints at Jazz at Pearls in North Beach. With Paul Potyen (piano), Michelle Goerlitz or Willie Colón (congas), they present Tjader classics as well as originals done in the Tjader- small group style.

The Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble, under the direction of John Calloway, is bringing the music of Cal Tjader to a new generation with a highly motivated group of high school and college students. They will also be part of the College of San Mateo's Jazz on the Hill on Sunday, June 2 with Eddie Palmieri headlining.

LATIN JAZZ EDUCATION: One of the interesting developments on the homefront is how Latin Jazz is creeping into the curriculum of jazz studies at the college level. The Contra Costa College Evening Big Band in San Pablo now has a potent repertoire of Tito Puente charts that it has been developing over the last two years. With guest percussionists John Santos and Karl Perazzo, they have performed at Spotlight on the Square in Alameda and other venues. Their recent performance at the Tito Puente Tribute in SF this past November was much talked about.

San José State University also has an accredited Latin jazz ensemble led by percussionist Daniel Sabanovich who also teaches Afro-Brazilian percussion.

San Francisco City College's faculty member Rebeca Mauleón-Santana is currently teaching Jazz & Other Popular Piano along with Music of the Caribbean and Latin America. No doubt she attracts a diverse array of students that will produce important jazz-inspired sounds. Recently, Rebeca gave a master class to high school students (as part of the activities at the Mexican Heritage Plaza in San José) for Black History Month. Seven high schools came to the plaza with their jazz bands and performed Latin jazz numbers. They did sectionals with Rebeca and then competed for a prize.

JAZZ SCHOOL: Five years ago, the renowned jazz pianist and educator Susan Muscarella grew frustrated by the lack of commitment to jazz studies at UC Berkeley where she was teaching. Realizing there had to be a better way, she left and formed Jazz School. Finding a space above Le Note Restaurant in Berkeley, she converted a business office to music practice rooms and began to offer a curriculum for the study and performance of jazz and jazz-related music styles. With a small but dedicated staff the classes are specialized and intimate. On the Latin jazz side, a strong faculty is paving new educational roads with diverse offerings. Pianist/keyboardist Marcos Silva offers a Brazilian combo that focuses on the work of composers such as Ivan Lins, Dori Caymmi, Toninho Horta, and Antonio Carlos Jobim. Still doing stints with the band of Flora & Airto, he is bringing something that delves from the traditional to contemporary ideas with listening and performance requirements. John Calloway of the Machete Ensemble is teaching Salsa Workshop I&II as well as flute and piano. Carolyn Brandy of ALIVE fame teaches percussion. The future is bright for the school that recently got a new site for its educational mission in the ritzy Downtown Berkeley Arts District. Along with spacious soundproof classrooms, practice rooms, and Hardymon Hall (a performance space dedicated to revered Berkeley High School music educator Phil Hardymon), the Jazzschool has added to its offerings Jazzschool Books and Records, an in-house bookstore for specialized educational materials such as music books, recordings, videos and accessories; The Jazz Image, a photography gallery of works by Lee Tanner, and Caffé Arpeggio, a café for students, faculty, families and friends run by distinguished owner of Via Centro, Ahmad Behjati. For more info: www.jazzschool.com

KEEPERS OF THE FLAME: 2001 belonged to Mark Levine & Latin Tinge. His CD release Serengetti on Left Coast Clave Records was the hit of the year and is still getting international recognition. It's a state-of-the-art band with Peter Barshay (bass), Paul Van Wageningen (drums) and Michael Spiro (percussion) that blurs the lines between jazz and Latin music. The maturity of the quartet and their collective experience makes for a great listening experience. At the San José Jazz Festival last July they gave an amazing show held inside at the Montgomery Theater as part of a two-day tribute to the late Smith Dobson. With resonate acoustics the musicians allowed the subtly and interplay to find ample space. I've seen them in an outdoor stage setting and poor sound balances knock the dynamics all out of whack. But for this show that featured material from their two albums, it was perfect.