Bobby Matos in pursuit of the most rhythmically fascinating music

Latin Beat Magazine, April, 2003 by Luis Tamargo

According to Nat Chediak's "Diccionario de jazz latino," the bandleader/percussionist/composer/arranger/producer Bobby Matos was born in the Big Apple in the summer of 1953, although it is likely that the birth of said timbal-playing Leo of Hebrew-Rican ancestry took place years earlier.

What truly matters is that Bobby Matos has made multiple and significant contributions to the fervent brew commonly labeled as "Latin jazz," a genre defined by the L.A.-based subject of the following interview as "probably the most rhythmically fascinating music in this hemisphere."

LUIS TAMARGO: Were there any other musicians in your family before you came along?

BOBBY MATOS: I grew up in a household that encouraged singing and dancing. My maternal aunt sang and my mother danced, but no one had really made a living playing music in my family before.

LT: Could you identify some of your early musical influences?

BM: I was a high school freshman when I discovered two things simultaneously: Symphony Sid's Radio Show (which included a lot of Latin jazz in those days) and Patato, who made his U.S. television debut with Machito's orchestra on a New York show called "The Spanish Hour." Patato was my first percussive influence. I'd go see Patato and José Mangual Sr. all the time, after they left Machito's orchestra and joined Herbie Mann's band. I also got to meet Machito when I was 15 or 16 years old. Machito, Mario Bauzá and Graciela were the sweetest people in the world, and they always provided encouragement to the young musicians.

Tito Puente was very much in the style of Machito's band, in terms of the arrangements and so forth, but he also brought the excitement represented by a bandleading percussionist.

Seeing Cal Tjader with Mongo Santamaría and Willie Bobo was also a big influence. You can't talk about living in New York at that time and not be influenced by Mongo and Ray Barretto. From the time I was a kid, Barretto was the busiest sideman in New York, but Mongo was the one who had the groups that fused everything--pop, jazz, authentic Cuban dance music, deep Afro-Cuban traditions, etc. In addition, I felt the influence of the New York charanga boom of the early 1960s, as well as the exciting trombone sounds popularized by Eddie Palmieri and Mon Rivera during the same decade.

LT: Who was your first formal percussion instructor, on a regular basis?

BM: An African-American named Charles Campbell, alias "Soup." I learned a lot of Afro-Cuban rhythms from Soup, whose percussive ensemble performed at various Greenwich Village coffee shops, when "beatnik" became a fashionable word. (LAUGHTER)

After spending a year in Europe, I was finally drafted into the army, upon returning to New York, at the age of 21 or 22, at the height of the Vietnam War. I got to play with various other musicians while stationed right outside of Washington, D.C. I started to play the timbal a lot more during my two years of military service. When I was discharged from the armed forces, there was an explosion of Latin music in New York. Larry Harlow was just getting on the scene, and Barretto had changed his format from charanga to conjunto.

Ray Armando and Ralphy Marzán (Johnny Pacheco's bongosero) helped me to learn to read music. I used to go to Ray Armando's house two or three times a week for tumbadora and timbal lessons. I was already going to school under the G.I. Bill, but Marzán referred me to a school where I could learn more about piano and theory, both privately and inexpensively.

I was lucky to start working right away, as soon as I got out of the service. I worked with Steve Pulliam, who played trombone with Mon Rivera and Kako. Steve had been a blues player for years, but he had adapted very well to Latin music. He showed me how to score and arrange my first primitive compositions. He even sent me to buy Russell Garcia's "The Complete Arranger/Composer Book," a text written for jazz writers. On the other hand, Ray Armando turned me on to the Brazilian sounds and introduced me to different kinds of writing and harmonies. He even showed me how to write for two horns.

LT: Could you name some of the New York groups that you worked with?

BM: I worked with so many trios, quartets and quintets in the early years of my career! Not to mention the sextet led by the Puerto Rican pianist Gilberto Cruz, who was known as "El Rival de Joe Cuba" because he had a vibes player in his group. I also performed and/or recorded with Orlando Marín, Andy Harlow, Joe Loco, Bette Midler, Ben Vereen, Jim Croce, Miriam Makeba, Barry Manilow, Eric Gale, Cornell Dupree, Ray Rivera, The Rascals, etc.

LT: Judging from its title, your first album as a leader (My Latin Soul, Phillips) must have been a Latín boogaloo-oriented recording.

BM: Yes, there was a lot of boogaloo in that album. It was recorded in New York between 1967 and 1968, at a time when such tunes as Bang Bang and Fat Momma were making a lot of noise. I was terribly influenced by Sergio Mendes, so I had two girls doing background vocals. The time came when I wasn't getting much work as a leader, but I was doing many gigs as a sideman with Trini López, Joe Loco, etc. At some point, I decided that I wanted to move to California.