Desde la Bahia—San Francisco - TT: From the Bay Area—San Francisco

Latin Beat Magazine, May, 2002 by Jesse Varela

DESCARGA CUBANA: Como mi ritmo no hay dos (Like my rhythm, there is no other) is the chorus to the classic jam Descarga Cubana by Israel "Cachao" López. Part of the landmark album Descargas En Miniatura (Panart Records), the 1957 date was the first authentic Cuban jam session recorded on the island. It was not an attempt at jazz by Bebo Valdés in 1954 with Con Poco Coco, but a musical freedom to improvise with native instrumentation and traditional structures.

That spirit of musical emancipation continues, as percussionist-bandleader Jesús Díaz demonstrated with an all-star descarga cubana of Bay Area greats on Friday, February 23. At a benefit for La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley (where the event was held), Diaz y su QBA served asa nucleus for the dance-a-thon that included the participation of Bobi Céspedes, Fito Reinoso, Carlos Aldama, Sandy Pérez, Carlos Caro, Karl Perazzo (Santana) and Dave Garibaldi (Tower of Power). Key to the success of the event was Ana María Murrillo, who organized the evening with Díaz. Packed like sardines, the audience was treated to maestro Carlos Aldama, founder of the Conjunto Folklórico Nacional de Cuba, leading off with orisha prayers featuring Díaz, Sandy Pérez (Muñequitos de Matanzas) and Isidro Valor on the batá drums. It gave the evening a nice spiritual send-off, with Barroso and Arenas dancing in traditional garments; then the rumba ignited sweat-inducing energy. With a vocal chorus comprised of Bobi Céspedes, Lichi Fuentes and Osvaldo Carvajal, el sonero mayor Fito Reinoso came on and broke out in verse, improvising about the cubanos in the house.

Since arriving in the 1980s from his native Havana, Jesús Díaz has paid his dues with Conjunto Céspedes, Mickey Hart's Planet Drum, Oaktown Irawo and others. In recent years he has garnered international attention as part of the unique percussion trio Talking Drums--with Garibaldi and Michael Spiro--and two instructional videos for Warner Music.

"This benefit for La Peña is a labor of love. It's one of the best places in the Bay Area," Diaz said. "Non-profit and around for a longtime, it certainly deserves our support."

DJ Noisex kept things hot with timba and traditional music. When QBA took the stage, the descarga began, as they kicked it off with Caramelo and cameos by Reinoso, Céspedes, Perazzo, Garibaldi and Wayne Wallace (trombone). Reinoso sang Muévete Un Poquito Más and the dance floor screamed with approval!

The potent montuno of Marco Díaz (piano), firm groove of Saul Sierra (bass), and steady beat of Javier Navarrete (congas) swung with able talents and youthful vibrancy. Díaz served as musical director/lead singer, with Fuentes and Garvajal on coro. His metales del terror featured Bill Theurer (trumpet), Alex Budman (saxes) and Derek James (trombone). Díaz was in good form and sang up a storm in his smooth laid-back soneo style.

Bobi Céspedes was magnificent and great to see on the scene again, after her tenure the last few years with Mickey Hart's Planet Drum. She sang Defiende Tu Amor, a Pablo Milanés song. Currently completing a project being produced by Greg Landau for Six Degrees Records that fuses orisha songs with turntablists and electronica, Céspedes remains a caliber performer with confidence and strength.

For bands like QBA, La Peña is part of an ever-shrinking network of nightspots that host live Latin music. Last November, the group opened for Manolín (El Médico de la Salsa) as part of the San Francisco Jazz Festival/A Night in Havana, and maintains a steady presence at places like the Elbo Room with an original blend of contemporary Cuban timba music that fuses funk, jazz, hip hop and songo. Right now they're finishing their second CD and premiered several selections such as El Jardinero, Chirimoya, and Pa'l Monte.

What made the night sensational was the special rueda de salsa performance by Salsa Sandunga, with Cuban dancers Susana Arenas, Alain Soto, Ariel Oseguera, Sonly González, Lea Polony and Isabel Estrada. On this debut outing, they did a routine with that Tropicana flair, grace and tightly choreographed moves. Arenas is a gifted dancer who exudes tremendous energy and personality.

BRAZILIAN BEATS: Ever since Carmen Miranda sang and danced samba in MGM musicals in the 1940s, Brazilian culture has been present in the U.S. pop mainstream. From 1960s bossa nova to the film Black Orpheus, a cultural continuum in the new millennium appears with new stars Bebel Gilberto and Canadian pop star Nelly Furtado, who represents her Portuguese-speaking roots with flying Brazilian capoeira dancers on her MTV videos.

On Friday February 1, a piece of Brazilian culture came to the Silicon Valley, on the occasion of Black History Month, to create a cultural connection between the Black and Latino communities in and around San José. The African Spirit in Latin America was a month long series of events and exhibits called Ritmo Do Brasil/The Rhythm of Brazil.

"A few years ago I met Leon Beechman," remembers Laura Esparza, newly returned program director at the Mexican Heritage Plaza in San José that hosted the event. "We started talking about life and came up with the idea that we should bring our communities together on the occasion of Black History Month to celebrate our commonalities. Obviously, we found that Brazil, which has the largest population of African descent in both North and South America, was a cultural connection that could be made by both Latinos and Africans here in the Bay Area."