Sonaremo' el tambo: the life and times of Armando Peraza: Part two

Latin Beat Magazine, May, 2004 by Jesse Varela

Percussion great Armando Peraza turns 80 on May 30, 2004. His talent has enriched the bands of George Shearing, Cal Tjader, Mongo Santamaría and Carlos Santana. In Part One, we explored Peraza's early roots in Havana, Cuba, and the social and musical influences that helped shape his style. In Part Two, we explore Peraza's life as an immigrant integrated into U.S. society and the San Francisco music scene before ascending onto the national spotlight with George Shearing in the early 1950s. Happy 80th Birthday Armando!

SAN FRANCISCO

The arrival of Armando Peraza to the San Francisco Bay Area was an important turning point that sparked interest in Afro-Cuban music from both Latin and jazz fans alike. His presence challenged the boundaries of segregation that existed in the SF music scene between a diverse cross section of the population.

When he applied for U.S. residency while in Mexico, Peraza began his American journey. There was the difficult adjustment to institutionalized racism that existed for black people in the U.S. In his early NYC days, Peraza was swept up in the bebop that was happening along 52nd St., while playing with Machito and Dizzy Gillespie.

"I played with Dizzy in Chicago, with Al McKibbon on bass fiddle," recalls Peraza. "John Coltrane was on saxophone and Teddy Stewart, from Kansas City, was the drummer. After I played with Dizzy, Slim Gaillard grabbed me and we toured all over the U.S. That's how I ended up in San Francisco."

Peraza arrived around 1951-52 to play Jimbo's Bop City with Gaillard. What transpired after the gig is hazy, but he was not paid and wound up penniless and homeless on the streets of San Francisco.

"It pains me to talk about those days because I was stranded. I was in bad financial straits and my English was pretty weak so I had to connect with the Latinos. When t arrived in San Francisco, people didn't know too much about Afro-Cuban music," explained Peraza. "There was the orchestra of Merced Gallegos who played at the Palomar Ballroom on Market St., near Van Ness Avenue. The Gallegos band included Alan Smith, the only African American in the band and a pre-eminent trumpet player.

"So I went to the Palomar Ballroom," he continues. "As I was going inside, the security guard stopped me and told me I couldn't go in. I was told black people weren't allowed. But there was this guy by the door named Noel García, who was playing conga in the band. He said: 'That's Armando Peraza' and invited me in. I sat in with the band. After the dance, Noel asked Gallegos to split his salary with me and invited me to stay at his place."

Peraza settled for a spell in a small cottage behind García's valley home. It gave him the security he needed to establish himself in the SF Bay. What he brought to the scene was a youthful tire coupled with showmanship that impressed everyone that saw him play.

Merced Gallegos was a bassist-bandleader who belonged to the Musician's Union Local 6 and hired his orchestra from within the local pool of musicians. He was a tolerant man from Guadalajara who jammed with Duke Ellington at after hour gigs he hosted at the Sinaloa Restaurant in North Beach. At the time, the union was segregated and frowned upon integrating musicians. Gallegos was the first Latin bandleader in the region, and held down a lot of gigs, but wasn't sure about bringing Peraza in.

One of Gallego's staple gigs was playing at the famed Sunday afternoon "Tardeadas" at Sweet's Ballroom in Oakland. This was a time set aside exclusively for Latinos to dance and gather at the prestigious swing dancehall that hosted the touring big bands of the time. It was Guadalupe Carlos who pioneered these dances that catered primarily to the Mexican community around West Oakland. His son Jesse Carlos was his right-hand man and loved Peraza's playing.

"It was Jesse who told Merced that he didn't care if I was black. What he knew was that when I played, people liked it. It got so heavy Jesse told Merced that if I didn't play in the band to not bother showing up. So they solved it by Jesse paying my wages separately. You cannot imagine the discrimination I went through in those early years."

JIMBO'S BOP CITY

In San Francisco, Peraza delved deep into jazz. He would walk over the hill to jam in the black Fillmore District, where a vibrant bebop scene was fermenting. There he played with an amazing cast of greats who were just starting out. Where most scene veterans remember first seeing Armando Peraza was at Jimbo's Bop City.

Jimbo's was a restaurant during the day and an after hours jazz joint after 2 a.m. Opened in 1950 in the SF Fillmore District, Jimbo Edwards cooked up fried chicken and hosted the greatest names in jazz who carne by his place to eat and jam.

The club was located at 1690 Post Street, where it was originally opened by guitarist Slim Gaillard, who called it Vout City. Gaillard abandoned the club, and the owner of the building, a prominent black business man named Charles Sullivan, recruited Jimbo to run it. Jimbo first opened a small waffle shop but stopped making waffles after comedian Lenny Bruce poured syrup all over the place. Thereafter chicken was the featured entree.