RIP Changuito

José Luis "Changuito" Quintana passed yesterday at the age of 76 after a long illness.

Changuito reached "living legend" status decades ago for his work with Van Van, as a solo artist, as an author, and as possibly the greatest music teacher of in the entire history of the post-Revolutionary period. Tomasito Cruz and hundreds of other stars had Changuito as their primary instructor throughout their formative years and much of the educational material available to us is just one generation removed from his teachings, but perhaps the best way to learn about Changuito is through two videos he made in the VHS era, one with Giovanni Hidalgo ("Evolution of the Tumbadoras") where the two masters sit at opposite ends of a sea of congas and discuss the history of music as they jam, and the definitive "History of Songo", in which Rebeca Mauleón brilliantly guides him through mountains of well-organized information about songo. Each of these can be found on YouTube and are mandatory study material for anyone interested in Cuban music.

Rest in peace, maestro.

(check back later for photos from Tom Ehrlich)

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viernes, 21 marzo 2025, 06:15 pm

I discussed the history and legacy of the late, great Paulito FG with Rebecca Bodenheimer in the latest episode of The Clave Chronicles.

While you're there, be sure to catch up. There's a new reparto episode with Mike Levine, two on Bad Bunny and one on Chucho Valdés with one of my favorite gurus, Rebeca Mauleón. Also Pérez Prado and Celia Cruz, among many others. Here's the full list.

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miércoles, 05 marzo 2025, 01:30 pm

In 2011, Emiliano Echeverria interviewed Paulito FG just before his final Bay Area performance at Yoshi's. It will be broadcast live on KPOO on Friday morning at 10:00 and will be archived for two weeks thereafter.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR LIVE BROADCAST - FRIDAY, MARCH 5, 2025: 10:00 A.M.

Paste the following into your browser, then click Listen Now.

https://kpoo.com/

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martes, 05 noviembre 2024, 12:13 pm

The first report will focus on the Afro-Caribbean Music groups at the festival and some time in the future a feature story on the Pedrito Martinez Group by Kevin Moore will be posted.

Traditionally the Afro-Caribbean Music presented at the festival has been either jazz groups or orchestras which play dance music for listening such as Tito Puente. This year for the first time I am aware of, the festival had a salsa dance group every night where the audience was encouraged to dance. The group was Christian Pepin &. Orquesta Bembé, a Bay Area All Star group which played every night of the festival, each night being a different set of music. Pianist Jonathan Montes was the only musicain who was not from the Bay Area - originally from Puerto Rico now residing in Los Angeles. [Tom Ehrlich]

Friday's group consisted of:

Christian Pepín - leader, percussion and coros

Karl Perazzo - percussion and coros

Ernesto Mazar-Kindelán - bass and coros

Jonathan Montes - piano and coros

Christelle Durandy - vocals

Braulio Barrera - vocals

Bill Ortega - trumpet

Oscar Soltero - percussion and coros

*This year's report on the Monterey Jazz Festival is presented late due to problems with the timba.com website.

Christian Pepín leader, percussionist and coros

Ernesto Mazar-Kindelán bass and coros

Karl Perazzo percussion and coros

Christelle Durandy vocals

Braulio Barrera vocals