A colleague of mine, Dr. Mike Bogle invited my wife and I to give a presentation /musical performance to demonstrate various Latin music styles to the music students at Dallas College. The purpose of the event was to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15-October 15, which marks when most Spanish Speaking countries in the Americas gained independence from Spain)
Dr. Mike Bogle is an outstanding pianist, trombonist (classical, jazz, pop…. ) sings really well too, and is a noteworthy composer/arranger. In fact, he won a Grammy nomination when he was a student at the University of North Texas for his big band arrangement of Chic Corea’s “Got a Match”
The percussionist in the video is Efren Guzman, a drummer/percussionist from Mexico City who has performed with internationally known acts in classical, jazz, Latin and pop.
Both Mike and Efren are great musicians, without a doubt much better than me, but that’s why I love to work with them! I always try to play with musicians who are better than me. I find it the best way to grow and stay inspired.
I am posting this video here for a few reasons: to honor Hispanic Heritage Month, to encourage members here to play with others, preferable players that are at a higher level than themselves, and lastly to demonstrate an arranger keyboard used in conjunction with live musicians. Sure, It would have been way better to have a live bassist and additional live percussion, but this community college had a very small budget….
This is a one chord song which can pose an interesting challenge to improvise over. We demonstrated this song to the students to highlight how Afro-Caribbean influences have impacted not Latin music, but American musical styles such as jazz, blues, rock, R&B….
This was recorded with just a cell phone; we hope to have a better mixed recording soon….

I hope you enjoy my humble efforts, Efren’s Guzman’s tour de force in Afro-Latino syncopation, and Mike Bogle’s jazz meets Latin piano playing. By the way, the lady in the red dress is my wife, so watch your comments, especially Captain Russ- LOL.

It has been my experience that it takes musicians of this caliber before you get players that can lock to a track without it being insanely loud in their monitors (hopefully in-ears!), and I hate to say it, but even here there are times when the piano is pushing a bit compared to the rhythm..!

That’s why I am pretty adamant about not mixing the two unless in a highly rehearsed and very professional situation with very flexible monitoring. Anything less than this, you get people drifting away from the arranger’s tempo and it rapidly becomes a train wreck that sucks the enjoyment of jamming together, and don’t forget, that’s why we played with those other people in the first place!

My advice was largely aimed at the home players here, but many of the pros here may not have played with a band in decades either, and it’s important to reconnect with how to play well when the ONLY thing you play is your part.

I loved the concert, that must have been a fun gig!

Loved it Paul. The pianist is great, no doubt, but for me, nothing gets my blood flowing and my heart thumping like a great latin percussionist. This is why Santana has been in the top 5 of my all-time favorite bands. He has consistently had the cream of the crop of latin percussionist throughout his career. Of course to best enjoy it, the listener themselves have to have the rhythm and soul to hear/feel/appreciate it. I can spend hours just watching the ladies in the front row of a Santana concert. They, not Justin Timberlake, brought the sexy back .

chas

Big thumbs up, Paul. I get called to play upright a lot by the folks in the music program at UK.


FUN and educational!


Russ

Great job. Hope the students enjoyed it also. Love Latin Rhythms.

Sidebar : todays project is to find a good Latin Style on my BK9 for the song "The Two of Us" You don't realize how much of a Latin feel that song has.

Thanks Bill, yes the students liked it. Interesting range of ages at backgrounds at the community college. A few actually came out to our gig last night, so that was nice!

Just The Two of Us is popular in the Latin circles, I have usually heard as a salsa around 80 to 90 bpm (half note) Good luck with that and I think I'll fool around with that song too. Thanks for reminding me about that one!

Thanks for checking out the video and your comments Diki. Regarding the piano pushing the tempo, for better or worse (probably worse) that would probably happen if there had been all live players too. I guess with if it's all live the players can adapt to each other though. the pianist is a more of a jazz player, not a salsa specialist, which may have something to do with it too. But on the other hand , the monitors were not the best, and in ear would have been the way to go. But you got to work with what you got!

Thanks for checking out the video Chas. I love Latin percussion too, and have studied it extensively. As far as Santana, his impact on Latin music can not be overstated. And yes, he works with the best percussionist in the business, in fact his wife is a killer drummer, who has played with several jazz and pop artists. I'm not sure if they have kids together, but could you imagine their musical DNA!

Thanks Russ. Wish you could have played upright with us! Glad you get to share you expertise at Univ of Kentucky. I went to a Jamey Aebersold workshop there, and met some fantastic student players who were in the UK program. Nice place!

Thanks !! Great take on that song. I may try to do it that way.