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Title: Afro-Cuban Jazz : Third Ear - The Essential Listening Companion by Scott Yanow ISBN: 0-87930-619-X Publisher: Backbeat Books Pub. Date: 30 November, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.75 (4 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Yanow Misses The Sabor y Soul of Afro-Cuban Music
Comment: I found this book to be a needed addition to the meager number of titles available on Latin Jazz available for the individual interested in learning as much as possible about Afro-Cuban and Latin Jazz music and musicians. That said, I must question the perspective from which Mr. Yanow effectively "puts down" certain aspects of this genre that I feel are integral to the music. For instance, he knocks "Manny Oquendo y Libre" because they feature strong coros (singers) prominently on certain albums, and he knocks the group for playing "Salsa" rather than pure (???)Latin Jazz. He would prefer more traditional "stretching out" by the individual musicians. In other words, the same old jazz one can hear on countless recordings already on the market.
Mr. Yanow, "coros and call/response" are the heart of Afro-Cuban music irregardless of style. Likewise "Salsa" is the "soul" of Latin Jazz. Latin music is essentially designed to make you get up and dance. Most (though obviously not all) Latin music has that power to make even the dead get up and "get down.". It has never been the "navel gazing" type of music that much jazz has "evolved" (???) into. Afro-Cuban music and Latin Jazz are "peoples music." Peoples music makes you move, man! Even introspective Latin ballads make you "move!"
Today there are numerous Latino musicians who can play jazz standards, modern jazz, and avant garde jazz masterfully, and they have many recordings out on which they sonically prove that point. Still, there is something about the clave, the conga, and a strong coro that underlies even the most traditional Latin Jazz interpretation of "straight ahead jazz," that makes it always capable of exploding into (to borrow a Tito Puente title) "Dance Mania."
When Latinos play music of any type they quite often try to sprinkle in a bit of "latinisms" just to give it that "salsa and sabor." That is part of what makes Latin music so potent.
I suggest that Mr. Yanow study the roots and history of how Latin Jazz evolved from puro African drum rhythms and chants to Cuban "styles" like son montuno, charanga, changui, etc, to inclusion into be-bop and the rest of the jazz vocabulary as we know it today. There is a truly great book (subtitled-"The Nationalization of Blackness") that Amazon sells which is a "must-read" for anyone interested in the evolvement of Afro-Cuban and Latin Jazz music over the past 150 years.
Here are some suggestions to Mr. Yanow-1) Listen, really listen, to "Beny More's" recordings, and 2) Take some salsa dance classes or learn how to play conga drums so that you can learn exactly why Afro-Cuban music in general, and Latin Jazz in particular, is given little or no respect by navel-gazing, head-nodding, pointy-headed intellectual jazz music snobs who actually seem to abhor any and all music that gives rise to "booty shaking."
Ask yourself why Dizzy Gillespie and Cal Tjader were so enamoured with Afro-Cuban rhythms. Think about exactly what falls under the "rainbow" of Duke Ellington's famous line, "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing!" Buy a copy of Manny Oquendo's, "Muvete: Manny Oquendo and Libre LIVE." Then I think you will have a slightly different perspective on Afro-Cuban and Latin Jazz music overall. In fact, I think that a thorough study of Latin and Afro-Cuban music would have been a tremendous addition to the introductory episode of Ken Burn's monumental PBS series on Jazz.
One last thing-Many western listeners tend to feel that latin music has "too much going on all at once" for their listening tastes. There are drums, timbales, drum-sets, trombones, trumpets, organs, Improvising coros (singing in a language they can't understand, so they have their brain relate to the singers as extraneous "noise" rather than as "human horn sections," and then you have dancers, rumberos, and shakeres to fill out the aural soundscape. It is no wonder that western jazz afficianados seldom give Latin Jazz and Afro-Cuban music it's due. All I can say is simply- don't put it down until you've "played" with the sound. Join a drum circle for a few months and watch your eyes lift from your navel to, perhaps, the Orishas. Ache!
P.S. Give a listen to the music played by Thai musicians at "Muay Thai" boxing matches in Thailand. It swings, it sings, and it makes Latin Jazz sound quieter and gentler in comparison. I love it! But, then again, I spent quite some time learning Muay Thai. Nowadays I am just a couch salsero and drum circle player.
Jimi April /Chicago,Illinois/ 01/29/03
It all began with a lonely chant somewhere in a faraway place thousands of years ago. Then someone added a primitive clave to support the voice(s). Then came beating on rocks, tree stumps, hollowed out logs, and primitive drums. Thousands of years later, in Cuba, the sounds began to embrace western music in a subtle way, The came, to name just a fe of the Giants of the 1940's-1950's, Tito Rodriguez,Tito Puente, Mongo, Patato, Cal Tjader,and Cachao. Today we have Pancho Sanchez, Eddie Palmieri (still swing and still knocking everyone dead), Manny Oquendo, Andy Gonzalez,and many, many other gifted Latino musicians, keeping alight the flame of Latin Jazz and Afro-Cuban music burning and ever-evolving.
So, I recommend buying this book, but keep in mind that the definative book on Afro-Cuban music and Latin Jazz has yet to be penned.
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent introduction to the style
Comment: Hey, if it's good enough for Poncho Sanchez, I guess this book is good enough for little old me. The other crabbykins who dissed this book seems to be unaware of Scott Yanow's other work as the editor (and main author of) the incredible "All Music Guide To Jazz"... No, I don't think he just "borrowed" a friend's records and dashed off a book... Yanow knows what he's talking about and is a very clear, concise writer. He's merely expressing his opinions? Quel horror! Don't you hate it when music critics do that? I can't wait to read the book Mr. Ulloa has coming out soon, but in the meantime, I'll enjoy reading Yanow's compact, informative little volume. Recommended!
Rating: 2
Summary: Good for Beginners
Comment: Scott Yanow's Afro-Cuban Jazz is a not so comprehensive overview of Latin Jazz and its musicians. His book begins with an introduction that outlines his goals and his 10 point rating system used to evaluate recordings. Mr. Yanow does not offer the criteria for a "10" recording or a "1" for that matter, thus the reader is soley relying on the author's opinion. A five page "brief history of Afro-Cuban Jazz" follows. In this section his "brief history" is not supported with any evidence. In other words he offers information without citing any sources which is essential to be credible. Giving the author the benefit of the doubt, the omission of sources may have been the publisher's decision. What follows is an A to Z "laundry list" of artists and a few of their recordings listed. It seems as though the author borrowed a few recordings from his friends and put them into a book. He does include interviews with Paquito D'Rivera, Danilo Perez, Jane Bunnet, and Susie Hansen who endorses the book on the back cover. Overall, I would recommend this book to someone who knows nothing about Latin music. Very little has been published in the realm of Latin music. If nothing else, this book is an added contribution to the few works available
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Title: Latin Jazz: The Perfect Combination = LA Combinacion Perfecta (Text) by Raul A. Fernandez ISBN: 0811836088 Publisher: Chronicle Books Pub. Date: November, 2002 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: Latin Jazz : The First of Fusion, 1880's to Today by John Storm Roberts ISBN: 0825671922 Publisher: Schirmer Books Pub. Date: 01 July, 1999 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Cubano Be, Cubano Bop: One Hundred Years of Jazz in Cuba by Leonardo Acosta, Daniel S. Whitesell ISBN: 158834147X Publisher: Smithsonian Books Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: The Rough Guide to Cuban Music (Rough Guide Music Reference) by Philip Sweeney ISBN: 1858287618 Publisher: Rough Guides Limited Pub. Date: 02 August, 2001 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: The Latin Tinge: The Impact of Latin American Music on the United States by John Storm Roberts ISBN: 0195121015 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 December, 1998 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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