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MY MUSICAL IDENTITY
Alexey León Reyes
Valencia Spain
Master of Music Candidate
Contemporary Performance
Berklee College of Music-Valencia Campus
Supervisor Victor Mendoza
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION…………………………………..2
2. PROJECT DESCRIPTION……………………….4
3. ACTIONS…………………………………………..4
4. THE PROCESS
4.1. Research and preparation…………………. 5
4.2. Transcription………………………………… 5
4.3.Composition………………………………….. 6
4.4. Performances……………………………….. 7
4.5. Recording……………………………………. 7
5. SONGS RECORDED
5.1.
5.2.
5.3.
5.4.
5.5.
5.6.
5.7.
5.8.
Mi Changui………………………………… 8
Como Fue………………………………… 8
Lidia………………………………………… 8
De Reojo……………………………………8
A Paula……………………………………...8
Drume Negrita……………………………. .8
El Güije…………………………………….. 9
5.8. Un Yoruba meets Russian…………. 10
6. PROMOTION…………………………………….. 13
7. CONCLUSIONS………………………………… 16
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my deep gratitude to Professors Enric Alberich and Victor
Mendoza my research supervisors, for their patient guidance, enthusiastic
encouragement and useful critiques of this research work. I would also like to
thank my teachers Alain Perez y Yoel Paez for inspiration, advice and
assistance.
I´m extremely grateful to my teacher and mentor Perico Sambeat for his
unconditional support, guidance and advice.
I would also like to extend my thanks to all the Berklee Faculty, the musicians
and studio engineers for their help in offering me the resources in running the
recordings.
Finally, I wish to thank my parents for their support and encouragement
throughout my study.
1
1. INTRODUCTION
Cuban music surrounds me ever since I was born. When a child, my first
music experience was the sound of Orquestra Original de Manzanillo and of the
wind orquestra Glorietta Morisca, which used to play danzon and other traditional
Cuban music in the park of Manzanillo, my native town, called ‘La tierra del Son’
as well, ‘the land of the son’. I remember being taken away by this music and
my childish desire to learn how to play the flute and the saxophone.
My musical training began at the age of 5 playing the recorder. Two years
later I began studying the piano at a local music school, and later, at the age of
11, I got familiar with jazz, beginning with the records of Charlie Parker and
Paquito de Rivera.
At the age of 16 me and my brother decided to move to Moscow where I
attended Gnesin music high school and studied classical and contemporary
saxophone repertoire, mostly French. Studying there helped me to learn the
traditional repertoire and get the foundations of the instrument, sound and the
technical skills.
Later, my teacher noticed my constant interest in improvisation and Jazz
and recommended me to continue my studies at the Department of Gnesin Music
Academy where began taking my first steps in jazz and improvisation. My deep
interest in my roots as a person and search of self-identification through my
music led me to the idea of fusing the two music cultures that I was always
exposed to.
2
I gathered all the possible information about the traditional styles and to
listen to lots of recordings. I transcribed numerous compositions and solos,
started a trio where I sang traditional Cuban music and a Latin Jazz quintet the
repertoire of which consisted mostly of my transcriptions and adaptations.
Figure
1:
Cafe
Yauzskaya,
Moscow
I tried to meet every Latin musician that would visit Moscow and to talk
with him or her whenever I could. Among them were Claudio Rodity, Horacio
Hernandez, Diego Urcola, Rebeca Mauleon and many others.
My thesis in Gnesin Music Academy was about Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz. It
an analysis of the styles and analysis of transcriptions of compositions by groups
like Irakere, Bronx Horns, Claudio Rodity, Emiliano Salvador, Paquito D’Rivera,
Hilton Ruiz, Arturo Sandoval.
At Berklee Valencia I continued transcribing and learning about AfroCuban music. I took clases with Alain Perez, Yoel Paez and was fortunate to
3
have guidance of my teacher and mentor Perico Sambeat in many aspects of
jazz improvisation and different styles as well as an unconditional help and
support of Enric Alberich in composition and arrangement, etc.
I met many Cuban musicians outside Berklee and made performances
and colaborations with them. Among them are Carlos Sarduy, Abel Marcel, Ariel
Bringuez, Javier Masso, Julio Montalvo and his Latin big band, Jeorvis Pico,
Roque Martinez, etc.
2. PROJECT
The concept of my project is to complete my previous work and to make
musical illustrations of it. It contains a general theoretic work with an overview of
the main styles of Afro-Cuban music. As a part of this project during the year I
composed, 5 original tunes and arranged 3 Cuban traditional songs, performed
and recorded them.
3. ACTIONS
The interesting feature of the project is that all the musicians on my
recordings are not from Cuba but they are all great jazz players. This fact was
very important during the whole process, the pieces that were created and
recorded later were written for specific players that I counted with.
The process involved many actions that were happening simultaneously.
Listening, Transcription, Composition, Arrangement, Instrumentation, Performing,
Recording etc.
4
For me the biggest challenge was organization, it took the most part of
time and energy and would teach me some new things every time I would start a
new project.
It was important to show the material regularly in public during regular
gigs, be able to get feedback and do the necessary corrections.
As a result of my work I began trying other instruments in my music and
experiment with new instrumentations. The flute, the soprano saxophone, singing
would be heard more often as well as the use of electronic elements etc.
Before starting composing the pieces I created a time line and divided the whole
process into three parts.
4. THE PROCESS
4.1.
Research and preparation.
During this period I transcribed numerous solos and arrangements and
made a list of CD´s I would later transcribe. I listened to each carefully,
making notes on the ideas that attracted my attention and the features I would
like my music to have. During that time I was taking all the core theory
courses on harmony, ear training, composition and arrangement.
4.2. Transcription
Here are works of other that I listened and transcribed at that period among
them are:
1. Emiliano
Salvador
¨Puerto
Padre¨.
2. Tony
Martinez
and
the
Cuban
Power
¨Noticias
de
Cuba¨
3. Tony
Martinez
¨Maferefun¨
5
4. Eddie
Palmieri
¨Listen
Here¨
5. Ray
Vega
¨Latin
Jazz
Sextet¨
6. The
Bronx
Horns
¨Catch
The
Feeling¨
7. Jazz
Meets
Cuba
8. Antonio
Hart
¨Amo
tu
sonrisa¨
9. Larry
Coriel
Live
From
Bahia
10. Ray
Barretto
¨Trancedance¨
11. Perico
Sambeat
Ademuz
12. Carlos
Sarduy
¨Charly
en
La
Habana¨
13. Alain
Perez
En
el
Aire
14. Irakere
30
Años
15. Paquito
D’Rivera
Reunion
16. Diego
Urcola
Apreciation
17. Victor
Mendoza
¨Black
Bean
Blues¨
18. Frank
Emilio
Flynn
Barbarisimo
19. Paquito
D´Rivera
Live
at
the
blue
note
Among with the jazz transcriptions I would make on a weekly basis for my
classes over 100 transcriptions were made during the year.
Later during the process of composition the source of inspiration were life
situations and some of my pieces are dedicated to people that are dear to me.
I would let go my imagination and then adapt the piece to the most appropriate
style groove, tempo etc. that would reflect the mood and feelings.
Many times at start I wasn’t sure about what I was to create stylistically
though it was very clear to me what I wanted say in each piece. I made a big pool
of ideas and concepts that I used later.
4.3.
Composition
I kept a notebook of the musical ideas that were coming to me on the way as
well as recording every melody that appear in my mind on my telephone and
6
later listening them through and transcribing the ones that could be developed in
to a composition.
Each one would appear in different situations and would be inspired by a
particular person or mood. That’s how I´ve got to the idea of story telling.
After that I would try to play it to someone and make the necessary
corrections arrangement wise, etc. And after that record it.
4.4. Performances.
I began organizing gigs in different venues in Valencia; playing my songs
with the musicians I would later record them with.
In total I made 30 performances during this year 8 of them featured my original
material.
All the songs represent various elements of Latin and Afro-Cuban jazz.
4.5. Recording
8 songs were recorded during the second semester. Most of them are
arranged for a 5-7piece band: a saxophone, a trumpet, flute, trombone and a
rhythm section;
During the process of composition my focus was not only on the AfroCuban elements but also on the elements of Russian Folkloric music.
5. SONGS RECORDED.
The songs I composed, arranged and recorded are:
1)
Mi
Changui
(Jazz-‐Folk
Fusion)
2)
Como
Fue(Afro-‐Cuban
Russian
Fusion)
3)
Lidia
(Bolero-‐Danzon)
4)
El
Guije
(Bolero-‐Danzón)
7
5)
Yoruba
meets
Russian
(Jazz
Folk
Fusion)
6)
De
Reojo
(Fusion-‐Songo-‐Mozambique)
7)
A
Paula
(Balad)
8)
Drume
Negrita
(Jazz-‐Folk
Fusion)
A real person inspires every composition and arrangement and behind
each there is a story.
5.1. Mi Changui.
I have a personal bound with this style. Changui is an ancestor of
Cuban son originally from the part of Cuba called Oriente.
The city where I was born Manzanillo, is the provincial center of Granma
that is famous for its musical tradition. I used to listen to this style from my
very early childhood and wanted to make a tribute to the style.
5.3. Como Fue
This traditional Bolero is very dear to me, the first version was recorded by
Benny More and then it was made popular by Paquito D´Rivera.
5.3. Lidia
This piece is dedicated to my grandmother. She played a very important
role in my life and my musical education.
5.9. De Reojo
This piece is inspired by Cache Bache a Trova Duo from Havana
It first was composed as a song and I wanted to give a fresh perspective
to it putting it into a contemporary jazz context.
5.10. A Paula
Is dedicated to a very dear person to me.
The piece is very emotional and intense. It is eclectic in many ways as it
brings together music and poetry. I tried to keep the instrumentation
simpler to convey my emotions.
5.11. Drume Negrita
8
Is my arrangement of a traditional lullaby by Ignacio Jacinto Villa - Bola De
Nieve.
I was inspired to do this arrangement by my teacher and mentor Perico
Sambeat after hearing his own version of it.
Now lets take a closer look at two of the compositions I recorded and the
elements used in them.
5.12. El Güije.
El Güije is eclectic in many ways; it represents two worlds that are so
different and yet have so much in common. In this piece I´m mixing Russian
folkloric music elements and Afro-Cuban melodic elements. It starts on a D pedal
on the base.
The main color is Dsus11 sound, after that the instruments begin creating a
musical conversation interchanging ideas and building up.
When I was choosing the instrumentation I was going for a specific sound that
would illustrate the concept I´ve been working on.
Trombone and Trumpet represent the afro-Cuban side; soprano is balancing in
the middle of the two worlds playing Russian and Afro-Cuban melodic material.
In the climax point of the composition I’m using a folkloric Russian instrument –
Rozhok that plays a drone and then an ostinato melody creating a base for the
Russian folkloric voices to come in and conclude the piece.
I extracted the vocal parts from Russian Folkloric song ¨The King on the city
goes¨ performed by Sergei Starostin and using Ableton Live made loops of them
that are being brought in by a DJ. My idea was to use a DJ as a member of the
group and make him interact with the band and be part
of the conversation.
Ex. Female choir loop.
9
Ex. Rozhok drone
5.8. Un Yoruba meets Russian.
Ex. Yoruba Meets Russian interlude
Here is an example of how the main idea of Yoruba meets Russian appeared.
Yoruba meets Russian (first draft).
10
Ex. Score Yoruba Meets Russian
Melody
A
S. Sx.
B b Tpt.
T. Sx.
Tbn.
Pno.
Bass
D. S.
3
3
3
œ^ œ œ # œ
#œ œ œ œ œ œ ‰ œ œ #œ œ ‰
3
3
^
3
3
3
3
œ œ #œ œ œ œ œ ‰ œ œ œ #œ œ ‰ œ œ
Yoruba meets Russia
#
& # Œ
&
##
Œ
#
& # Œ
?
&
?
?
ã
œ œ œ œ œ œ ‰ œ œ
3
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
‰
3
Œ
3
3
3
∑
3
ÛÛÛ Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û
D7 3
Œ
x
3
3
œ œ œ
J J
3
3
œ œ
J
3
3
x ‰ x x ‰ x
J
3
11
3
œ
3
x
3
x
J
3
3
# œ^
œœ œ ‰ œ œ
3
3
# œ^ œ œ œœ œ
‰
3
3
3
3
3
∑
äœ œ
J
#œ œ œ œ
Œ
j
œ œ
â
ä
œ œ
J
äœ œ
J
3
3
3
Œ
œ œ #œ œ
3
œ œ œ œ
3
œ œ œ œ
Œ
3
Œ
3
3
∑
œ œ œ œ
J
3
3
j 3
œ œ œ œ
œ œ œ
J
œ
œ œ 3 œ
œ
J
3
Û Û Û Û Û Û ÛÛ Û ÛÛ Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û
Œ
3
x
3
œ
œ
3
3
x ‰ x x ‰ x
J
3
12
3
œ
3
x
3
Œ
x x
J
3
3
3
œ œ 3œ
J J
3
œ 3œ
J
3
x ‰ x x ‰ x
J
3
13
3
œ
3
x
3
x
J
This piece was inspired by Kiran, the son of my very good friend Carlos
11
Sarduy. Once he brought his 5-year-old son to the rehearsal.
I noticed that we had many things in common, he is being brought up in a
similar situation as I was.
The work started immediately, brainstorming and searching for the ideas
and the necessary elements to make this composition.
The tune has AABA form, solos are played on form. It also has a DJ solo in the
middle on the vamp in the rhythm section.
The tune is based on the Afro-Cuban Riff, motifs of which are used
during the whole piece. There are many ingredients I´m putting together. It opens
with a base riff from the Afro-Cuban tradition; the rhythm used is called Palo
Habanero.
Pic. (musical example)
The piano takes over creating the groove and brings in the interlude.
I extracted choir material from sacred Yoruba chants and adapted them using
Ableton Live to fit the composition. Various Yoruba loops are being thrown in by
the DJ.
EX. Yoruba Loop 1.
12
Ex. Yoruba Loop 2.
The melody is played by the Flute and The soprano sax and the guitar.
The melodic voice is played by the flute. I choose this timbre to emphasize its
playful character and tried to make it sound more in the Cuban flute tradition.
The A section is a linear melody that moves like a snake through the chords. The
B section has more space, and its main character is cantabile.
6. PROMOTION.
After finishing the production of the compositions it was very important to me to
show my work and get feedback from public. This is how I started organizing
concerts and promoting my work. Here are some of the posters for the events
that were organized.
6.1. Concerts
Ex. 1
13
Figure
2:
Ubik
Cafe,
Valencia
Ex. 2
Ex. 3
Ex. 4
14
6.2. Next step was to create my personal web page.
Ex.
Later I made a Sound Cloud Page and put out snippets of my recordings.
Ex.
15
6.3. Than Facebook artist page as well as YouTube channel to put out
promotional videos from concerts and studio sessions.
7. CONCLUSIONS.
The execution of this project allowed me to realize and reflect a part of my
musical journey and to become closer to my roots musically.
During the process I learned a great amount of new things in various
spheres of musical and non-musical knowledge.
It was very important to develop basic engineering and software skills as
well as leadership, build relationships and improve time managing.
The future outcomes of this project are a presentation and a book of Latin
jazz licks for melodic instruments.
My idea is to find out how to utilize the concepts and elements of Latin
music in other styles and develop a teaching method that would help students
improve their musicality through it.
Further I want to develop a method of teaching Latin jazz language to musicians
playing melodic instruments bearing in mind to its various aspects (phrasing,
typical harmonic situations, etc.)
16
17
Alexey León Reyes
Valencia Spain
Master of Music Candidate
Contemporary Performance
Berklee College of Music-Valencia Campus
Supervisor Victor Mendoza
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION…………………………………..2
2. PROJECT DESCRIPTION……………………….4
3. ACTIONS…………………………………………..4
4. THE PROCESS
4.1. Research and preparation…………………. 5
4.2. Transcription………………………………… 5
4.3.Composition………………………………….. 6
4.4. Performances……………………………….. 7
4.5. Recording……………………………………. 7
5. SONGS RECORDED
5.1.
5.2.
5.3.
5.4.
5.5.
5.6.
5.7.
5.8.
Mi Changui………………………………… 8
Como Fue………………………………… 8
Lidia………………………………………… 8
De Reojo……………………………………8
A Paula……………………………………...8
Drume Negrita……………………………. .8
El Güije…………………………………….. 9
5.8. Un Yoruba meets Russian…………. 10
6. PROMOTION…………………………………….. 13
7. CONCLUSIONS………………………………… 16
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my deep gratitude to Professors Enric Alberich and Victor
Mendoza my research supervisors, for their patient guidance, enthusiastic
encouragement and useful critiques of this research work. I would also like to
thank my teachers Alain Perez y Yoel Paez for inspiration, advice and
assistance.
I´m extremely grateful to my teacher and mentor Perico Sambeat for his
unconditional support, guidance and advice.
I would also like to extend my thanks to all the Berklee Faculty, the musicians
and studio engineers for their help in offering me the resources in running the
recordings.
Finally, I wish to thank my parents for their support and encouragement
throughout my study.
1
1. INTRODUCTION
Cuban music surrounds me ever since I was born. When a child, my first
music experience was the sound of Orquestra Original de Manzanillo and of the
wind orquestra Glorietta Morisca, which used to play danzon and other traditional
Cuban music in the park of Manzanillo, my native town, called ‘La tierra del Son’
as well, ‘the land of the son’. I remember being taken away by this music and
my childish desire to learn how to play the flute and the saxophone.
My musical training began at the age of 5 playing the recorder. Two years
later I began studying the piano at a local music school, and later, at the age of
11, I got familiar with jazz, beginning with the records of Charlie Parker and
Paquito de Rivera.
At the age of 16 me and my brother decided to move to Moscow where I
attended Gnesin music high school and studied classical and contemporary
saxophone repertoire, mostly French. Studying there helped me to learn the
traditional repertoire and get the foundations of the instrument, sound and the
technical skills.
Later, my teacher noticed my constant interest in improvisation and Jazz
and recommended me to continue my studies at the Department of Gnesin Music
Academy where began taking my first steps in jazz and improvisation. My deep
interest in my roots as a person and search of self-identification through my
music led me to the idea of fusing the two music cultures that I was always
exposed to.
2
I gathered all the possible information about the traditional styles and to
listen to lots of recordings. I transcribed numerous compositions and solos,
started a trio where I sang traditional Cuban music and a Latin Jazz quintet the
repertoire of which consisted mostly of my transcriptions and adaptations.
Figure
1:
Cafe
Yauzskaya,
Moscow
I tried to meet every Latin musician that would visit Moscow and to talk
with him or her whenever I could. Among them were Claudio Rodity, Horacio
Hernandez, Diego Urcola, Rebeca Mauleon and many others.
My thesis in Gnesin Music Academy was about Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz. It
an analysis of the styles and analysis of transcriptions of compositions by groups
like Irakere, Bronx Horns, Claudio Rodity, Emiliano Salvador, Paquito D’Rivera,
Hilton Ruiz, Arturo Sandoval.
At Berklee Valencia I continued transcribing and learning about AfroCuban music. I took clases with Alain Perez, Yoel Paez and was fortunate to
3
have guidance of my teacher and mentor Perico Sambeat in many aspects of
jazz improvisation and different styles as well as an unconditional help and
support of Enric Alberich in composition and arrangement, etc.
I met many Cuban musicians outside Berklee and made performances
and colaborations with them. Among them are Carlos Sarduy, Abel Marcel, Ariel
Bringuez, Javier Masso, Julio Montalvo and his Latin big band, Jeorvis Pico,
Roque Martinez, etc.
2. PROJECT
The concept of my project is to complete my previous work and to make
musical illustrations of it. It contains a general theoretic work with an overview of
the main styles of Afro-Cuban music. As a part of this project during the year I
composed, 5 original tunes and arranged 3 Cuban traditional songs, performed
and recorded them.
3. ACTIONS
The interesting feature of the project is that all the musicians on my
recordings are not from Cuba but they are all great jazz players. This fact was
very important during the whole process, the pieces that were created and
recorded later were written for specific players that I counted with.
The process involved many actions that were happening simultaneously.
Listening, Transcription, Composition, Arrangement, Instrumentation, Performing,
Recording etc.
4
For me the biggest challenge was organization, it took the most part of
time and energy and would teach me some new things every time I would start a
new project.
It was important to show the material regularly in public during regular
gigs, be able to get feedback and do the necessary corrections.
As a result of my work I began trying other instruments in my music and
experiment with new instrumentations. The flute, the soprano saxophone, singing
would be heard more often as well as the use of electronic elements etc.
Before starting composing the pieces I created a time line and divided the whole
process into three parts.
4. THE PROCESS
4.1.
Research and preparation.
During this period I transcribed numerous solos and arrangements and
made a list of CD´s I would later transcribe. I listened to each carefully,
making notes on the ideas that attracted my attention and the features I would
like my music to have. During that time I was taking all the core theory
courses on harmony, ear training, composition and arrangement.
4.2. Transcription
Here are works of other that I listened and transcribed at that period among
them are:
1. Emiliano
Salvador
¨Puerto
Padre¨.
2. Tony
Martinez
and
the
Cuban
Power
¨Noticias
de
Cuba¨
3. Tony
Martinez
¨Maferefun¨
5
4. Eddie
Palmieri
¨Listen
Here¨
5. Ray
Vega
¨Latin
Jazz
Sextet¨
6. The
Bronx
Horns
¨Catch
The
Feeling¨
7. Jazz
Meets
Cuba
8. Antonio
Hart
¨Amo
tu
sonrisa¨
9. Larry
Coriel
Live
From
Bahia
10. Ray
Barretto
¨Trancedance¨
11. Perico
Sambeat
Ademuz
12. Carlos
Sarduy
¨Charly
en
La
Habana¨
13. Alain
Perez
En
el
Aire
14. Irakere
30
Años
15. Paquito
D’Rivera
Reunion
16. Diego
Urcola
Apreciation
17. Victor
Mendoza
¨Black
Bean
Blues¨
18. Frank
Emilio
Flynn
Barbarisimo
19. Paquito
D´Rivera
Live
at
the
blue
note
Among with the jazz transcriptions I would make on a weekly basis for my
classes over 100 transcriptions were made during the year.
Later during the process of composition the source of inspiration were life
situations and some of my pieces are dedicated to people that are dear to me.
I would let go my imagination and then adapt the piece to the most appropriate
style groove, tempo etc. that would reflect the mood and feelings.
Many times at start I wasn’t sure about what I was to create stylistically
though it was very clear to me what I wanted say in each piece. I made a big pool
of ideas and concepts that I used later.
4.3.
Composition
I kept a notebook of the musical ideas that were coming to me on the way as
well as recording every melody that appear in my mind on my telephone and
6
later listening them through and transcribing the ones that could be developed in
to a composition.
Each one would appear in different situations and would be inspired by a
particular person or mood. That’s how I´ve got to the idea of story telling.
After that I would try to play it to someone and make the necessary
corrections arrangement wise, etc. And after that record it.
4.4. Performances.
I began organizing gigs in different venues in Valencia; playing my songs
with the musicians I would later record them with.
In total I made 30 performances during this year 8 of them featured my original
material.
All the songs represent various elements of Latin and Afro-Cuban jazz.
4.5. Recording
8 songs were recorded during the second semester. Most of them are
arranged for a 5-7piece band: a saxophone, a trumpet, flute, trombone and a
rhythm section;
During the process of composition my focus was not only on the AfroCuban elements but also on the elements of Russian Folkloric music.
5. SONGS RECORDED.
The songs I composed, arranged and recorded are:
1)
Mi
Changui
(Jazz-‐Folk
Fusion)
2)
Como
Fue(Afro-‐Cuban
Russian
Fusion)
3)
Lidia
(Bolero-‐Danzon)
4)
El
Guije
(Bolero-‐Danzón)
7
5)
Yoruba
meets
Russian
(Jazz
Folk
Fusion)
6)
De
Reojo
(Fusion-‐Songo-‐Mozambique)
7)
A
Paula
(Balad)
8)
Drume
Negrita
(Jazz-‐Folk
Fusion)
A real person inspires every composition and arrangement and behind
each there is a story.
5.1. Mi Changui.
I have a personal bound with this style. Changui is an ancestor of
Cuban son originally from the part of Cuba called Oriente.
The city where I was born Manzanillo, is the provincial center of Granma
that is famous for its musical tradition. I used to listen to this style from my
very early childhood and wanted to make a tribute to the style.
5.3. Como Fue
This traditional Bolero is very dear to me, the first version was recorded by
Benny More and then it was made popular by Paquito D´Rivera.
5.3. Lidia
This piece is dedicated to my grandmother. She played a very important
role in my life and my musical education.
5.9. De Reojo
This piece is inspired by Cache Bache a Trova Duo from Havana
It first was composed as a song and I wanted to give a fresh perspective
to it putting it into a contemporary jazz context.
5.10. A Paula
Is dedicated to a very dear person to me.
The piece is very emotional and intense. It is eclectic in many ways as it
brings together music and poetry. I tried to keep the instrumentation
simpler to convey my emotions.
5.11. Drume Negrita
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Is my arrangement of a traditional lullaby by Ignacio Jacinto Villa - Bola De
Nieve.
I was inspired to do this arrangement by my teacher and mentor Perico
Sambeat after hearing his own version of it.
Now lets take a closer look at two of the compositions I recorded and the
elements used in them.
5.12. El Güije.
El Güije is eclectic in many ways; it represents two worlds that are so
different and yet have so much in common. In this piece I´m mixing Russian
folkloric music elements and Afro-Cuban melodic elements. It starts on a D pedal
on the base.
The main color is Dsus11 sound, after that the instruments begin creating a
musical conversation interchanging ideas and building up.
When I was choosing the instrumentation I was going for a specific sound that
would illustrate the concept I´ve been working on.
Trombone and Trumpet represent the afro-Cuban side; soprano is balancing in
the middle of the two worlds playing Russian and Afro-Cuban melodic material.
In the climax point of the composition I’m using a folkloric Russian instrument –
Rozhok that plays a drone and then an ostinato melody creating a base for the
Russian folkloric voices to come in and conclude the piece.
I extracted the vocal parts from Russian Folkloric song ¨The King on the city
goes¨ performed by Sergei Starostin and using Ableton Live made loops of them
that are being brought in by a DJ. My idea was to use a DJ as a member of the
group and make him interact with the band and be part
of the conversation.
Ex. Female choir loop.
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Ex. Rozhok drone
5.8. Un Yoruba meets Russian.
Ex. Yoruba Meets Russian interlude
Here is an example of how the main idea of Yoruba meets Russian appeared.
Yoruba meets Russian (first draft).
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Ex. Score Yoruba Meets Russian
Melody
A
S. Sx.
B b Tpt.
T. Sx.
Tbn.
Pno.
Bass
D. S.
3
3
3
œ^ œ œ # œ
#œ œ œ œ œ œ ‰ œ œ #œ œ ‰
3
3
^
3
3
3
3
œ œ #œ œ œ œ œ ‰ œ œ œ #œ œ ‰ œ œ
Yoruba meets Russia
#
& # Œ
&
##
Œ
#
& # Œ
?
&
?
?
ã
œ œ œ œ œ œ ‰ œ œ
3
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
‰
3
Œ
3
3
3
∑
3
ÛÛÛ Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û
D7 3
Œ
x
3
3
œ œ œ
J J
3
3
œ œ
J
3
3
x ‰ x x ‰ x
J
3
11
3
œ
3
x
3
x
J
3
3
# œ^
œœ œ ‰ œ œ
3
3
# œ^ œ œ œœ œ
‰
3
3
3
3
3
∑
äœ œ
J
#œ œ œ œ
Œ
j
œ œ
â
ä
œ œ
J
äœ œ
J
3
3
3
Œ
œ œ #œ œ
3
œ œ œ œ
3
œ œ œ œ
Œ
3
Œ
3
3
∑
œ œ œ œ
J
3
3
j 3
œ œ œ œ
œ œ œ
J
œ
œ œ 3 œ
œ
J
3
Û Û Û Û Û Û ÛÛ Û ÛÛ Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û
Œ
3
x
3
œ
œ
3
3
x ‰ x x ‰ x
J
3
12
3
œ
3
x
3
Œ
x x
J
3
3
3
œ œ 3œ
J J
3
œ 3œ
J
3
x ‰ x x ‰ x
J
3
13
3
œ
3
x
3
x
J
This piece was inspired by Kiran, the son of my very good friend Carlos
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Sarduy. Once he brought his 5-year-old son to the rehearsal.
I noticed that we had many things in common, he is being brought up in a
similar situation as I was.
The work started immediately, brainstorming and searching for the ideas
and the necessary elements to make this composition.
The tune has AABA form, solos are played on form. It also has a DJ solo in the
middle on the vamp in the rhythm section.
The tune is based on the Afro-Cuban Riff, motifs of which are used
during the whole piece. There are many ingredients I´m putting together. It opens
with a base riff from the Afro-Cuban tradition; the rhythm used is called Palo
Habanero.
Pic. (musical example)
The piano takes over creating the groove and brings in the interlude.
I extracted choir material from sacred Yoruba chants and adapted them using
Ableton Live to fit the composition. Various Yoruba loops are being thrown in by
the DJ.
EX. Yoruba Loop 1.
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Ex. Yoruba Loop 2.
The melody is played by the Flute and The soprano sax and the guitar.
The melodic voice is played by the flute. I choose this timbre to emphasize its
playful character and tried to make it sound more in the Cuban flute tradition.
The A section is a linear melody that moves like a snake through the chords. The
B section has more space, and its main character is cantabile.
6. PROMOTION.
After finishing the production of the compositions it was very important to me to
show my work and get feedback from public. This is how I started organizing
concerts and promoting my work. Here are some of the posters for the events
that were organized.
6.1. Concerts
Ex. 1
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Figure
2:
Ubik
Cafe,
Valencia
Ex. 2
Ex. 3
Ex. 4
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6.2. Next step was to create my personal web page.
Ex.
Later I made a Sound Cloud Page and put out snippets of my recordings.
Ex.
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6.3. Than Facebook artist page as well as YouTube channel to put out
promotional videos from concerts and studio sessions.
7. CONCLUSIONS.
The execution of this project allowed me to realize and reflect a part of my
musical journey and to become closer to my roots musically.
During the process I learned a great amount of new things in various
spheres of musical and non-musical knowledge.
It was very important to develop basic engineering and software skills as
well as leadership, build relationships and improve time managing.
The future outcomes of this project are a presentation and a book of Latin
jazz licks for melodic instruments.
My idea is to find out how to utilize the concepts and elements of Latin
music in other styles and develop a teaching method that would help students
improve their musicality through it.
Further I want to develop a method of teaching Latin jazz language to musicians
playing melodic instruments bearing in mind to its various aspects (phrasing,
typical harmonic situations, etc.)
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Media of
