JazzXpress Caravan
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4/9/2008 6:26:39 PM
LATIN JAZZ THE PERFECT COMBINATION - JAZZ APPRECIATION MONTH APRIL 2008
The practice of Australian jazz bands mixing jazz styles has contributed to Australian jazz being seen as innovative, fresh and original, reflecting on the diverse ethnic rhythms that are part of Australia's musical landscape and connecting to the dance rhythms of the Caribbean, Africa, Latin America and elsewhere.
Latin jazz was a term used to describe the Cuban and Brazilian rhythms which started to be heard by Australian audiences in the 1950s. It emerged in New York City when Afro-Cuban rhythms were mixed with bebop in the 1940’s.
This music is a hybrid of two musical cultures. In the last decade since the release of music & film begun with the Popularity of the Beuno Vista Social Club, Afro-Cuban/ Latin jazz has emerged as one of the strongest music's on the planet.
Both flow in even tempi; both are improvisational.
Key cities such as New Orleans, Havana & New York with their cultural connections to Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico , Brazil & Argentina, have influenced the polymusicality of the amazing musicians who have created some of the most exciting forms of musical fusion with its strong African heritage.
These musical ideas started to be traded around the world along with fashionable dance crazes (salsa, mambo,cha cha cha , tango) & spices , since the end of the Spanish-American War of 1898.
As Jelly Roll Morton the well known American pianist/composer & originator of jazz (born 1890-1941 Ferdinand La Mothe of Haitian ancestry, raised by godparents with Cuban ancestry, and learned to play habaneras from his Mexican guitar teacher once said:
” You can hear the Spanish tinge on one of my earliest tunes, New Orleans Blues. In fact, if you can’t manage to put tinges of Spanish in your tunes, you’ll never be able to get the right seasoning.”
Migrants and traders started to bring these influences through their music/ dance and cuisine to Australia during the war years . Almost a hundred years later the musical expressions of many Australian composers and performers continue to be flavoured by the Spanish tinge.
Australian jazz innovation, continues to be expressed by improvising within the latin Afro-cuban jazz styles, & is represented in the work of artists like The Australian All Stars (1959), The Morrison Brothers Big Bad Band (1984) to today by composer’s/pianist ‘s Joe Chindamo & Ben Winkelman, & groups like The Catholics, The View From Madeleine’s Couch, Hot Mambo, and Saruzu.
Latin jazz knows no bounds. It is an international music that continues to captivate audiences around the world.
Helen Simons
myspace.com/jazzxpress
Acknowledgement
Latin Jazz - The Perfect Combination by Raul Fernandez 2002
Chronicle Books San Francisco In Association with the Smithsonian Institute
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