Word: paquito
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
SAXOPHONIST Paquito D'Rivera, Cuba's most recent gift to American music, is Latin jazz's newest talent as well as the most recent example of the exchange between Cuban and American music...
Ultimately, this fascination led to an historic deal between the Cuban government and the American record company Columbia. Irakere was signed and recorded two Columbia records with promises for more group efforts as well as solo projects for Paquito, Chucho and Arturo...
...studio albums and a live album, playing with American jazz musicians he had heard in Cuba as well as two musicians, drummer Ignacio Berroa and conguero Daniel Ponce, who had defected to the United States in a mass exodus to Florida some years earlier and had played with Paquito in Cuba...
...Cuba," says Paquito D'Rivera, "jazz is a four-letter word." So, at the age of 32, he came to New York. Jazz may be spelled the same way in America, may even be locked into a perpetual cultural rearguard action, but at least it does not carry all kinds of touchy political ramifications. "Jazz music isn't forbidden in Cuba," D'Rivera elaborates, "but if you do that kind of music, they will put an eye on you. You're going to be like pro-American or something, you know." He also recalls some advice...
...Cuban inflections keep the temperature high in Paquito's distinctive brand of bop. "He really is a pure jazz player with strong Afro-Cuban roots in his music," says Lundvall, who has moved on to become president of Elektra/Asylum/Nonesuch Records. "You hear that Latin fire. He has a sound that is totally identifiable." Paquito's easy access to the American jazz mainstream is largely attributable to his zest and finesse on the alto and soprano sax, and partly ascribable to the fact that he is playing in a familiar groove, which may stray in a friendly fashion from...