MusicLab Workshop Series: Latin Jazz
This MusicLab workshop series brings you master Latin Jazz artists to share their experience in an interactive setting. You can learn, listen, practice, play and discuss online in real time in these online workshops hosted by Community Music Center in partnership with the Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble and MisterLatinJazz.
Dive in to Latin jazz and check out each of our exciting upcoming MusicLab workshops with incredible guest artists:
Oscar Hernández: 50 Years of Iconic Latin Music
When: Thursday, October 8, 5:30–7:00pm
Tickets: $15 General, $10 Community Music Center students & faculty / seniors
Purchase tickets here: https://musiclab-workshop-oscar-hernandez.eventbrite.com
A note on ticket prices: If cost is a barrier to your participation in this workshop, contact Adriana Marrero, amarrero@sfcmc.org.
Oscar Hernández has played with Latin music legends for decades, been musical director twice on Broadway, and has won four GRAMMYs with the Spanish Harlem Orchestra. Oscar will share insights about innovations within Latin music over the past 50 years drawing from his musical experiences with iconic groups such as Manny Oquendo y Su Conjunto Libre, Conjunto Folklórico y Experimental Nuevayorquino, Ray Barretto, Rubén Blades, Juan Luis Guerra, and most recently the Spanish Harlem Orchestra. He will discuss what gave each of these groups a signature sound including specific musical elements and/or how they related to the sociocultural landscape of their time.
This class will be formatted as a lecture/demonstration utilizing audio/video samples and with live demonstration and question/answers with Oscar Hernandez. Bring your questions for this rare opportunity to speak with a master!
This course will be conducted live via video conferencing. A computer or other device with a webcam and microphone and a reliable internet connection is required. Log-in information will be sent to students before the workshop.
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Oscar Hernández is another great Puerto Rican from the Bronx. His DNA carries pure melaza in white skin and piercing blue-green eyes that belie his innate percussive rhythm and prodigious way of learning to play the piano. And yet, Oscar is very much de la mata, made of roots so strong as a survival substance that has made him a legend in his own terms and style.
His musical trajectory symbolizes the Spanish saying, plantar bandera. Meaning everywhere he goes he shines like Armstrong on the moon. From Baretto’s “Rican Struction,” to his tenure with Ruben Blades and Seis del Solar, to Spanish Harlem Orchestra and everything in between and after, Oscar stands.
Spanish Harlem Orchestra is a pinnacle of artistic symbolism. While there is indeed a place called “Spanish Harlem,” SHO transcends. The orchestra is about all the Spanish Harlems in the U.S. and beyond that carry legacy. In Oscar’s case music from the heart of the Afro-Caribbean ancestry that permeates the entire Northern and Southern American Continents. And this is grand. Music after all makes the people come together.
The Latin Jazz Project goes a step further in bringing people together. The Afro sounds of the Caribbean and American Jazz integrate like when you’re making bread. And the all-stars of The Latin Jazz Project fine-tuned an hour + of old meets new styles with the signature flair of SHO.
The Latin Jazz Project features Kurt Elling, Bob Franceschini, Tom Harrell, Jimmy Haslip, and Dave Liebman, Bob Mintzer, Jonathan Powell, Michael Rodriguez, and Miguel Zenón.
The usual suspects Marco Bermúdez, Doug Beavers, Noah Bless, Jeremy Bosch, Jorge Castro, Carlos Cascante, Hector Colón, Mitch Frohman, Jerry Madera, Luisito Quintero, Maneco Ruiz and are still on fire.
The Latin Jazz Project is beautiful and close to my heart are the tracks “Acid Rain,” “Invitation,” “Las Palmas,” and “Latin Perspective,” (cool as hades this tune). And perhaps closest still is “Silent Prayers,” lovely and probably because the times call for them, a lot of silent prayers if the world wants to survive. A few snakes have lazed apples with the most venomous poison to lure weak ones into bitting sin and bring down paradise, the only one we have.
Special thanks to our partners: Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble and MisterLatinJazz
MusicLab Workshop Series: Latin Jazz
This MusicLab workshop series brings you master Latin Jazz artists to share their experience in an interactive setting. You can learn, listen, practice, play and discuss online in real time in these online workshops hosted by Community Music Center in partnership with the Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble and MisterLatinJazz.
Dive in to Latin jazz and check out each of our exciting upcoming MusicLab workshops with incredible guest artists:
Michele Rosewoman: Creative Expression Through Afro-Cuban Rhythms & Improvisation
When: Thursday, November 12, 5:30–7:00pm
Tickets: $15 General, $10 Community Music Center students & faculty / seniors
Purchase tickets here: https://musiclab-workshop-michele-rosewoman.eventbrite.com
A note on ticket prices: If cost is a barrier to your participation in this workshop, contact Adriana Marrero, amarrero@sfcmc.org.
Pianist, composer and ensemble leader Michele Rosewoman is known for her uncompromised synthesis of contemporary jazz and Afro-Cuban folkloric music, as presented through her original compositions and arrangements.
This workshop will have two parts: first Michele will work with participants to develop their own creative expression through rhythm, original composition, and improvisation. She will show how simple melodies and lines, created by participants, can be developed and shifted rhythmically to create more interest and possibility. In the second part of the workshop, Michele will talk about and demonstrate how she makes Afro-Cuban rhythms a foundation for arrangements and compositions including how one can translate them into parts for different instruments in an ensemble.
Audience: This clinic is aimed at musicians who have some proficiency on their instrument but will also be of interest to audience members interested in Jazz and Latin music who would like to learn more about how musicians improvise and develop composition and arrangements.
This course will be conducted live via video conferencing. A computer or other device with a webcam and microphone and a reliable internet connection is required. Log-in information will be sent to students before the workshop.
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
For four decades, pianist/composer/educator Michele Rosewoman has expanded the horizons of jazz while remaining firmly rooted in tradition. A fearless bandleader and mentor, many have cited that working with Rosewoman made an indelible mark on their artistic development as musicians, composers and bandleaders.
To date, Ms. Rosewoman has released 9 recordings as a leader on Blue Note, Enja, SoulNote, Toshiba-EMI and her own label, Advance Dance Disques. Her long-standing Quintessence ensemble (with 5 highly acclaimed releases to date) has consistently brought together the most inventive voices in jazz (Steve Coleman, Greg Osby, Gary Thomas, Miguel Zenon, Steve Lehman, Steve Wilson, Mark Shim; Robin Eubanks, Lonnie Plaxico, Brad Jones, Terri Lyne Carrington, Tyshawn Sorey, Liberty Ellman). Her New Yor-Uba ensemble, which debuted at NYC’s Public Theatre in 1983, presents an uncompromised synthesis of contemporary jazz and traditional Cuban folkloric music, uniting master musicians from both worlds.
Having celebrated 30 years with a 2013 double disc release that garnered the #1 NPR Latin Jazz Recording of the year award, New Yor-Uba now celebrates 35 years of evolution with their latest recording, “Hallowed”– a ground-breaking project released November 1, 2019-to stellar reviews in major publications including JazzTimes, JazzIz, Downbeat and #3 NPR Latin Jazz Recording of the Year.
Born in Oakland CA, Michele Rosewoman began playing piano at age 6 and was deeply influenced by the great jazz pianist/organist Ed Kelly. Early studies in percussion and Cuban folklore profoundly impacted her approach as a pianist and composer.
Rosewoman moved to New York in 1978 and has performed with many renowned New York-based jazz and Latin artists including Julian Priester, Jimmy Heath, Billy Harper, Julius Hemphill, Baikida Carroll, Oliver Lake, Rufus Reid, Reggie Workman, Freddie Waits, Gary Bartz, James Spaulding, Billy Hart, Carlos Ward, Billy Bang, Celia Cruz, Paquito D’Rivera, Chocolate, Orlando ‘Puntilla’ Rios, Roman Diaz, Daniel Ponce, Pedrito Martinez, Nicky Marrero, Andy Gonzales and many others.
Her innovative projects have received critical acclaim and prestigious grants. Highlights include major support from the National Endowment for the Arts (1983) giving birth to her New Yor-Uba ensemble, and an ASCAP/Meet the Composer Commission for Emerging Composers (1984) awarded by Dizzy Gillespie, Marian McPartland and Lester Bowie. This award culminated in a new work premiered by the 40-piece Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra plus quintet of improvisers at the Cooper Union Great Hall, NYC and the Paramount Center for the Arts in Peekskill, NY. Over the years, Rosewoman received Chamber Music America New Works Creation and Presentation Commissions (2015, 2008, 2006, 2003). In 2016, Rosewoman became a Latin Jazz Grammy Winner as pianist and composer for her creative contribution to Arturo O’Farrill’s ALJO release, “Cuba, the Conversation Continues.”
Ms. Rosewoman has presented her various ensembles at jazz festivals, concert halls, clubs and universities throughout the world. Currently, she is a board member at Chamber Music America and remains an active and dedicated educator, conducting intensive workshops and residencies in a variety of settings. She teaches piano and composition privately and has held past and current positions at NYU and the New School, and serves on faculty of The Jazz House Kids in Montclair, NJ, teaching theory, piano, composition and ensemble.
Special thanks to our partners: Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble and MisterLatinJazz
