Press Reviews
Dan Jaffe
Jazz Poet

An Interview with Dan Jaffe
Author of Playing the Word: Jazz Poems
Interviewed by Kevin Rabas
Q.
You knew a lot of the players in these poems. For instance, you were good friends with George Salisbury. Tell me a little bit about how you not only knew musicians, but about how you actually participated in the jazz life.
A.
It came about indirectly. I was involved in the civil rights movement. I began to participate in demonstrations in Kansas City. George Salisbury played often at concerts meant to benefit civil rights. When I was asked in 1962 to do a program at the Jewish Community Center in Kansas City, I called George. We did a poetry/jazz program. It was Arch Martin on trombone, Vince Bilardo on drums, Milt Abel on bass, George Salisbury on piano, and Dick Busey on sax, as I remember. That was just after I got to KC. It was the first poetry reading that I ever participated in that included music—and the first concert that included jazz. I read a few of my poems, but I mainly read poems by other poets. They weren’t jazz poems, and I read them only in between the numbers. It was a great experience. I remember George played a version of “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child,” alone, on the stage of the Jewish Community Center. It must have gone on for 20 minutes. It was magnificent playing. I’ll never forget it. That was when I realized George was a genius. George and I continued to do poetry and jazz concerts until shortly before his death. But they changed. What I did with George changed over the years. More and more, the poetry became mine. More and more, the poems were about jazz. As I experienced more of Kansas City jazz, I began to write about it. I got to know the players. I had the opportunity because I knew George first. Many of them are not in the book. I just haven’t gotten around to writing them all. I remember one night stopping by a joint George was playing at on Troost, the Baghdad. I was bringing Langston Hughes back to his hotel after a poetry reading. George and I had were going to do a concert next week. I had the program with me, and I was dropping it off. Langston didn’t want to wait in the car, so he came in with me. Well, I didn’t know it then, but both George and Langston grew up inLawrence. As soon as Langston came in the door, George knew who it was. And Langston knew as soon as he could hear George what a great player George was! We all stayed until 4 a.m., talking. I just sat there, awed by this conversation between Langston and George and the other jazz people. One of the great nights! George became important in my life, among the men I most admire. George hated bragging of any kind. He didn’t play for the audience or to demonstrate his skills. He played to find what was in the music. That was why he was such a great player. Everybody knew it. When a new joint opened up, they’d ask George. Then all the musicians in town would show up to listen. Everyone would show up for George. Then everyone would know where the place was. Then the owners would fire George, so they could sell more drinks. Because when George was playing, no one would drink as much. They were listening. There’s a poem about that in the book, “Over on Main.”
Q.
The beats were very influenced by jazz. Ginsberg called “Howl” a “jazz mass.” Kerouac talks about “blowing” in a poem, like a jazz musician would.
A.
I think they liked jazz. I think they liked the idea that jazz was spontaneous.
Q.
Yeah. You talk about “blowing” in your poems, too. Are there things that you take from jazz and carry into form or presentation in your work? How do the two art forms, jazz and poetry, connect for you?
A.
I try to say something about that in the introduction to the book. Let me just say this: I think beat poetry gets its sounds not from the music as much as from literary sources. My poetry is not beat poetry, as you know. Of course, there are some places where I use beat tactics. But really, I listen to the music and try to get the feel of the music into the rhythms and the sounds of the poems. The best example is in “Turning the Town.”
Q.
Right: “Kaaaaaaan sas Ciiiiiiiiiiiiiii ty.”
A.
It’s pretty obvious there. Let me give you some other examples. There’s a poem, “Bass Talk.” It’s a consequence of listening to a lot of bass players. One, Ron Roberts, played bass in my jazz opera. If youlisten to that poem, it’s written in very short lines. It goes: “Ron’s feet hurt/ from treks he took/ and meant to take./ Now he’d rather sit/ than lumber/ down a trail/ any trail,/ he says.” I’m trying to get a sense of that pizzicato on the bass, you know. “Ron’s feet hurt/ from treks he took/ and meant to take/.” You hear it?
Q.
Yeah, I hear it.
A.
And the sound of the poem and the shape of the poem come from the sound of the music. I did that, in part, because I love the music so much. But also so I can “read” these poems with the jazz. My favorite way to read these poems is to sit in and come in like a soloist. The poem, then right back to the tune. That’s the way I like to do it. That’s why the book is called “Playing the Word.” When I perform with Nicky Yarling, and she introduces us, she announces the players: She says, “John on drums...and Dan playing the word.”
Q.
Got it.
A.
Take for instance, “Playing the Cajon.” It’s about Oscar Salas and Ira Sullivan playing together in a Miami joint. Oscar’s an internationally known Cuban drummer. He’s played all over the world. Ira said, “Well, Oscar’s going to play the box.” What he was sitting on, now he was going to play it. “Playing theCajon” is absolutely meant to be an imitation of the sound. They’re made together. It’s in the section called Ritmo Latino.
Q.
Right.
A.
A lot of the poems in this book are like that. For instance, the whole blues section is meant to sound like the blues, many kinds of blues. By the way, Ira said he and his wife were sitting at the kitchen table arguing about how the poems should be read. I said, “That’s all right. There’s more than one way.” He laughed, “You tell that to a jazz man!” He said, “Listening to them a second time was like listening to jazz solos.” When he said that I said, “Man, that’s what I always wanted to do.” What I wanted was the poetry to feel authentic. He said, “There are a lot of cats here I don’t know, but I know Rusty Tucker is real. Tell me about him.” That’s what I was trying to do, get a sense of the actual jazz world. And to make real poems. You know, a lot of people write Holocaust poems. They drop in the names of the camps sometimes. They’re not really good poems. They just depend on a lot of sentimental response. I don’t want a sentimental response. I want real poems—jazz poems that are authentic to the world, but, more importantly, that are connected to the music itself. I want someone to say, “This isn’t about jazz. This is jazz.”

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Arthur Barron/Hiton Ruiz
miami new times
ARTHUR BARRON HILTON RUIZ (Dragon Rose)
Miami-based tenor-saxophonist Arthur Barron performs four long numbers with the great pianist Hilton Ruiz live at a local bar/jazz club. Also in the combo are flugelhornist Pete Minger (a talented but very underrated player) either Pepe Aparicio or David Wertman on bass, Oscar Salas or John Yarling on drums and Osiku Danell on congas. Barron (who contributed Mr. Q's Day Of Judgment and It's Strange) and Ruiz are the main stars during these long performances (Footprints and All Blues are the other two pieces) which range from 14:30 to 20:29 in length. Although Ruiz has recorded fairly frequently, this is one of the best recorded outings by Arthur Barron, who holds his own and plays excellent hard bop/post bop solos. All Music Guide
Miami tenor player Arthur Barron leads this admirably swinging live date, where he's joined by Latin jazz piano ace Milton Ruiz. The principal players really get a chance to stretch out, as all four of the album's cuts are over 15 minutes long. Standouts include the crackling Latin jazz theme "Mr. Q's Day of Judgment," which recalls Gato Barbieri, as well as a powerful version of Wayne Shorter's "Footprints" and an enjoyable take on Miles Davis' "All Blues." Billboard
Faster than the speed of thought, Hilton Ruiz' percussive piano improvisation provides a blueprint of the creative process. Still, one wonders: Do his fingers fly that fast to catch up with his mind, or is it the other way around? Ruiz dominates nearly every session he contributes to, and this live set is no exception. Accompanied by long-time friend and tenor saxophonist Arthur Barron and a rotating roster of bassmen and drummers (David Wertman and Pepe Aparicio on the bottom and John Yarling and Oscar Salas wielding the sticks), the pianoman's attack is solidly anchored, particularly by Osieku Danell's steady conga bopping. Barron is obviously inspired in this setting, dancing along the avant edge much like New York pal Dave Liebman, and occasionally recalling the throaty rumblings of mentor Pharoah Sanders. Barron's compositions, "Mr. Q's Day of Judgment" and "It's Strange," feature some tasty riffs a la Blue Note, ca. 1961, allowing the soloists to weave in and out of the song structure. And speaking of tasty riffs, Wayne Shorter's "Footprints" and Miles Davis' "All Blues" are also here, the latter making use of Pete Minger's cool blue flugelhorn. A relaxed session, Barron gives his sidemen plenty of room to stretch out; the shortest track clocks in at fourteen and a half minutes. Miami New Times


Between the Teeth
New Zealand film festival
Home > Film Synopsis
Info:
David Byrne, David Wild

Between The Teeth
Director: David Byrne, David Wild
1993
71 Minutes
USA
Production Co: Scorched Earth Productions
Producer: Joel D. Hinman
Photography: Roger Tonry
Camera: Jean de Segonzac, Edward Stevenson, David Waterson
Editors: David Wild, Lou Angelo
Sound recording and mixing: Randy Ezratty

With: David Byrne and ten car Pile-Up: Bobby Allende (Percussion, Timbales, Congas), jonathon Best (Keyboards), David Byrne (Guitars), Angel fernandez (Musical Director, Trumpet, Flugelhorn), Ite Jerez (Trunpet), Lewis Kahn (Trombone, Violin), George Porter, Jr. (Bass), Hector Rosado (Congas, Tambora, Surdu), Steve Sacks (Alto Saxaphone, Flute), Oscar Salas (Drums)

Songs: And She Was, Road To Nowhere, Women vs Men, Lie to me, Makr Believe Mambo, Girls on My Mind, She's Mad, Buck naked by David Byrne; Life During Wartime, Nothing But Flowers, Mr Jones, Blind, words by David Byrne, music by David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth, Jerry Harrison; Hanging Upside Down, words by David Byrne, music by David Byrne and Angel Fernandez; Something Ain't Right, word by David Byrne and Terry Allen, music by David Byrne; Well by Don Van Vliet
In 1983, Jonathon Demme filmed talking Heads in concert for Stop making Sense, presenting the performance seen from the outside: a stage show, nothing more. Now, with the Heads dissolved, the band’s songwriter and leader, David Byrne, has created what might be its sequel. Its title is Between the Teeth, but it could be called ‘Start making Syncopation’…

The concert includes material from the 1980s Talking Heads and from Mr Byrne’s solo albums. Mr Byrne, who says barely a word between songs, is an impassioned enigma on stage. He begins the show alone with an acoustic guitar and drum machine; then the full band appears and the music takes off, groove after groove…

At first the camerawork is unobtrusive, avoiding the acute angles and jumpy editing of typical MTV fare. Gradually, it emerges that Mr Byrne and the co-director, David Wild, have a strategy for each song. One is all mouth-level close-ups; another shows musicians from head to toe, moving to the rhythm; a third is one unswerving shot for the length of the song. “Life During Wartime’, the oldest tune in the film, is all hand-held swoops, blurs of faces and flashing lights. Arty and schematic as they might seem, the choices bring added variety to the music. - Jon Pareles, New York Times, 2/2/94 

‘Between the Teeth’

By Richard Harrington
Washington Post Staff Writer
March 04, 1994
Director:
David Byrne;
David Wild
Not rated

The new David Byrne concert film, "Between the Teeth," bears some obvious comparisons to the Talking Heads' classic documentary, "Stop Making Sense." Besides solo opening numbers and world-beating big bands, these films share the quirkily charismatic Byrne and strong directorial points of view.

Jonathan Demme approached his 1984 documentary much the way he does his features, with visual storyboards designed long before concert time. Ten years down the line, Byrne and co-director David Wild (best known for his very short MTV films) are less ambitious but just as focused. They've imbued each song with its own visual style -- sustained close-ups, silhouette lighting, varied editing pace. Over 71 minutes, some of these elements meld together, but "Between the Teeth" has a sweet, no-nonsense flow and focus rare in a concert film.


Shot on Halloween night of 1992 at the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, N.J., the film kicks off in typically Byrnesian fashion: just him and rhythm. But where "Sense" opened with the terse and tense "Psycho Killer," in "Teeth" Byrne establishes an entirely different mood with Captain Beefheart's whimsical "Well," his voice straining against the thud of a beat box in an eerie approximation of a Native American chant. Elsewhere, Byrne opts for spare, acoustic arrangements -- the best include the Heads' ironic "Nothing but Flowers," the nerdish ballad "Girls on My Mind" (with Lewis Kahn on violin) and the new but familiarly wry "Buck Naked," in which Byrne notes, "We're all naked if you turn us inside out."


But "Between the Teeth" is also a document of Byrne's explorations in Afro-Cuban-Caribbean rhythms. Byrne's enthusiasm for bright rhythms and brassy coloration is evident in the makeup of his nine-piece band, 10 Car Pile-Up, particularly Meters bassist George Porter Jr., drummer Oscar Salas and percussionists Bobby Allende and Hector Rosado. That rhythm section can inspire elegant motion from even the most inelegant dancers -- including Byrne.


As a performer, Byrne is more assured and noticeably less hyper here as an unopposed band leader, even as elements of wide-eyed bemusement and simmering angst inform his earnest delivery. Byrne remains expressive despite endearingly approximate pitch, though he sometimes struggles to meet the headlong brass-driven rhythms now propelling his songs. The admonition in "Mr. Jones" to "put a wiggle in your stride, loosen up," is not always adhered to, but a roisterous and dynamically expansive "Blind" proves quite effective.


The set includes songs from both the Talking Heads' and Byrne's solo albums: The oldest number is "Life During Wartime," here imbued with punk-wave energy through frenetic hand-held camera work and editing. "Women vs. Men" has a cool ambiance that suggests Julie London vs. Tom Waits. Thankfully devoid of interviews or backstage shenanigans, "Between the Teeth" proves that David Byrne remains on a road to somewhere.

© Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company

Opera Balseros
USA tODAY
Impressionistic 'Balseros' treads shifting waters
By Pamela Gordon,
Special for USA TODAY
05/26/97 - 11:36 PM ET
MIAMI BEACH - If anyone has stories to tell, it's the so-called Cuban boat people. Thousands made a mass exodus from Cuba in 1994 on crudely built rafts, braving shark-infested waters, storms, sun and hunger to emigrate to the USA. They were called balseros, after the Spanish word for raft.
Inspired by their heroism, Cuban-born playwright Maria Irene Fornes taped interviews with more than two dozen survivors. The interviews were set to music by American composer Robert Ashley in a bilingual opera titled Balseros . The Florida Grand Opera premiered it May 16 at the Colony Theater, prior to visits to New York and the European music festival circuit.
Audiences expecting a conventional story line and melody-driven score will be baffled by this loosely structured, 90-minute, intermissionless work, which organizes the balseros' stories in four groupings: the building of the raft, the departure, the ordeal at sea and the rescue.
Ashley's trance-inducing, synthesizer-produced music conveys the hallucinatory quality of being adrift on the ocean. Evocatively punctuating these synthesized sounds are live Afro-Cuban rhythms provided by percussionists Oscar Salas and Oseiku DanEl Diaz. But the emotional impact of the stories sometimes is blunted by an innovative but confusing impressionist storytelling style: Sung in English by five traditional opera singers, the text sometimes is repeated, slowed down and styled eccentrically by individual members of a vocal quartet featuring Joan La Barbara. Within this texture, there is an island of clarity and emotional authenticity in Cuban-American actors Mario Salas-Lanz and Nattacha Amador, who speak the text in expressive Spanish.
Theatrically, the opera is deathly static in the first half; Michael Montel's stage direction conveys little sense of the fear, danger and risk the balseros must have felt leaving their homeland. Matters improve greatly once on the open seas: Jorge Alberto Fernandez's stark scenic design simulates a shifting raft with an enormous moving platform. A chilly though intellectually stimulating event.

UH-OH
Warner Bros.
Uh-Oh
Produced by Nick Launay
Released on March 1992
UK CHART POSITION #26
W2 26799 cover

Make no mistake, Uh-Oh is not an album for the faint of heart. On these twelve tracks, David Byrne opens his floodgates of strangeness and rolls over Anytown, USA like a tidal wave. The marvel of it all is that Byrne can package Latin horns, percussion, synthesizers and guitars into a post-modern big band sound that’s so damn catchy. On paper, songs like “Now I’m Your Mom” -- which breaks in midway for a transcendentally weird woodwind solo -- and “Girls on My Mind” shouldn’t work; there’s simply too much going on. And yet, by throwing everything but the kitchen sink at the listener in the first track, it’s easier to get acclimated to what would otherwise feel like incongruous and overly busy music. It doesn’t hurt that the melodies are terrific too; “She’s Mad” and “Tiny Town” have wonderful choruses, while “The Cowboy Mambo (Hey Lookit Me Now)” and “A Million Miles Away” are just plain fun to sing along with. David Byrne hasn’t lost his sharp tongue, which is sometimes a strange match for the sophisticated horn arrangements of Angel Fernandez. “Hanging Upside Down” spits strychnine at mall rats while “Something Ain’t Right” raises a stink about our swampy capitol -- however, the catchy arrangements push Byrne’s complaints to the background. Not everyone will appreciate the effort that went into Uh-Oh, but fans of the cross-cultural pop music of Naked and Rei Momo sure will. Like Elvis Costello, David Byrne is regarded as musically standoffish by some; pop music isn’t art, they contend. However, I disagree; intelligent (even intellectual) pop music has the potential to engage both halves of your brain, and rarely have mine reached an accord as they have on this disc. 

TRACK LISTING
1. NOW I'M YOUR MOM (David Byrne/Angel Fernandez) 4:43
2. GIRLS ON MY MIND (David Byrne) 3:52
3. SOMETHING AIN'T RIGHT (David Byrne/Terry Allen) 3:37
4. SHE'S MAD (David Byrne) 5:20
5. HANGING UPSIDE DOWN (David Byrne/Angel Fernandez) 4:31
6. A WALK IN THE DARK (David Byrne) 4:21
7. TWISTIN' IN THE WIND (David Byrne) 4:14
8. THE COWBOY MAMBO (HEY LOOKIT ME NOW) (David Byrne) 3:37
9. MONKEY MAN (David Byrne) 4:07
10. A MILLION MILES AWAY (David Byrne) 4:24
11. TINY TOWN (David Byrne/Angel Fernandez) 5:03
12. SOMEBODY (David Byrne) 4:59

Composed by Chris Franke/Edgar Froese/Peter Baumann
CREDITS
DAVID BYRNE -- vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, repared pens & whistles, arrangements, band photos
ASHLEY CADELL -- synthesizers, clavinet, vibes
CAFE -- bongos, blocks, bell, ago-go, tamborim, surdu
RONNIE CUBER -- bass clarinet, baritone saxophone
ANGEL FERNANDEZ -- flugelhorn, trumpet, piano, arrangements
ITE JEREZ -- trumpet
DOLETTE McDONALD -- backing vocals
GEORGE PORTER, JR. -- bass
HECTOR ROSADO -- congas, maracas, triangle, tambora
STEVE SACKS -- flute, clarinet, alto saxophone, vocal effects, prepared pens & whistles, tenor saxophone
OSCAR SALAS -- drums, timables, cowbell, woodblock, surdu, bell, shakere
CHRISTOPHER WASHBURNE -- bass & tenor trombones
Joyce L. Bowden -- backing vocals
Milton Cardona -- bata drums
Lloyd Carter -- violin
Gerald Chamberblain -- tenor trombone, trombone
John Clark -- French horn
Billy Cliff -- backing vocals
Lewis Del Gatto -- tenor saxophone
Akua Dixon -- cello
Felix Farrar -- violin
Melanie Feld -- oboe
Lawrence Feldman -- tenor saxophone
Fred Griffen -- French horn
Nona Hendryx -- backing vocals
Ken Hitchcock -- tenor saxophone
Nicky Holland -- backing vocals
John James -- backing vocals
Lewis Kahn -- violin
Patmore Lewis -- violin
Dick Oatts -- alto saxophone
Enrique Orengo -- cello
Leopoldo Pineda -- trombone
Marc Quinones -- reco reco, cowbell, vocal effects, prepared pens & whistles
Charlie Sepulveda -- trumpet, trumpet solos
Joe Shepley -- trumpet
Tom Ze -- vocal effects, prepared pens & whistles, arrangements
Nick Launay -- engineer, mixing
M&Co. -- design
Brian Dewan -- cover painting (from a sketch by David Byrne)
Scott Stowell & Mr. Chick -- drawings
Chris Nofzinger -- David Byrne photo
REGION RELEASE DATE LABEL MEDIA ID NUMBER FEATURES
WW March 1992 Luaka Bop/Warner Bros. CD/CS 26799
Editorial reviews
3.5 Stars - Very Good - ...jampacked with catchy ditties....a craftsman in the grand pop tradition...
Rolling Stone Magazine (03/19/1992)

4 Stars - Excellent - ...packed with all manner of musical innovation, oddball observations and joyous nonsense...
Q Magazine (04/01/1992)

...much catchier than his theatrical and soundtrack work...relentlessly perky...the closest thing Byrne has done to a Talking Heads record since the band's last one...
Option (07/01/1992)

...integrates musical genres....Byrne's silliness has a serious swagger... - Rating: A-
Entertainment Weekly (03/13/1992) 

DAVID BYRNE
Uh-Oh
Label: Luaka Bop/Warner Bros Country: USA

David Byrne (vocals, guitar, whistle); Nona Hendryx, Tom Ze (vocals); Lloyd Carter, Lewis Kahn (violin); Akua Dixon (cello); Steve Sacks (flute, clarinet, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone); Marc Quinones (whistle, sound effects); Ronnie Cuber (bass clarinet, baritone saxophone); Dick Oatts (alto saxophone); Lawrence Feldman (tenor saxophone); Angel Fernandez (trumpet, flugelhorn, piano); Charlie Sepulveda (trumpet); John Clark (French horn); Christopher Washburn (tenor trombone, bass trombone); Oscar Salas (drums, percussion); Milton Cardona (bata).Recording information: The Power Station, New York, New York; Sigma Sound, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; The Hit Factory, New York, New York; Platinum Island, New York, New York; Electric Lady Studios, New York, New York.After years of musical experimentation and adventures into world music, David Byrne takes his unconventional approach back to Talking Heads punk/funk. But it's spiced by Latin beats and a dazzling array of musicians; the result is a delectably fresh hybrid of modern rock and Latin pop.The music swings, always with a sense of fun. Byrne's metaphysical lyrics mesmerize as usual, and the art student from the grimy city once again manages to take flight on his organic world-beat rhythms. The influences here run rampant: "She's Mad," for instance, harks back to early Heads--determined and primitively crunchy--and then suddenly turns into a breezy samba.The album title comes from Byrne's fiercely sung "Something Ain't Right," but everything IS right on UH-OH 

Fan Reviews uh-oh
Hoppin, December 17, 1999
Reviewer: A music fan
For the most part this album offers remarkably cynical (but perceptive) lyrics, coupled, oddly enough, with happy latin-influenced music. "Somebody" at the end does offer some hope, however. Musically the album is brilliant, finding many memorable grooves, mixing twangy guitars, percussion, and horns.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
The Best CD I Own, April 18, 1999
Reviewer: Casey (Spoonerism@aol.com) (Berlin, CT) - See all my reviews
This is the best CD I have ever heard in my life. Every single song on this album is a stand-alone smash, yet they all congeal together at the end. Byrne uses latin and funk inspired music to lead you on a cynical, thought-provoking ride through postmodern American ideals and values. The ideas he had in THE FOREST are more accessable here. Byrne is a multimedia supergenius, and I hope he continues pumping out magnificent albums like this one
:
David's Best album..., November 15, 1998
Reviewer: wojtysj@alleg.edu (Chicago, Pennsylvania, New York..here and there) - See all my reviews
A brilliant mix of Latin Rhythms and David's pop sensibilities, in my humble opinion, I think this is one of the best albums of this decade...

Drumming Jam Sessions
Miami Light Project
Miami Light Project Drumming Jam Sessions: The premise behind this multiartist, city-wide percussion exhibition is somewhat misguided: Some of Miami's finest musicians are gathering in clubs and venues in various ethnic communities across the city to perform for a New York-based composer/conductor (Havana-born Tania Leon) commissioned by Miami Light to write a piece that will celebrate the various sounds of the city. In other words, a hotshot outsider is coming down to write a piece inspired by the music heard in Little Havana, Little Haiti, and elsewhere. (Too bad the musicians who perform in those places every weekend aren't given the chance to write their own commissioned pieces.) Whatever the case, it ought to be fun, and anyone too thickheaded to seek this stuff out on his or her own should take the opportunity provided during this eight-day event, which kicks off tonight at Cafe Nostalgia (2212 SW Eighth St.) with a lineup featuring such greats as Oscar Salas and Mannie Lopez-Font sitting in with Grupo Nostalgia, the club's excellent house band. 

MixLine Feature: Glen Kolotkin Produces Ka-Cha Debut
By Heather Johnson

Dec 18, 2005 8:00 AM

Producer/engineer Glen Kolotkin has worked on hundreds of records during the course of a three-decade career, including several for Santana, beginning with Santana III in 1971 and continuing through his multi-multi-Platinum Supernatural. Now, from his current home in Boynton Beach, Fla., Kolotkin has assembled another genre-crossing ensemble—Latin pop sextet Ka-Cha—that combine sinewy guitar work a la early Santana with modern pop melodies and distinct world influences.
Drummer/percussionist Oscar Salas
Tom Harney, owner of Golden Dome Recorders in Lauder Hill, Fla., where Kolotkin recorded and mixed Ka-Cha’s debut CD, once asked the Grammy-winning engineer, “If you could do any kind of recording right now, what would you do?” His answer: to put together a group of musicians in the style of the first three (arguably their best) Santana records. That’s exactly what he did, bringing together six proficient players all based in Florida, but hailing from Peru, Equador, Cuba, Puerto Rico and Paraguay.
Bassist Pier Pappalardo
The group wrote nearly all of the material on the 11-song disc, save for the Paul Simon cover, “Me and Julio,” and a serious reworking of Tito Puente’s “Pa’lante,” and soon headed to Harney’s studio to get the songs down on; not analog tape, but hard disk—a Tascam MX 2424 digital recorder.
The well-equipped home studio features an Audient 8024 console, a set of Adam S3A active monitors, ample outboard gear and a well-stocked mic closet. Kolotkin recorded most of the album live—old school style—with all musicians playing together in the main room. “We wanted that interplay between the musicians. The timbale player could work off the drummer, the bass player could work off both of them, et cetera,” says Kolotkin. “It’s a kick, because you can hear the whole record go down, and a breath of fresh air compared to the way most things are done today.”
The Golden Dome control room
Mics included Neumann, AKG, Audix, Audio-Technica, Royer and Behringer for drums, percussion and guitar, while bass went direct with the Reddi direct box. Audio-Technica 4060s and a Neumann 147 took care of the vocals. Kolotkin even incorporated some miking techniques used on some of Santana’s early work, such as “backing up the mic eight inches from the edge of a guitar amp,” he says. “I believe in getting as far away from the amp as you can without getting an excessive amount of leakage.” Kolotkin mixed the album to ½-inch analog, working on a Sony machine modified with Dolby SR, which gives the album a classic warm sound.
Ka-Cha’s self-titled debut is out now and can be listened to and purchased at www.cdbaby.com.

BALSEROS

An opera by Robert Ashley
with a libretto by Maria Irene Fornes
Commissioned by the Florida Grand Opera, Miami Dade Community College – Wolfson Campus, and the South Florida Composers Alliance.
Made possible by a grant from Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest "Opera for a New America" Program.

Ashley: Balseros


Presented by the Florida Grand Opera at the Colony Theater, Miami, May 1997.
directed by Michael Montel
designed by Jorge Alberto Fernandez Suarez


voices:
Sam Ashley
Thomas Buckner
Jacqueline Humbert
Joan La Barbara

Demetra Adams
Emmanuel Cadet
Christina Clark
David Dillard
Amy Van Roekel

Nattacha Amador
Mario Salas-Lanz

percussion:
Oscar Salas
Oseiku DañEl Diaz

Tom Hamilton designed the processing of the instruments in the synthesizer orchestra and the processing of the live voices. The orchestral instruments were, in most cases, chosen by Robert Ashley. So, the sound of the orchestra and voices is an example of a profound collaboration. This collaboration has been working since the recording and performance of the four operas of Now Eleanor’s Idea, beginning in 1990.

The Cuban drum parts were composed by Oseiku DañEl Diaz and Oscar Salas.

The libretto is based on interviews with:
Mr. Jorge del Rio Leon
Mr. Rafael Rodas
Ms. Yohanka Rodriquez Carvajal
Mr. Braulio Quevedo
Mr. Agustin Garcia
Mr. Francisco Escobar
Ms. Nancy Lledes Espinosa
Mr. Federico Falcon Gonzalez
Mr. David Cartaya
Mr. Ernesto Wong Castillo
Mr. Damaso Perez Busquet
Ms. Evelyn Crusata
Mr. José Abreu
Mr. Reinaldo Alfonso Saiz
Mr. Ariel Ruiz
Dr. Angel Cancelo
Ms. Suzette Cancelo
Mr. Lazaro Diaz Fonsecas
Ms. Nadia Diaz Brito
Mr. Ernesto Gonzales Rojas
Mr. Frank Enrique Polo
Mr. Guillermo Delgado
Ms. Ibis Amigó
Ms. Dulce Trejo Garcia
Mr. José Fernandez


Ashley: Balseros

The subject of the opera is the story of the rafters, or balseros (from the Spanish, balsa meaning raft), who have left Cuba on homemade rafts, seeking sanctuary in the United States. For the balseros, the objective is to get beyond the twelve-mile offshore limit into international waters with the hope of being rescued then by the U.S. Coast Guard. Just over half of those who leave are heard from again. The ninety-mile “channel” between Cuba and South Florida has extraordinary difficulties of currents and weather. It is shark-infested. And even a successful journey to the twelve-mile limit still leaves the rafters simply in open sea.

Ashley: Balseros

Apparently, in defiance of the laws of maritime rescue, many of the rafters’ stories include incidents of being bypassed by all ships except the Coast Guard rescue vessels. Every so often, the Cuban government “allows” this bizarre form of exodus. Mostly the rafts have to be constructed in secrecy. With the poverty that has followed upon the collapse of the Soviet Union as a patron, there are no materials from which to construct the rafts, except through connections that are illegal and impossibly expensive. So, in every case, the rafts are unbelievable as seagoing vessels; and the decision to make the journey is a decision about life or death and a decision that will involve every member of a person’s family circle. The opera is not about the politics of this moment: the United States versus Cuba. It is a restatement of the oldest idea of America: escape from an oppressive situation to the “promised land.” It is the story of courage against all odds, of intelligence and ingenuity in the face of impossible challenges, of reckless determination. The characters of the opera are the people who survived and have told us their stories. Maria Irene Fornes, the librettist, and I talked at length to twenty-five balseros. We discovered that in many of their stories the elements were the same and could be understood as parts of a common sequence—almost as “acts” of the opera:

I. The Raft. Its construction and the need to understand the requirements of the journey including provisions, navigation, seaworthiness — and the unforeseeable.
II. The Departure. The moment of the decision to embark from the nearest beach. In many of the stories, this is the moment of highest drama.
III. The Sea. Its unimaginable vastness, dangers and psychological challenges.
IV. The Rescue.The arrival of a rescue boat, the physical struggle of boarding after days or weeks of thirst and starvation, the remembered obligations to those left behind, the grinding bureaucracy of the rescue as a political act, and the new hope.

Each “act” of the opera (whether the acts are separable and consecutive, or whether they recur and interfold as themes) will consist of scenes from the various stories we were told by the balseros themselves. The amazing consistency of these stories make one pause as if in the presence of a living myth. This is the way most of our ancestors came to America. The politics of the current situation dissolves in the presence of these individual stories of bravery and suffering and success.

Ashley: Balseros





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