JAMM

05/05/2026

Tony Williams pictured with his first set of drums in 1955. Tony reflects on this kit and how he came to be a drummer at a very young age :
"My father was a musician, he was a saxophone player and he would take me out with him when he would play on the weekends. He was always a weekend player and I would look at the drummers in the clubs and say to myself "I can do that." The first time I played a drum set was in front of an audience. I was about eight or nine and I had never played before. I asked my father if I could sit in. They were surprised, but I guess it was good enough because I continued doing it and my father would take me around to all the clubs in Boston. By the time I was 11 or 12, I was able to go to clubs by myself and get in because everyone knew me. The general atmosphere in Boston is one of learning, so I would go and check out all the drummers when they came through."
"My first set of drums was an old Radio King set. It consisted of a very large bass drum, 28 or 30 inches, and a 16″ tom that was mounted on the bass. It was a very old type of set, probably made in the early forties. There was also a snare and a hi-hat. The hi-hat cymbals were almost all bell. The bell used up more space than the flat section. They were only about 12 or 13 inches, with this huge bell - about nine inches. I got rid of those pretty quickly. I had the Radio Kings for about three years. My father had bought them for me. I got my first job at eleven or twelve years old, and it paid pretty well - for a kid. Thirty dollars for three nights work, and steady work, too. I saved twenty dollars of each weeks pay, and with the help of my mother, I bought my first Gretsch set."

04/29/2026

♥️ El Museo Nacional de la Música conmemora el aniversario 115 del natalicio de Prudencio Mario Bauzá Cárdenas (La Habana, 28 de abril de 1911- New York, 11 de julio de 1993). Excelente músico cubano, que ha sido considerado una de las figuras más prominentes en la historia del .


🇨?? , como se le conoció en el mundo artístico, se vinculó con este género musical de origen norteamericano desde principios de la década de 1930 cuando se establece en New York, ciudad donde inicia una carrera musical ascendente, incorporándose indistintamente con agrupaciones de música cubana y jazz.

🎶 Cuenta Osmani Ibarra Ortiz, museólogo y subdirector técnico de nuestro Museo, que
en esta dualidad musical sentó las bases para consolidar su impronta en lo que sería denominado , devenido en jazz cubano. Es conocido el importante rol que él jugó en el surgimiento y evolución de cubano.

📌 Un suceso que marcó el punto de partita en su cruzada jazzística fue una primera estancia, en 1927, New York con la orquesta de Antonio María Romeu, que grababa fonogramas para la Víctor, una de las compañías disqueras más importantes de entonces.

💬 "Maravillado quedó con las sonoridades de las diferentes agrupaciones de jazz que pudo escuchar. En lo adelante su objetivo fue involucrarse a plenitud con este peculiar género musical", agrega Ibarra Ortiz.

👍🏽Gracias a la colaboración de Javier Rodríguez Calero, especialista en fonografía del Museo Nacional de la Música, podemos mostrar, quizás la primera grabación fonográfica en la que participó Bauzá en esa primera visita a New York.

🎶 Se trata del danzón "Dulzuras del son" de la autoría de Antonio María Romeu. Según Javier, citando a Cristóbal Díaz Ayala, la orquesta estaba integrada por Antonio María Romeu (piano), Armando Romeu (Saxofón), Antonio Romeu (violín), Humberto Trigo (violín), Francisco Delamar (flauta), Aurelio Díaz (timbales) y Mario Bauzá (clarinete).

✨La musicóloga Sonia Pérez Cassola, hizo una evaluación de esta grabación, para precisar el rol del clarinete tocado por Bauzá:

💬 "En la pieza el clarinete juega un papel importante. Sobresale y se puede escuchar muy claramente con diferentes funciones durante toda la obra desde la presentación del tema. Pongan atención a los cinquillos muy rítmicos que realiza junto a la flauta, con motivos escalísticos descendentes, así como en el juego de pregunta-respuesta, que ejecuta con los violines a manera de contracanto, también su presencia en el pasaje que realiza junto a los violines en pizzicato. El clarinete durante toda la pieza sobresale y se destaca.Todo ello denota la presencia de un músico preparado y de talento", destaca la también directora de nuestro Museo.

▪️En el momento de la grabación Mario Bauzá tenía apenas 16 años. 👏

📌 Para escuchar la grabación acceda al enlace que está en los comentarios.

04/19/2026

Chick Webb, Mario Bauzá, & Ella Fitzgerald.
Él era seis años mayor que la muchacha, pero muy joven todavía. Al escucharla cantar, quedó impactado. Aquella voz fresca y diáfana reflejaba a la vez una sabiduría ancestral, herencia de cantos de dolor y júbilo, resistencia y esperanza.
Frente a frente, Mario Bauzá y Ella Fitzgerald. Estamos en Harlem, 1935. Mario viene de Cuba. Desde 1930 reside en Estados Unidos y cuatro años más tarde asume la dirección musical de la orquesta de Chick Webb, percusionista emblemático de la era del swing. El cubano, también primera trompeta de aquella formación, hará muchas cosas en lo adelante, la más importante de todas, forjar una de las ramas más vigorosas del jazz, llamado afrocubano o latino. La chica, negra como él, había debutado en 1934 en un concurso de jóvenes talentos en el teatro Apolo. En varias biografías de la cantante se dice que Benny Carter, exitoso saxofonista de la época, fue quien descubrió a Ella, cuando la verdad es que Bauzá convenció a Webb para que la fichara. Carter, en efecto, recordó con el tiempo cuánto le había estremecido el modo de cantar de la jovencita en el Apolo, pero testimonios fidedignos, no muy publicitados por cierto, de colegas de Bauzá —y él mismo, a regañadientes, puesto que no le gustaba robar primeros planos— dan fe de que el cubano habló con Webb para que la admitiera en la orquesta.
https://youtu.be/f4vvpj1iiQM?si=9yjT7PAZO9PUpNmM

03/04/2026

HBRC! 🎷 🎼

Richie Cole (February 29, 1948 – May 2, 2020) was a renowned saxophonist who was championed by DownBeat early in his career and whose passion for bebop-era jazz dwelt at the heart of his exuberant Alto Madness performances and projects.

Cole recorded more than 50 albums, including his 1979 hit recording Hollywood Madness (Muse) and his 1997 tribute album to Leonard Bernstein, Richie Cole Plays West Side Story (Music Masters). In addition to leading his own bands at clubs and festivals worldwide, he spent much of his career collaborating with jazz heroes and peers like fellow alto saxophonists Art Pepper, Phil Woods and Hank Crawford, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, vocalist Eddie Jefferson and the vocal ensemble Manhattan Transfer. He was a prolific composer, as well, penning more than 3,000 original compositions.

But it was Cole’s keening alto sound, speedy chops and freewheeling live performances that appealed to listeners and critics in the 1970s who shared his enthusiasm for the straightahead tradition. He was esteemed as a “keeper of the flame” whose burning playing style reflected an overt obsession with bebop.

“I play the alto saxophone, and frankly, I am a little crazy,” Cole explained in a 2016 DownBeat interview. “The word madness usually comes with a negative connotation. However, in my life, madness is everything that encompasses my style, passion and outlook on jazz. Because after all, it is a mad, mad, mad, mad world. The only thing that genuinely brings the people of the world together is music.”

Born Richard Thomas Cole on Feb. 29, 1948, he was exposed to jazz at a very young age by his father, a nightclub operator in his hometown of Trenton, New Jersey. Eager to learn and influenced by the sounds of Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins and Sonny Stitt, he began playing alto saxophone at age 10 and went on to attend several music camps as a youth.

In 1966 Cole received a DownBeat scholarship to the Berklee School of Music in Boston, which he attended before leaving to join the Buddy Rich Big Band in 1969. He appeared on Rich’s live albums Buddy & Soul (World Pacific Jazz) and Keep The Customer Satisfied (Liberty).

After stints with the Lionel Hampton Big Band, the Doc Severinsen Big Band and the vocal ensemble Manhattan Transfer, Cole began leading his own quintet. He released his debut album, Trenton Makes, The World Takes (Progressive Recording Co.), in 1976. Cole’s 1977 album New York Afternoon (Muse) was the first of several recordings featuring Jefferson’s bebop-sourced vocalese.

Other notable Cole recordings include 1986’s Pure Imagination (Concord), 1993’s Profile (Heads Up), 1996’s West Side Story (Venus Jazz) and Richie Cole With Brass: Kush (Heads Up), and the 2006 release A Piece Of Jazz History (Jazz Excursion), recorded with Pepper in 1982.

More recent Cole albums include the independently released recordings Richie Cole: Pittsburgh (2015), Richie Cole Plays Ballads And Love Songs (2016), Have Yourself An Alto Madness Christmas (2016), Latin Lover (2017), The Many Minds Of Richie Cole (2017) and Cannonball (2018).

Cole was appointed to the Board of the National Jazz Service Organization and the Board for the National Endowment for the Arts, where he served as chairman for one year. He was also a charter member of the International Association of Jazz Educators.

Source: Ed Enright, DownBeat

01/09/2026

Get your free tickets to see The Federico Britos Quintet!

Part of the South Beach Jazz Festival’s Jazz Hits the Road series

09/17/2025