Irakere 1980Irakere 2
01. Gira Gira
5:40
02. Claudia
6:06
03. Ayer Te Conoci
5:15
04. Añunga Añunga
6:10
05. Baila Mi Ritmo
6:10
06. Xiomara
6:12
07. Cien Años De Juventud
7:47
08. Por Romper El Coco
5:23
Jesús "Chucho" Valdés, piano
Oscar Valdés, vocals, percussion
Carlos Emilio Morales, guitar
Carlos del Puerto, bass
Paquito D'Rivera, alto sax & clarinet
Carlos Averhoff, tenor & baritone sax
Arturo Sandoval, trumpet
Jorge Varona, trumpet
Enrique Pla, drums, percussion
Armando Cuervo, percussion
Jorge "El Niño" Alfonso, percussion
Recorded at CBS Recording Studios, New York.
Mixed and edited at Mediasound Studios, New York.
Mastered at CBS Recording Studios, N.Y. on the CBS Discomputer™ System.
There were at least two studio sessions in 1979 -- the last two before Paquito's departure in May of 1980. One in April 1979 in New York and one May 25 to June 1, 1979 for a Japan only release.
April, 1979 - New York Session:
This session produced six odd tracks (Claudia, Ayer te concí, Añung añunga, Gira gira, Baila mi ritmo and Ciento años de juventud) that don't appear to have ever been issued in Cuba and can only be had on compilations. The one on the left is missing Gira gira, and is paired with better sounding transfers of 7 of the 8 studio tracks from LD-3660 (leaving out the studio version of Juana 1600). The one of the right leaves out Ayer te conocí, and is paired with 4 of the 5 live Grammy-award winning tracks from LD-3769, (leaving the live version of Juana 1600!). It's highly ironic that both of these reissuers chose to jetison Juana 1600, which, with its prominent use of batá rhythms and folkloric coros, is much more interesting -- both musically and historically -- than some of the less original studio tracks from these foreign sessions which offer little more than derivative collages of American jazz and fusion.
The seventh track was the first studio version of one of Irakere's main live vehicles of the time, a steaming dance track called Por romper el coco. The New York version comes in at 5:22 and features a trombone solo by Sandoval. An 8:40 studio version (titled simply El coco) was recorded in August of 1980 in Japan. There's also a live version on the 1978 23 y 12 concert.
If you are looking to have te complete session in digital format you will need these:
Irakere 1994 The Best Of Irakere
01. Gira Gira
5:43
02. Claudia
6:02
03. Ilya
9:17
04. Añunga Ñunga
6:02
05. Ciento Años De Juventud
7:47
06. Aguanile
4:57
07. Misa Negra (The Black Mass)
17:37
08. Adagio On A Mozart Theme
5:44
09. Xiomara
6:13
10. Por Romper El Coco
5:22
Irakere2003Chekere-Son - Best Of Irakere 1978/80
01. Chekere-Son
6:49
02. 38 1/2
5:12
03. Moja El Pan
3:53
04. Xiomara
5:33
05. Iya
5:35
06. Ayer Te Conoci
5:15
07. Añung Añunga
6:10
08. Baila Mi Ritmo
5:12
09. Por Romper El Coco
5:23
As an extra bonus I will leave you with this steaming hot 46 minutes set of Irakere opening for Stephen Stills in Passaic New Jersey on March 23, 1979 (It's in Black and White... but well worth the wach!):
IrakereMarch 23, 1979Capitol TheatrePassaic, NJ01. Juana 1600
02. Mozart Concerto un D for Flute
03. Adagio
04. Aguanile
05. La Danza de los Nanigos
06. 100 Años De Juventud
07. Bacalao Con Pan
Audiences fortunate enough to experience a live IRAKERE performance when the group exploded out of Cuba in the late 1970s witnessed the group's rapid ascension to the exalted realm of the musically extraordinary. During the all-too-brief period when they were still performing as a unit, IRAKERE earned its rightful place alongside American jazz geniuses Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and other innovators and expanders of progressive musical horizons who heard something a little different and devoted their talent to the search for it.
IRAKERE pushed the jazz frontier deeper into the African heart of Cuba. Instead of using Cuban percussion patterns to enhance jazz compositions, they made their country's traditional music an equal partner or featured player in their work.
The members, Carlos del Puerto (bass), Carlos Emilio Morales (electric guitar), Jorge "El Nino" Alfonso (congas), Enrique Pla’ (drums), Oscar Valdés (vocals and percussion), Armando Cuervo (also on vocals and percussion), Jorge Varona (trumpet and flugelhorn), Arturo Sandoval (trumpet, flugelhorn, valve trombone and vocals), Paquito D'Rivera (soprano/baritone/alto sax), Carlos Averhoff (soprano/tenor sox, piccolo and flute), and Jesus Chucho Valdés (arranger, composer and all keyboards), were all formally trained, student of jazz, and world (lass soloists, (as Arturo Sandoval and Paquito D'Rivera, woodwind magicians, continue to demonstrate). Their contribution to the evolution of jazz as a gracious musical form that can accommodate and celebrate all cultures is rooted in the group's deliberate intent to cross-pollinate jazz instrumentation with traditional Cuban/African inspired music that weaved Batá drums (two sided Afro-Cuban drums associated with rituals instead of conga drums and timbales) and chekeres into their arrangements.
From a percussion perspective, it's still very polyrhythmic, but the layers often have an earthy, spiritual aura to them and the group's dense musical background allows them to leave few musical stones unturned.
The vibrant "Gira Gira" showcases the interplay between drum set, congas, and chekere using a Congo rhythm with Chucho on Fender Rhodes, the keyboard instrument of choice for Herbie Hancock and other progressive jazz musicians during that period. There's a smooth segue into a bass guitar and bass drum driven disco downbeat, a steady cadence that pauses for a sorrowful flute phrase bathed in distortion to give it almost a rock sound and a bluesy guitar riff. The song is lively and complex but also political With its message about workers whose suffering in obeying the commands of the foreman or overseer echoes the pain of their slave ancestors. In that context, the drum/bass beat embodies the sound of a long march, the forced footsteps of workers being led into an endless day of pain, toil, and indignity, the flute and guitar solos sound like a lament, a momentary, solitary wail
in the wilderness.
It's got a good beat and you can dance to it, but the full power in this modern day ode to mistreated workers lies in its connection to a historical necessity to hide or take refuge inside the music of one's homeland.
American slave owners prohibited the use of African dialects among their slaves, often punishing them severely for practicing traditional musical rituals honoring births, deaths, marriages, etc. Drumming in particular was deemed as subversive with its potential for communicating in yet another language the slave owner did not understand, but where the drumming, (often achieved with spoons, wooden boxes, beating on porch rails or anything handy) was allowed to follow, particularly in Cuba, it become the heartbeat, the pulse, the unifying force of a strong willed people who set their music free in a hostile land even while they lived in bondage.
Having imported their own musical heritage through dance and the voice of stringed instruments (the forerunners of today's guitar), Spanish slave masters in Cuba were more tolerant of the African passion for drumming. (Their influence was enduring-there's a Spanish high-society danzón feel to "Ciento Años De Juventud" included in this collection, but it starts with a Fats Domino/Jerry Lee Lewis kind of piano tinkling.) Under the guise of celebrating sacred Catholic rites, slaves in Cuba were able to preserve their Yoruba language and music and honor its African deities, or orishas. Music became the Cuban slaves' weapon of resistance and a barrier against complete assimilation, eventually infiltrating the fabric of village life all over the island.
It was the merging of what was available at the time to a musical people: the intricate patterns of Spanish stringed instruments and the propulsive, rhythmic, multi-layered drum/dance/voice triad of African celebratory or religious music, that formed the foundation for Afro-Cuban jazz.
Though separated by language and geography (and ultimately politics), there have always been jazz musicians in Cuba who played as well as anyone anywhere and admirers on both sides of the water. Years before the embargo, Swing Era big band leaders borrowed heavily from Cuban musicians who migrated to New York. American audiences easily accepted contemporary Afro-Cuban dances, La Rhumba, La Cha Cha Cha, La Congo, and El Mambo, embracing Desi Arnaz as a musician more readily than as the husband of its beloved Lucy
Through their collaborations (depending on who you talk to), Dizzy Gillespie, Chano Pozo, Charlie Parker, Stan Kenton, Machito, and Mario Bauzá are credited with contributing a hybrid strain to that genre, and naming their offspring Cu-Bop. They left the ground fertile for a new Afro/Cuban/American musical discovery.
But until IRAKERE's successful experiments with blending both traditional jazz and traditionally Cuban elements and the political maneuvering that one assumes had to take place allowing the group to bring it off the island during the Cuban embargo-they were the first Castro-era group to record and tour abroad – the merge was incomplete.
The group's finesse in calling all historical and musical forces into play (along with the inspiración style of improvisational singing) gave them a potent arsenal from which to create. No song is without several well conceived and interestingly placed influences, particularly the three movements of the 17-plus-minutes-long "Misa Negra (The Black Mass)" which stretches across a galaxy of sound using chimes, cymbals, bird whistles, a haunting background vocal melody, call and response singing. Almost a suite but definitely a masterpiece of composing and arranging, "Misa Negra" establishes a cosmic aura, featuring Chucho's brilliant keyboard strategy, and breakneck arranging for the brass section. Tempo and mood change along the way.
Introduced by cowbell, the song "Ilya" demonstrates the power of call and response not only between the primary vocalist and background vocalists but among the singers and drummers. Pushed by a 6/8 rhythm into a religious/Yoruba direction, the chorus (or coro) inspires the singer in a kind of intense conversation with each "speaker" responding to the passion of the others. (Sandoval shines in this selection named after one of the bata drums.)
Unless the planets align themselves again to produce a reunion of these exemplary musicians, fans of their music can only experience IRAKERE through old records, IRAKERE, IRAKERE 2, the Havana Jam LPs, etc. But the advances in recording technology since the group disbanded present old fans and new audiences with the chance to hear them on CD which provides this music with the sound quality it so richly deserves.
Irakere was an amazing band. Something like this does not happen very often. Musicians so uniquely talented together in one band. I had read about them being one of the premier Cuban bands, and I got this compilation. The first time I heard it, I couldn't believe it. These guys know their Latin roots to a T, yet they mix that with a lot of different styles. Disco/Funk style grooves, complete with psychedelic synthesizer give way to the deepest Latin groove, capped with monstruos solos by the great Arturo Sandoval or Paquito D'Rivera. Dark, African tribal-like melodies interspersed with spoken-word phrases. Even classical music, Cubanized! I never get tired of it. I can never get tired of fearlessly made music. Music made with the sole purpose of exploring possibilities. Yet, one can feel the sense of humor. You feel they are having fun, they enjoy the creative process, they enjoy the off-beat combinations that seem to work like magic. One can only join in the enjoyment. If you like Latin music at all, and you also enjoy music that combines seemingly disparate elements, Irakere should be on your list of bands to consider.
