Jazz Generations
Jazz Generations is an internet radio program dedicated to the presentation of the great West African and Afro/Indigenous Legacies which have been, and remain “rivers” of vocabulary and inspiration for what we can call “Jazz”; a platform for sharing “music as memory” (our cultural heritage); “music as today’s experience” (our current environment: who and what is happening NOW); and potentially “fresh” music experiences affecting our individual perspectives, becoming parts of our own legacy (our cultural footprints in community): from the multi-cultural experiences and perspectives of composer Roland Vazquez.
Roland Vazquez: Composer, Drummer, Band Leader, Producer, Educator has recorded and performed international concerts and residencies with his acclaimed “Latin rhythmic chamber jazz” for Quintet, Octet, and Big Band since 1979. Recognized as an innovator of Fusion music, and for the dynamic precision of his music which “speaks” as transcriptions of experience and dreams across recent albums: Further Dance, The Visitor, and Revelation (Afro Bop Alliance). Vazquez, a mixed heritage “detribalized” Cahuilla/Nahua/Chicano person, has received awards from the NEA, New Music America, and the Aaron Copland Fund, weaves music containing ancestral and inherited vocabularies. He is currently teaching “Music of the Black Atlantic”, “Afro Caribbean Percussion Ensemble”, and Private Studio Lessons at Bard College; his research on West African and Indigenous music while developing socially-engaged experiences contribute to DEI for those experiencing his music. Apple Music / Roland Vazquez
Produced by Jenn Hammoud & Matty Rosenberg @ Radio Free Rhinecliff
Roland Vazquez: Composer, Drummer, Band Leader, Producer, Educator has recorded and performed international concerts and residencies with his acclaimed “Latin rhythmic chamber jazz” for Quintet, Octet, and Big Band since 1979. Recognized as an innovator of Fusion music, and for the dynamic precision of his music which “speaks” as transcriptions of experience and dreams across recent albums: Further Dance, The Visitor, and Revelation (Afro Bop Alliance). Vazquez, a mixed heritage “detribalized” Cahuilla/Nahua/Chicano person, has received awards from the NEA, New Music America, and the Aaron Copland Fund, weaves music containing ancestral and inherited vocabularies. He is currently teaching “Music of the Black Atlantic”, “Afro Caribbean Percussion Ensemble”, and Private Studio Lessons at Bard College; his research on West African and Indigenous music while developing socially-engaged experiences contribute to DEI for those experiencing his music. Apple Music / Roland Vazquez
Produced by Jenn Hammoud & Matty Rosenberg @ Radio Free Rhinecliff
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Episode 4 - JazzGen Interview: Musician's Chad McLoughlin and Rich Syracuse chat with Roland and perform in the RFR studio.
McLoughlin has performed with David Kikoski, Bob Francesini, Mike Stern, Joel Rosenblatt, Carlo DeRosa, Richie Cannata, Chrissy Poland, Little Anthony, David Sancious, Manolo Badrena, David Torn, Ricky Neson, Bo Diddley and many others. Syracuse had been the Bassist for Pianist Lee Shaw for over 22 years. He is the Professor for String and Electric Bass Studies at Skidmore College in Saratoga, New York; Hotchkiss School in Lakeville Connecticut, Bard College in New York and SUNY New Paltz college in New Paltz New York. |
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Episode 3 - “And Sometimes Angels …”
Featuring recordings popular during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s. These performances are representative of the African American musical genius, dignity, and individuality that moved and influenced many people during our nation’s struggle towards social equity. Here is “Jazz as secular gospel” – music of the spirit, for the People, about life - and trying times. - Roland Vazquez Playlist below: (YouTube Playlist) 1] ”Moanin” (9:42) (1959) (Bobby Timmons) Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers 2] “Happy Talk” (2:28) (1961) (Rodgers & Hammerstein) Nancy Wilson/ Cannonball Adderley Quintet 3] “Lush Life” (5:32) (1963) (Billy Strayhorn) Johnny Hartman & John Coltrane Quartet 4] “Christo Redentor” (5:43) (1964) (Duke Pearson) Donald Byrd 5] “Equinox” (8:32) (1964) John Coltrane Quartet 6] “Song For My Father” (7:18) (1964) Horace Silver 7] “Brother Where Are You?” (4:14) (1965) Oscar Brown Jr. 8] “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” (5:08) (1966) (Joe Zawinul) Cannonball Adderley Quintet 9] “Four Women” (4:07) (1966) (Eunice Waymon) Nina Simone 10] “Summertime” (4:57) (1966) (Gershwin) Billy Stewart 11] “Sugar” (10:04) (1970) Stanley Turrentine, w. Freddie Hubbard, George Benson,etc. |
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Episode 2 - “Afro to Jazz / Jazz to Afro: Eternal Diaspora”
This program reflects the dynamic interactions & rich multi-cultural dialogues between Afro American & Afro Caribbean artists & music cultures of the mid to late 20th century; examples of compositions as they were recorded by their composers: either Afro American Jazz or Afro Caribbean Jazz masters; and then as re-interpreted by musical cousins “on the other side of the clave”. The “American Jazz” we are most familiar with, at its essence, is deeply ingrained with pulses, cultural traditions, literatures, formal evolutions, meanings – inherited long ago from the cultural Mother Africa. Jazz music - along with Afro Caribbean music - continues to inherit and contribute to the live music of today’s world. The deep African connection to American Jazz remains as a “coaxial cable to essential Blackness (Robert Ferris Thompson).” - Roland Vazquez Playlist below: 1] “Chano Pozo” (2:40) Mongo Santamaria (“farewell” rumba for Chano Pozo) 2] “Manteca” (3:10) (Fuller/Gillespie/Pozo) w. Chano Pozo (1946) Dizzy Gillespie Big Band 3] “Mambo Inn” (3:36) (Sampson/ Bauza/ Woodlen), (1957) Machito’s Afro Cubans 4] “Mambo Inn” (2:13) (Sampson/ Bauza/ Woodlen), (live 1960) (live) George Shearing Quintet 5] “Afro Blue” (10:25) (Mongo Santamaria), (live,1967) Mongo Santamaria Band 6] “Afro Blue” (10:59) (Mongo Santamaria) (1963) John Coltrane Quartet 7] “Celia” (2:58) (Bud Powell), (1949) Bud Powell Trio 8] “Celia” (6:49) (Bud Powell) (1991) Kenny Kirkland (arr Kirkland) 9] ”The Melody Still Lingers…” (“Night in Tunisia”) (5:03) (Gillespie) (1996) Chaka Khan |
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Episode 1 - “Music is Also Memory”
Here is a program "short-list" of some of the Jazz music that was (and remains) vocabulary within my own music heritage experience; artists and recordings that deeply affected my early “ears;” recordings made by artists that I met, studied, or worked with during my career as a professional musician; “lighthouse” music experiences that shaped - and are still shaping - my own “footprints” as an artist. - Roland Vazquez Playlist below: (YouTube Playlist) 1] Miles Davis & Gil Evans, “Miles Ahead”: Springsville - 1957 2] Erroll Garner, “Concert by the Sea”: I’ll Remember April - 1955 3] Thelonius Monk & John Coltrane, “Live at Carnegie Hall”: Evidence 1957 4] Charles Mingus, “Mingus Ah-um”: Fables of Faubus 1959 5] Eric Dolphy, “Out to Lunch”: Hat and Beard 1964 6] Mongo Santamaria, “La Bamba”: Summertime 1965 7] Miles Davis, “Miles Smiles”: Footprints 1966 8] Wayne Shorter, “Speak no Evil”: Speak No Evil 1966 9] Freddie Hubbard, “First Light”: First Light 1971 10] Weather Report, “Heavy Weather”: Palladium 1977 |