By Chris Young
Daily Bruin Contributor
There’s more to Latin music than just Carlos Santana.
Musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie, Mongo Santamaria, Tito Puente,
Cal Tjader, and Eddie Palmieri are some of the other giants of
Latin music. This weekend, you can see one of the great masters of
Latin and Afro-Cuban music in performance: conga and bata drum
player Francisco Aguabella.
Aguabella, who has played with all the musicians mentioned
above, brings his eight-piece Francisco Aguabella Latin Jazz
Ensemble to UCLA’s JazzReggae Festival this Sunday for a
performance of energetic, head-nodding music. The Ensemble includes
conguero (conga-player) Aguabella, pianist Donald Vega, bassist
Luigi Malespin, trumpeter Nolan Shaheed, saxophonist Charlie Owens,
and bongo player Angel Rodrigues. Also included are trombonist and
third-year student Isaac Smith and second-year student Warren
Ontiveros, both UCLA enthnomusicology majors with concentrations in
jazz studies. Aguabella is also on the ethnomusicology faculty at
UCLA, teaching classes in Afro-Cuban drumming.
Aguabella is known for his intensity and mastery of the drums.
In the 1995 documentary about Aguabella, “Sworn to the
Drum,” Carlos Santana said of Aguabella:
“To me, the most important thing about Francisco’s
playing is his spiritual inspiration for teaching, how music and
spirituality are the same. Playing with him, by virtue of the way
he plays, he changes the elements around him; the walls start to
sweat.”
At this weekend’s festival, Aguabella and his ensemble
will play music derived from Afro-Cuban and jazz influences. In a
recent phone interview, Aguabella said that
“Afro-Cuban” is a label for the primarily religious
folkloric music from Cuba. The country is home to a mixture of
African, European, and indigenous cultures and religions. African
people from areas such as Nigeria, Congo, Angola and Senegal were
brought into Cuba by slave traders. They ensured that their
cultures would remain alive, partly by music. Drums and dancing
gave a medium for socializing and keeping the culture alive.
Aguabella said, “The bata is a drum that is an integral
part of Afro-Cuban music. It is a two-headed drum shaped like an
hourglass with one end larger than the other.”
“The bata is part of the sacred music of the Santeria
religion of the Yoruba people in Nigeria,” he said.
Santeria is polytheistic, having a group of patron saints called
orishas that its followers worship. The orisha and the worshipper
communicate through the bata drum; during a ritual, the orisha will
possess the bata player and speak through the drum to the
worshipper. Through singing, dancing, and the rhythms of the bata,
the orisha gives the person advice.
In addition to playing the bata in many Santeria rituals,
Aguabella also plays the conga drums in a Latin jazz setting. Latin
jazz is a hybrid of jazz and Latin elements, usually with a Latin
rhythm section and a horn section. With an infectious groove and an
uplifting energy at any tempo, Latin jazz remains a popular scene
in today’s music world. Aguabella’s Latin Jazz
Ensemble, with full rhythm and horn sections, will highlight the
sounds of this type of music in the jazz festival on Sunday.
UCLA students are fortunate to have Aguabella in residence in
the ethnomusicology department. He teaches two classes in
Afro-Cuban drumming that feature hands-on instruction instead of a
standard classroom setting.
Aguabella said, “I enjoy teaching students the music of
the Yoruba-based bata drums. Teaching is fun for me.” He
added that part of what makes teaching rewarding is passing on his
knowledge to younger generations of musicians, so that the music
will be preserved.
“A lot of young people are interested in the music of
Cuba, especially the bata and son,” he said.
According to Michael Spiro, a percussionist interviewed for
“Sworn to the Drum,” Aguabella would play at a
performance or religious ceremony for hours and then change venues
and play some more, all with very little sleep. His playing would
become stronger as the hours went on, and it seemed that he got
this power from the drum itself. You can see this energy
demonstrated live at the JazzReggae Festival on Sunday, and see
Latin Jazz as it lives today.
MUSIC: The Francisco Aguabella Latin Jazz Ensemble plays the
UCLA JazzReggae Festival Sunday at 5:30 p.m. Admission is free for
UCLA students, faculty and staff, and $3 for others. Tickets are
available at the Central Ticket Office the day of the event. Call
310-205-2555 for more information.