Few people would deny music can be a spiritual experience, and
for Roberto Miranda jazz is the best way to see the light.
Miranda, an adjunct assistant professor in jazz studies in the
ethnomusicology department at UCLA, is a jazz musician who has
played bass with everyone from world-class jazz musicians to
members of the local hip-hop scene Jurassic 5.
“I just want to play music and inspire other people to
play music, to listen to music that is real, that is honest, music
that touches you, music that reaches down into your heart and
touches you. I really don’t care if it’s jazz or
classical, or hip hop,” Miranda said.
His passion for playing is just one way he supplements his
firmest beliefs. He has dedicated all his music of the last twenty
years to God and the people he loves.
“Before I would call myself a husband, a father, a Puerto
Rican, a jazz musician, I’m a Christian,” said
Miranda.
The title of Miranda’s latest CD, coming out this quarter,
“With Grownings Too Deep for Words”, is an idea
inspired from the New Testament. The grownings are a prayer to God
that the holy spirit gives when a person cannot express their own
desires to God in prayer, according to Miranda.
“When I play music I’m trying to worship God through
music, not only for myself but on behalf of the human community who
believes in God,” said Miranda.
Miranda became a musician because he loved his dad and wanted to
be just like him, he said.
Miranda’s family is a mixture of African, Latin and
European ancestry. His Puerto Rican father was a musician and
taught him orally how to play the congas, clave, maracas and
bongo.
During his teens he started playing mainly jazz and is now a
well known solo bass guitarist, band leader and composer who has
traveled the world.
Miranda describes sitting at the piano and composing a song like
working and molding clay. The artist transforms the idea in his
head into an object or a song that others can see and hear.
“When the music is happening and we’re all working
together and the rhythm section is swinging and soloists are
creative, I just don’t know how to put it into words. It
truly is a very satisfying and wonderful experience,” he
said.
For nearly thirty years Miranda has played with his mentor,
Horace Tapscott, a world famous jazz musician. Miranda feels
teaching is an honorable profession that helps the community. He
also has been teaching other musicians in Los Angeles Unified
School District’s public schools and privately since his
twenties.
Miranda’s two sons are also musicians. He frequently plays
with his sons at church and at their studio.
“They just inspire me. I want to do everything I can to
nourish that talent,” said Miranda.
Miranda has also laid down some base lines for Jurassic 5 in
their last CD and will also be featured in their upcoming CD.
“A lot of the guys that study with me are just nice
people. I remember what it was like being their age and having some
of the older cats help out. Some of the guys used to say then, just
pass it on when it’s your turn,” said Miranda.
Miranda was invited by Steve Losa, professor in the
ethnomusicology department, along with other music professors to a
week long program in Mexico City to teach and play at the
University Nacional Atonoma de Mexico this November.
Through the oral history department at UCLA, Steve Isoardi is
currently writing the life history in review of Roberto Miranda.
Steven Isoardi is an oral art historian specializing in jazz music
within the African American experience.
While Isoardi was chronicling the Pan Afrikan People’s
Arkestra and the Union of God’s Musicians and Artists’
Assention, he knew he wanted to interview Miranda, who he has known
for over ten years.
Isoardi has already written the biography of Buddy Collet and
Horace Tapscott.
“The first time I heard Roberto play I was revetted to the
bass player and that doesn’t happen very often,”
Isoardi said. “He is truly a great talent.”