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Article by Angelina Puente, Victoria Tarova and Yolanda R Carranza
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Meet the man behind, what is
considered by many, to be the most educational docu-film about Mambo and Salsa - Josué
Joseph, director and executive producer of "La Epoca - The
Palladium Era."
A son of Mambo Legend
"Alfonso-el Panameño" Joseph, he was raised in a musical atmosphere
of other mambo legends such as Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, Israel "Cachao"
Lopez, Candido Camero and the likes because of his father's career
as a bassist for the Palladium-era's top orchestras including Machito,
Rafael Cortijo with Ismael Rivera in addition to those
mentioned above.
"Growing up the way Josué did," shared Freddy Pagan of Buena Vista Social Club, "with
Cachao calling his house to ask his father to substitute
for him for a gig because he was double-booked or else Josué growing up
with legends like Tito Puente, Xiomara Alfaro, and
Machito hugging and admiring his father and making sure the boy knew
his father was a legend; growing up like this, how could any one else
but Josué do this movie? He's the only one that could do this
movie."
Joseph, who speaks English and Spanish,
and is studying Polish, Italian and Russian, is an improvisational
classical-influenced pianist, but earns a living producing music and
video for an international clientele. In addition, he is often hired as
a master instructor of Traditional Mambo and Cha-Cha-Cha dances with
musicality, and also
often hired as a guest speaker for engagements that cater to historians,
dancers, musicians and students.
Joseph, in what prompted him to
produce this film that has been seen by an international audience, said
that he sees so many dancers that argue about "on 1" and "on 2," and
about "mambo" and "salsa." He shared that he hears musicians playing live
music but playing only the general "salsa rhythm from song-to song." He
said, "It doesn't move me. One or two songs with the same static bass
line is necessary, in present day, because most dancers want the static
stuff that's on the radio; they're not exposed to the traditional music
that has saxophones, multiple trumpets and trombones and especially, a
walking bass - you know, an acoustic bass that drives the music.
But, when I hear live music from an orchestra that plays more than 'one
or two' rhythms, like a mambo, son-montuno, guajira, guajira-son or even
a bolero, I then have a choice as to what I dance that night. It's a
moving, internal feeling each time."
For his film, he pulled together
some of old-school mambo's most distinguished musicians and dancers,
such as the late Israel "Cachao" Lopez - a
pioneer of the mambo rhythm, and his father, "Alfonso-el Panameño."
He also pulled together musicians from Johnny Pacheco's and
Pete "El Conde" Rodriguez's orchestras such as Charlie Rodriguez, Chiripa,
Santiago Ceron, and the late Leo Fleming; and dancers such as the late "Cuban Pete," who pioneered in
the mambo, Freddy Rios and Mike Ramos from the Palladium Mambo Legends. All
remained close friends of his father throughout the years since the
1950's and 60's.
He said, "I'm not into
salsa-bashing. There are definitely tracks from Fania Records and
Pacheco that I love so much, like "El Faisan," and Hector Lavoe's "Que
Lio," and music from salsa-romantica like Eddie Santiago and
Tito Rojas.
No, I'm not into salsa-bashing. But, so many people I've met in my
travels around the world have been gracious unto me and have shared with
me how much they appreciate learning about the history of mambo and
salsa that I've presented for them. It's not salsa-bashing, it's just
exposing salsa for its true value from the musicians and dancers who know
first-hand what the music before salsa and after salsa has been like.
That's all."
Isaac Rosenbaum, who danced at the
Palladium Ballroom during the late 1950's, said that the days of
Joseph's father were the good 'ole days before the divide between
loyalists-of-tradition and the loyalists-of-money broke out.
"It was a time when Jews,
Italians, Blacks and the rich and poor left their problems at the door
and came in to dance and to watch the greatest dancers in the world,
like 'Cuban Pete' and Millie Donay, The Mambo Aces and others. It wasn't
like it is today, where dancers only dance forward-and-backward steps
with a hundred turn-patterns or where start-up bands make a living
without knowing how to play even the basic rhythms that were played
during our time back then," Rosenbaum said in a phone interview.
Rosenbaum explained that in the
late 1960's, Johnny Pacheco and Fania Records, in their ever-living
battle with traditionalists who favor rhythms such as mambo, son-montuno
and guaguancó, opened an umbrella under which they threw all the rich
rhythms of Afro-Cuban music. He said they did it to commercialize the
music for money - to make it more user-friendly, but that in doing so,
the roots of the music and rhythms became of no importance and the
result is that in today's society, dancers are limited only to the same
watered-down copies of the origins. "There's no more appreciation for
tradition," he said.
He added, "Most orchestras, now,
fill their repertoires with music by Willie Colón, Hector Lavoe or any
one else from the salsa era. But, salsa came after the mambo era, during
which many of the masterpieces were composed. But, what they don't
realize is that the majority of the songs in so-called salsa, are only
re-arrangements of what the legends of the previous era wrote, like
Arsenio Rodriguez and Cachao. So, what you have is Johnny Pacheco and
his clan borrowed the ideas of the mambo legends - the ones who have an
appreciation for tradition, they re-recorded the originals but they left
out anything that was 'afro' or anything that had to do with Black, like
the basic rhythm instruments. They took it out."
He said that prior to the Civil
Rights Movement, to have a dark-skin musician in an orchestra meant the
difference between getting the gig or not. He said that orchestras made
it a practice to replace the dark-skin musicians with musicians of
light-skin color. During the mambo craze in New York in the 50's and
60's, he noted that orchestras did everything and anything to get the
big jobs; even cutting out key musicians because of the color of their
skin. He said that from his interactions with Pacheco and others,
this was widely practiced.
Rosenbaum continued, "And now, the kids and
the orchestras think that these re-recordings are the originals. That is
exactly what happened. The originals come from the era before salsa."
Nestor Torres, who played piano
with Tito Puente's orchestra for three years at the Palladium Ballroom,
agreed.
He said, in a personal interview, "The struggle between mamberos and salseros started in 1965,
at a club in the Bronx, between Arsenio Rodriguez and Pacheco. I
remember it. I was there, Tito Puente was there, Mangual was there and
Kako, too. Pacheco
made a comment to the bassist and the conga player that they were
playing too many notes. Arsenio heard it and said something that no one
understood except him and the the conga player. That was the end of that
discussion. But, I didn't find out until Christmas 1968 that Arsenio and
his brother Quique, wrote a song about that incident called 'Kiko
Medina.' They wrote it about Pacheco. Arsenio was known for inserting
hidden messages in his lyrics. That's where the struggle began. Pacheco
thought the music should be played differently than how Arsenio was
playing it. So, that's what he did; he created salsa by removing what he
didn't like from the traditional format and replaced that with his own
standards; even though Arsenio was the one who invented those key
rhythms and composed those very songs."
Joseph, however, noted, "What
Pacheco and Willie Colón contributed to Latin music is of great
importance and of great value. It can't be discounted simply because
they may not value traditions. Whether they do or not is something only
one can interpret on one's own. Hector Lavoe was certainly inspirational
in some of his lyrics. Look, they created an entirely new era, which
still exists today. That word 'salsa' has brought together cultures and
has done so much good. They are very talented; they're masters at what
they do. That can't be discounted. Pacheco is a master-musician."
Rosenbaum agreed but added, "We
have tradition on one side and shortcuts on the other. If the starting
point for young men these days is with shortcuts, then what you get is
exactly what we have now: salsa. But, if the starting point is
tradition, then its products are esteemed and talented men with ripe
taste buds."
Joseph, in a sit-down interview on
Saturday night (January 31, 2009), in Arlington, Virginia:
Question: How did you
produce the movie without taking sides but instead, giving the facts
from both sides - mambo versus salsa?
Joseph answered with a smirk, "To
be honest with you, it boils down to humility and some scripture. To
avoid disorder, I need to make sure that I'm not harboring selfish
ambitions. I think that because I grew up with my father sticking his
finger in my face and telling me that what I listen to isn't really
'salsa' but rather one particular rhythm or another, that this formed a
structure in me that is so firm that it allowed me to have an
appreciation for tradition simply because I can justify the music and
the dance. My father recorded with the man who composed so much of the
music they play today, so I have an appreciation knowing what the
original songs sound like and knowing what the pixilated carbon-copies
of the songs sound like. I'm a traditionalist, but in order to reach
over to the other side of the fence, I have to give them what they know
and what they want but immediately followed by the origins. The
reactions that I get make what I do worth it."
Joseph currently is in
pre-production for the second part of this two-part series titled, "La Epoca - The Lost Rhythms in Salsa," which based on the talk by many in
the Washington DC area, is expected to be another hit.
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