yasss celia, show them how it’s done

Events Editor Isabel Sepúlveda trekked over to the Diana Events Oval to Latin Jazz in the City: A Musical Tribute to the Greatest Latin American Women Singers of All Time. Hosted by the Forum on Migration, Claudia Acuña, Jorge Glem, Ricky Rodriguez, Luisito Quintero, and Baden Goyo adapted the works of world-renown Latina artists like Celia Cruz, Violeta Parra, and Mercedes Sosa for a powerful reminder of the connective power of language.

My exposure to Latin music as a child was limited to me complaining about my dad’s obnoxious habit of blasting salsa music every weekend; as I arrived at the Diana Event Oval on Thursday to pick up my ticket for Latin Jazz in the City, I wasn’t sure what I was getting into. As more and more people filtered into the space, the sound of Spanish conversation colored the room, as people who grew up with Celia Cruz and Violeta Parra anxiously awaited the start of the show.

We would have to be waiting a while, as it turns out. As José Moya, director of the Forum on Migration, noted in his introduction, “If there’s one thing jazz musicians are not, it’s punctual.”  As we waited for the performers to arrive, Moya argued that migration forms a powerful source of creativity, noting that of the last 7 Nobel Prizes for Literature that were awarded to Americans, 5 were awarded to those born outside the country and that though only 14% of the country is foreign-born, over 40% of artists in the Whitney are. Latin jazz itself is the result of collaboration and mixing of styles by Cuban immigrants and Black Americans in New York City; the artists that performed for us came from countries across Latin America: Chile, Venezuela, as well as Puerto Rico (a U.S. territory).

About half an hour after we were meant to have started, Moya ceded the stage to Grammy-nominated guitarist and cuatro player Jorge Glem. He opened with a solo piece that immediately illustrated his deftness with his instrument. He truly used the instrument to its fullest potential, not just strumming but also rapping his knuckles to add a percussion to the piece which added an additional level of complexity and depth. Occasionally, his fingers maneuvered across the strings with such deftness that his hands were a blur. There was a moment I was genuinely convinced he had to have three of them in order to make the complex melodies he was weaving work.

After, he welcomed the rest of the band to the stage: bassist Ricky Rodriguez, percussionist Luisito Quintero, and pianist Baden Goyo, and kicked off an instrumental half of the show. The lack of brassy percussion instruments that I’ve been accustomed to in my limited experience with jazz lent a more laidback feeling to the performance. Most of the time, there was little introduction to the pieces (and when there was, it was often lost to my poor Spanish comprehension or audience applause) and they flowed from piece to piece with ease. Every musician was given the chance to shine in several solos, but they also blended together well, especially due to the work of Quintero, who set the mood and kept the beat with a variety of auxiliary percussion, and Rodriguez, who provided a solid base to every performance.

Singer Claudia Acuña arrived after Glem gave a heartfelt speech about how grateful he was to be performing for us, in Spanish because he didn’t feel he could express the same sentiment in English. Her arrival moved the music into something more recognizable to the crowd. It was heartwarming to see people all across the room, who grew up listening to this music, mouthing the words and dancing along from their seats. Occasionally it felt criminal to be sitting and listening instead of up and moving to the beat. The lights in the space changed with the mood of each piece, red for dance numbers and upbeat songs, with cooler blues and greens for songs of longing and heartache. Despite the mostly male ensemble, the great women musicians to which they were paying tribute were front and center, and Acuña did them more than justice with her soaring range and emotive performances. All the musicians put their bodies into the music, leaning into the performance and turning it from a display of technical skill into something more holistic for everyone.

What struck me, especially once Acuña joined the ensemble, was how this music moved me despite the fact that I couldn’t understand a lot of what was going on. Jazz, in general, is a music style grounded in connection and communication. Improvisation is as foundational to the genre as jazz’s unique rhythms, and ensembles (including this one) often lack the formal conductor found in classical performances. As such, it’s imperative that band members work together to create a cohesive, balanced whole. This group did, infusing the works of the greats with their distinctive style; more than that though, they cut through the boundaries of language and inexperience to make me feel deeply with every note. The final, plaintive duet between Acuña and Glem, was raw and filled me with a longing to call my dad, ask him if he knew these songs, and if he and his sisters had listened to them back in Puerto Rico when they were my age.

We all might have come from different places, but for a moment, we were as connected as the band on the stage, brought to some kind of emotional understanding that crossed borders of space and language, creating something even these words cannot fully express.

the stunning celia cruz via Wikimedia Commons