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With the passing of Jan Laurens Hartong in 2016 - its founder, keyboardist and principal composer-arranger - I assumed my writings about the Holland based Latin Jazz band Nueva Manteca were going to be limited to the eight features about them previously posted to the blog [you can locate these by scrolling the sidebar of the blog and clicking on the group’s name under LABELS].
But my curiosity about continuing possibilities peaked when Ben van den Dungen, who has been a long-standing member of the group on soprano and tenor saxophone, alluded to a new project that Nueva Manteca would soon be undertaking in our communiques on social media.
Without further details, I conjectured that perhaps Ben was talking about previously recorded but unreleased tracks by Nueva Manteca issued in something akin to “the best of …” or “the unheard …” memorial recording with Jan Laurens as the focus.
Well, I was half right as the following insert notes from the group’s new CD entitled ART will attest:
“ART is a twofold tribute. Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers was a groundbreaking phenomenon. With much love and a lot of respect for Blakey's incredible musical legacy, we added some 'rice and beans' to it...
We hope you enjoy our guaracha, songo, cha cha, bomba and much more!
Just like Blakey, our dear friend and mentor, the late Jan Laurens Hartong gave his younger band members a lot of musical space to develop their art.
Spiritual father of Nueva Manteca, he was not only its pianist, bandleader, composer, arranger and promoter for many years, but he also constantly came up with new ideas and concepts for the band. Being a classically trained pianist, he was always totally au courant about the latest in jazz, Latin and music in general.
All his passion and knowledge was constantly injected into his creation Nueva Manteca. We are deeply grateful to him for sharing his art with us in his very own, unique way.
We love you and we will never forget you.
Thanks Jan!”
Thematically, the “rice and beans” are added to seven tunes by Bobby Timmons, Benny Golson, Wayne Shorter and Freddie Hubbard, all of whom worked as members of drummer Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in the early 1960, and all of which have since become Jazz Standards. Pianist Duke Jordan is also honored with the selection of his No Problem.
What intrigued me about the Latin Jazz rendering of such Jazz staples as Moanin’, Blue March, Crisis, Dat Dere, This Is For Albert, No Problem, Whisper Not and Are You Real, is how the inclusion of various clave forms altered the rhythmic sound of these tunes almost to the point of giving them the impression of being played in odd or unusual time signatures.
Clave rhythms are very different from the metronomic ones used in Jazz so they syncopate differently creating the impression that the time signatures are other than the usual 4/4 or 3/4 or 6/8 in which Jazz is usually played. Because Clave rhythms are a repeated pattern rather than a counted progression, the accents fall differently.
Furthermore, the clave rhythms are usually associated with definite Latin song and dance patterns and when these are applied to straight-ahead Jazz tunes they also create a sense of staggered or altered rhythmic progressions.
So with all this in mind I wrote to Ben and asked him to give me a breakdown of how the rhythms of each of the eight tunes on ART are configured.
Here’s his reply complete with “rice and beans” references:
“Hi Steven:
Hereby the information of the tunes in combination with the Cuban rhythms -
RITMES ART
Moanin' 4/4
Cha Cha Chá/Guajira
Blues March 12/8-4/4
Batá rhythm Wolenche on stand [one player].
Further Bembé, kind of Abakua 'invento' in mambos, piano solo: 'Onda Nueva', samba in 3/4
In conga solo play bass, piano chords of El Ratón [Cheo Feliciano, Joe Cuba, Fania]
Crisis 4/4
Combination of Mozambique, Songo, Bomba, fits with the bass!
Dat Dere 4/4
Intro Conga Habanera [comparsa], theme, solos Cha Cha Chá
Uitro: again Conga Habanera [comparsa], played a bit more freely. Planned by arranger was Guaguancó, but this worked better
This is for Albert 4/4
Danzón, Bembé, Cha Cha Chá/Guajira
No Problem 4/4
Conga accents a la 'Sazonando' and La Habana + guaguancó
Presión part for Mambo: free accents a la Charanga Habanera
Mambo and trumpet solo guaracha, with timba influences
Whisper Not 7/4
Makuta in 7/4 with Caja accents [low conga], in solos Bomba a la 'Mi Tierra', end solo - mambo: Bembé and Tumba
Are you Real 4/4
Conga Habanera [comparsa], in the solos what they called timba in Cuba in the 70s: fast heavy Latin jazz, the conga plays 'picadillo': a combination of everything, but always in clave of course.”
As Ben concludes - “... always in clave!” - the secret sauce that makes 8 tunes that have been in the Jazz repertory for sixty years sound new and distinctive.
After reviewing Ben’s descriptions of what’s involved in creating these Latin Jazz interpretations of the Jazz standards long associated with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, they help us further appreciate and admire the collective knowledge and skills that went into the making of ART.
While paying respect to the traditional format of finding a theme around which to configure Latin Jazz rhythms and song forms, the talents and skills of the latest edition of Nueva Manteca lend themselves to a totally new creation.
In addition to new music there are some new faces involved in the making of ART as joining Ban van den Dungen on reeds and Nils Fischer on Latin percussion are Marc Bischoff, who assumes the piano chair for the departed Jan Laurens Hartong, Enrique Firpi steps in for Lucas van Merwijk on drums and timbales and trumpeter Oscar “Chucky” Cordero and bassist Samuel Ruiz join in for their maiden voyage on the “HNLMS New Nueva Manteca.”
As with all of the previous efforts by this group, an air of authenticity, energy and excitement permeates ART.
If you are a fan of Latin Jazz, ART should be at the very top of your wish list for this one is not to be missed.
[HNLMS = All ships entering the service of the Royal Netherlands Navy are given the prefix HNLMS (His Netherlands Majesty's Ship)].
