Paquito D'Rivera: Portraits of Cuba [From the Archives]

© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

“The thermometer outside of the venerable St. Peter's Church in Manhattan's Chelsea district read in the low 20s. Due to a momentary malfunction of the heating system, it was even colder inside, thanks to two of the biggest blizzards of the century which buried New York City under more than two feet of snow.   That was until the downbeat of "The Peanut Vendor".   

With this work and the subsequent 11 pieces rehearsed on that freezing February afternoon, the temperature and excitement coming out of Paquito and the 14-piece band, (dressed as Eskimos to combat the arctic conditions), rose to fever pitch. While Bob Katz and his sound crew were setting up in double time to insure the perfection of the recording, Producer David Chesky was closely supervising every aspect of the production, including authentic Cuban cuisine every day for the musicians and crew.  

The next afternoon, after 3 takes of "La Bella Cubana", the session was launched with the panache of a maiden voyage.   There were smiles amongst the band members and Paquito - the music had taken over.   David Chesky said, "Sounds great - it's a take". Paquito smiled at Carlos and replied, "That's it". Carlos chimed in, "OK, guys, 11 more to go".”

I was so taken with Pacquito D’Rivera’s 1996 recording of Portraits of Cuba with arrangements by Carlos Franzetti who also conducts the orchestra, that I wrote David and Norman Chesky a “fan letter” for their role in producing it for their label [Chesky JD145].

In return, I received a nice letter of appreciation from David along with the artwork from the CD jewel cover and tray plate arrayed as a poster which I later had framed.

Imagine that!

Here I was sharing with him how admiring I was for what could only have been an expensive and time-consuming labor of love and here was the person who incurred the expense of the money and time involved thanking me!

But then, it seems, such self-effacement [let alone, self-sacrifice] has always been there for those involved in producing Jazz recordings for as Michael Cuscuna, who has had a long association as the keeper of the flame for Blue Note Records and who is the current proprietor of Mosaic Records has explained:

“The hardest thing about having a jazz label,' says Michael Cuscuna, "is that you never have enough money to pay yourself and you don't have the reserves to grow the business. You take every cent that comes in and put it into pressing-plant money or making new records. There's no time to sit down and think, or put money aside for anything.” [Richard Cook, Blue Note Records: The Biography, p. 186].

Portraits of Cuba has thirteen [13] tracks that feature Paquito on soprano sax, alto sax or clarinet in arrangements that are beautifully fashioned by Carlos Franzetti in such a way as to evoke reminiscences of Gil Evans’ collaborations with Miles Davis.

Fortunately, the background of and context for the music on Portraits of Cuba is well-documented thanks to an interview with Paquito as conducted by Allison Brewster Franzetti, the wife of the composer-arranger whose lush arrangements beautifully frame D’Rivera “intensely hot, firecracker phrases that do so much to enliven the date.” [Richard Cook and Brian Morton, The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, 6th Ed.]

Here is that interview which forms the sleeve notes to the CD.

© Allison Brewster Franzetti/Chesky Records, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

“CONVERSATIONS WITH PAQUITO

The following took place at Carlos' and my home on February 21, 1996.

ABF: How was this project completely new for you?

Paquito: I suspected that it would be - Carlos Franzetti is an arranger whose imagination has no end. I remember that there once was a compatriot of Carlos', a pianist, and a conductor and arranger, too, and he said, "Here's Carlos again - he invented another chord!" Carlos is a person who invents chords. I don't know another person who invents chords. He does some new voicing or something, and the same thing happens when he arranges a whole work. We're talking about one chord, but when he reinvents it, I think he really reinvents it! This CD has nothing to do with pure Cuban music - it's a jazz tribute to the Cuban tradition. That's what it is - that's my idea. That is how I see this project.

ABF: I know that you and Carlos have worked together for many years, both live and in various recordings. How did this project come about?

Paquito: That was absolutely Carlos' idea. He called me and said, "You remember Sketches of Spain ?" I think that was the origin of this record - not to copy it, but the idea of Sketches of Spain, which is not a Spanish-music project at all. If you play Sketches of Spain to somebody from Galicia, he'll say that it isn't Spanish music, it's a jazz tribute to Spanish music. It's the same thing that Carlos has done here with Cuban music - it's a jazz point of view, it's a jazz tribute to Cuban music, using elements of Cuban music.

ABF: You're the one who actually chose the material that he was arranging.....

Paquito: Well, some of them. For example, la habanera Tu - I chose that because that was the first tune that I ever played live, with my father.

ABF: Your father was your teacher, am I right?

Paquito: Yes, my father was my teacher. He was a classical saxophone player and a very clever pedagogue. He taught me solfeggio and how to read by playing some ingenious educational games with me. He used to repeat like an evangelic (the gospel) -"Solfeggio is the base of all musical instruction". He was the person who introduced the French school of classical saxophone to Cuba. Tito (my father) represented a world famous instrument maker in Havana, and he had a little shop, where I met some of the most outstanding Cuban musicians, Chico O'Farrill and Jorge Bolet included. It was in that shop where I first heard recordings of Benny Goodman live at Carnegie Hall, and right then and there I decided to be a jazz musician in New York. Anyway, the first time I played live was a at a graduation party at the end of the year at the school "Emilia Azcarate" - and they have a party and a wonderful dinner. I played with my father and a saxophone quintet which was accompanying me, and the first thing I played was la habanera Tu by Eduardo Sanchez de Fuentes. I performed frequently with my father after that, playing on radio and television and in theatres. I was known as "Paquito D'Rivera - The Smallest Saxophone Player in the World!" [Paquito stops to look at the list of music on this CD] Well, then No Te Imports Saber -Carlos did such wonderful work here. I explained to him why I wanted to do this. This is a person I admire very much, Rene Touzet (the composer of No Te Importe Saber), a monster musician. He's a great piano player, a classical piano player, too. This is a more well-known piece. And I asked Carlos to write something very pianistic to honor this man.

ABF: Surprise! (What I am referring to here is that Carlos wrote an intricate virtuosic opening and closing for me to play.)

Paquito: Yes! And you sounded incredible. I didn't think it was going to be so heavy, that! I think that

this is the best tribute to this great Cuban musician. Mariana was written by Carlos Franzetti in the Cuban jazz style, and it's a coincidence that the name of this little lady (pointing to Carlos' and my daughter, for whom this work is named) is the same name of the mother of one of our most dearest father-founders, Antonio Maceo (1845-1896). Her name was Mariana. Quite a coincidence, huh? Carlos has a lot to do with Cubans - poor man! Even the name of one of his children has to do with one of the dearest of Cuban women! That woman is the representation, the symbol of Cuban women - Mariana, the mother of Antonio Maceo. Isn't that wonderful?

ABF: Oh yes! And whose idea was it to record Echale Salsita?

Paquito:  Carlos and I had the idea to do Echale Salsita. This is where Gershwin took his idea from, his main theme for his Cuban Overture.

ABF: Gershwin's Cuban Overture was performed on August 19, 1932, is that right?

Paquito: Well, I don't remember exactly, but I think so. In early 1932, Gershwin made one of his visits to Cuba. Upon hearing Ignacio Pineiro's Echale Salsita, and Cuban music at large, Gershwin used the first 4 bars of Pineiro's Echale Salsita for his Cuban Overture, which he composed in July, 1932. Cuban Overture was performed in an all-Gershwin program on August 19. As Gershwin had developed Pineiro's material into his own overture, Carlos thought about paraphrasing Gershwin in his arrangement of Echale Salsita with quotes from Rhapsody in Blue. And then Carlos and I listened to Ignacio Pineiro's work, and to the part of the tune that goes "G-C-B-A-G-C-B-A-G-C-B-A-G", and Carlos used the overture here. I asked him to do that, and he did it marvelously. Song to My Son is an arrangement by Carlos of my piece.

ABF: You wrote that for your son, Franco, didn't you?

Paquito: I wrote that for Franco, yes.

ABF: When did you write that?

Paquito: I believe it was before I came to this country. In fact, I wrote that when he was born, and when I went to see him I felt a very strange feeling of happiness. I was so impressed, and I was a little sad, too, for some reason. It was a combination of both things. And then I wrote that song. I think it's a little nostalgic mainly because my mother wasn't there and my father wasn't there. They were not able to assist, to be present, to attend that happy event. That is why that song is a little nostalgic. I remember that.

ABF: Portraits of Cuba was written when?

Paquito: Portraits of Cuba is one of the themes of my wind quintet called, Aires Tropicales. I wrote that for the Aspen Wind Quintet. I was commissioned by the Aspen Wind Quintet to write a piece for them, an extended piece which is called Aires Tropicales, and this is the opening movement. I call it Portraits of Cuba because it's a portrait of my land.

ABF: And when Carlos arranged it, he took the beginning of the Aires Tropicales, which you orchestrated, and put it at the end of Portraits of Cuba exactly as you wrote it.

Paquito: Yes, he did. He likes to change the order! He did the same thing with No Te Importe Saber. The verse is in the middle of the introduction - you call that the verse, right?

ABF: That's right.

Paquito: And then he put the introduction in the middle of the song, like a bridge. He likes to move things around. So, basically, we chose this repertoire very democratically between us. Drume Negrita - that was something that came to our minds immediately, in unison. This is a favorite lullaby. Cuban musicians like this song very much - there is a preference for this piece of music amongst musicians, from classical musicians to jazz musicians and popular musicians.

ABF: It's universal, then.

Paquito: Yes, it's universal.  The Peanut Vendor, El Manisero, well, it's The Peanut Vendor....

ABF: Everybody knows The Peanut Vendor. I learned it in school, we ALL learned it in whatever music program we were in. I'm talking about public school, not music school.

Paquito: Yes, everybody knows The Peanut Vendor. And of course it's dedicated to Jimmy Carter (we laughed)! Tu Mi Delirio was an idea of Carlos'. This bolero is probably the third or the fourth piece by the great Cesar Portillo de la Luz. That man is a favorite of all time. I previously recorded another arrangement of Carlos' of one of his wonderful pieces called, Contigo En La Distancia for one of my records, and I have also recorded a couple of other works by him, including Noche Cubana What else?

ABF: La Bella Cubana....

Paquito: Ah, La Bella Cubana. I think this was an idea of Carlos Franzetti. Carlos wanted to do La Bella Cubana for some reason, I don't know why.

ABF: I know why … We heard La Bella Cubana used in the movie based on the Graham Greene book, "Our Man in Havana", and this music evoked such

nostalgia and emotion, like most Cuban music.....

Paquito: You're right about that.

ABF:  .......Anyway, Carlos thought that La Bella Cubana would be a great addition to this collection.

Paquito:  You know that Jose White, who wrote La Bella Cubana, wrote a beautiful violin concerto, too?

ABF: Oh yes, I have heard it - the Brooklyn Philharmonic performed it several years ago.

Paquito: I read that he was an amenable person. You know that he was black, and for a black soloist at that time life was difficult. He was the founder of the Royal Conservatory of Rio de Janeiro, and he was a teacher at the Paris Conservatory, being a Black Cuban in the 19th Century. He was a remarkable man. We are very proud of this man.

ABF:   We haven't yet discussed   Como Arrullo de Palmas.

Paquito: This is our tribute to the most universal Cuban musician, Ernesto Lecuona.

ABF: I remember when you called Carlos, and you spoke with me, saying "We can't do Portraits of Cuba without Lecuona".

Paquito: Lecuona is Cuba. Lecuona is the most representative Cuban composer. He also plays an important part in the history of Spanish zarzuela and Spanish music in general. Malaguena and the Andalusian Suite - these are part of the Spanish music repertoire. Some Spanish people don't want to call Lecuona Cuban - they consider him to be a Spanish composer. But this isn't true.

ABF: Whose idea was it to do I Love Lucy which was priceless?

Paquito: Incredible! You can't talk about the history of Cuba without talking about the history of Cubans outside of Cuba, especially the Cubans in jazz music and in American culture. I Love Lucy was the creation of Desi Arnaz, and this television program represented a Cubano so much in this part of the world. That theme is part of the Cuban music story, and both Carlos and I agreed about that.

ABF: Does Portraits of Cuba represent your roots as a Cuban?

Paquito: It's an ideal framework to express myself as a jazz musician born in Cuba. I have always been combining Cuban elements in my music, but this was written especially for me, accompanied by a wonderful big band, expressing in a jazz way my Cuban music. It's amazing what Carlos Franzetti has done here. I was very pleased and very honored to record with people I admire so much, people like Dick Oatts, for example. Dick is a jazz musician I admire a lot, a great saxophone player. And Jim Pugh, Dave Taylor, John Clark, Roger Rosenberg, Lew Soloff, Gustavo, Bobby, Tom, you, and all of the people who work with me in my band - Carlos used to be one of my pianists, and Dario Eskenazi is now. Andres Boiarsky, Mark, Diego Urcola and Pernell all work with me frequently. Dave Finck is a monster bass player. Another reed player that I admire very much is Lawrence Feldman, a doubler - I wonder how he can play all of those instruments so perfectly!

ABF: I feel the same way about you. It was amazing to watch you switch back-and-forth between instruments so comfortably. I know that you're thinking about what you're doing all the time, but to anybody who doesn't know, it looks like you just pick up any instrument and there you go....it's an amazing gift that you have.

Paquito: I have an opinion about that. I wrote a book about the saxophone, soon to be published, and in the liner notes I say, "Great artists make very difficult passages sound very easy". I think you have to make difficult things sound very simple, like Heifetz. It's an art.

ABF: How do you prepare for a project like this? I know that you had some of the charts in advance and a synthesizer tape that Carlos gave you of his arrangements.

Paquito: First of all, Carlos has a feature in his favor. He's a great arranger, but he doesn't write things to be difficult. It's not necessary to write things that are difficult. In general, Carlos writes things very simply -everything is there for you. I didn't suffer too much  - I had to study some things, but generally, Carlos writes music that is simple to read and is wonderful. Complications don't make good music.

ABF: What he also does is to write his arrangements exactly as he wants them to be played, including all of the voicings in his harmonies. When he has something very specific in mind, it's down on paper. Now, please tell me more about your early studies. Brenda (Feliciano, Paquito's wife) was telling me at the recording sessions for this CD about your studies with your father - how you perfected those incredible high saxophone notes that you play which influenced so many saxophonists in their own ranges.

Paquito: When I switched from soprano to alto saxophone, the range was too short for me. I didn't know what to do - I was desperate. And then my father taught me how to play the high notes with a book written by someone who happened to be one of Charlie Parker's favorite saxophone players, Jimmy Dorsey.

ABF: Brenda was also saying that you and Carlos have always been ahead of your time. Would you like to comment on that?

Paquito: Some people didn't believe in what we stood for in that period. For example, when I was talking about the roots of Latin American music, I remember thinking, "They're going to pay attention to us - there are a lot of Latin people here". And you see now what has happened - now everybody wants to be Latin, even Ronald Reagan's grandmother was Latin (we laughed)!

ABF: How would you describe your overall experience in working on this project? Paquito: We worked on this with so much love, and I trusted Carlos Franzetti completely. When he came to me with this idea, I said, "I don't know what you're going to do, but I don't care, really. I trust you to do this." This really was Carlos' idea and he should take full credit for this project.

Paquito D' Rivera: Live at the Blue Note

© -Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

“There isn’t a weak link in Mr. D’Rivera’s band. And he has already honed it to a sharp edge – the ensemble playing is fastidiously tight, the breaks and endings are executed flawlessly. It’s a band that should be heard … by anybody who likes Jazz that’s inventive, hot and heartfelt.”

- Robert Palmer, “The New York Times”

“D’Rivera has developed into a startling innovator who moves from mordant, birdlike bop to manic split tones and squeaks.”

- Leonard Feather, “The Los Angeles Times”

“Jazz is speed reading of speedwriting and Paquito can make comfortable listeners of us all while playing at the breakneck speed of more than 300 beats a minute. The big tone in the attack, the fast phrasing, the rapid changes of keys, and the alternation of rhythms combine in Paquito’s music with great technical proficiency. He is the master of the sax – and the clarinet, too.”

- G. Cabrera Infante

“A fluent, virtuoso musician, whose playing … [leaps] with an exuberance quite unlike any other alto saxophone player in Jazz ….”

- Stuart Nicholson, “Jazz: The 1980’s Resurgence”

“I have been a fan of Paquito D’Rivera since the moment he first blew me out of my seat one humid night in Havana during an outdoor concert by the outstanding band Irakere. That was in April, 1978, when a group of recording executives and musicians of which I was a part made a musical sojourn to Cuba. Paquito’s blazing solo on Irakere’s very first number of the night left us completely speechless.”

- Bruce Lundvall, record company executive

As frequent visitors to these pages will no doubt have observed by now, I have been dwelling a bit lately on postings about some of my favorite recordings and one that certainly fits into this category is The Paquito D’Rivera Quintet Live at The Blue Note [Half Note Records 4911].

It was recorded in performance at the Blue Note in New York City in 2000.

Listened to in its entirety, it is the perfectly paced Jazz set.

Many of the reasons why this is so are explained below in Fred Jung’s insert notes to the recording which you'll find detailed below.

I first heard Paquito around 1980 on Irakere’s initial Columbia album about which we have written extensively in this profile of the band.

It’s hard to believe that almost 40 years later, he generates the same excitement in me every time I listen to him play.

Paquito’s enthusiasm and energy are exemplified in his music - the man just knows how to light it up.

“Paquito,” so we are told, is a variant of the of the Latin name for Francis meaning “from France:” one connotation being that France is the “land of the free man.”

And so it was for Paquito when he left Cuba and eventually took up residence in New York in 1982, thus becoming a “free” man.

One benefit of this freedom has been the amount of superb music that is has enabled Paquito to generate over the past four decades. In a word, his discography is prolific. You can checkout his many recordings via this link to his Discogs page.

Here are Fred’s insightful and well-written  insert notes to The Paquito D’Rivera Quintet Live at The Blue Note [Half Note Records 4911].

“A good leader allows his players ample space to perform. A great leader trusts in his players and empowers them to creatively interpret his music. Paquito D'Rivera has learned to be a great leader, no doubt from one of the most eminent bandleaders of our time, Dizzy Gillespie (D'Rivera directed Gillespie's United Nation Orchestra for a number of years).

"Dizzy, still today, is a great influence in my career and in my life, not only his playing and his music, but the way he approached life, the way he helped others to make their careers. The music and the spirit of Dizzy Gillespie is always in someplace around my heart," acknowledges D'Rivera.

Long before he defected from Cuba in 1980, D'Rivera was a true child prodigy, taught by his father Tito D'Rivera, a renown classical saxophonist and educator himself. At 12, Paquito enrolled in the celebrated Alejandro Garcia Caturia Conservatory of Music, where he studied theory, harmony, composition and clarinet.

After working at the Havana Musical Theatre, and a three year stint in the army, teenager Paquito D'Rivera along with Chucho Valdes, Armondo Romeu and other distinguished Cuban musicians, found the Orquesta Cubana de Musica Moderna, from where Irakere originated. Of which Mr. D'Rivera admits "It was a very important part of my career, especially from the point of view of international exposure. I had been playing with Chucho for many years, so Irakere was what I call, old wine, new bottles."

For his live performance at New York's distinguished Blue Note Jazz Club, D'Rivera chooses the commendable route of recording with his working band of five years rather than the more commercially savvy, all-star grouping. "I realized that I had never recorded with this quintet. This quintet is the engine for all my other projects," admits D'Rivera. D'Rivera's quintet - trumpeter Diego Urcola, pianist Dane Eskenazi, bassist Oscar Stagnaro, and drummer Mark Walker - perform a colorful Latin program.

Live at the Blue Note is certainly a departure for D'Rivera in more ways than one from his more recent orchestral projects. D'Rivera primarily sticks to playing the alto saxophone throughout most of the performance, beginning with "Curumim," a composition from Brazilian composer Cesar Camargo-Mariano. "I am a fan of the composer, Cesar Camargo-Mariano. I heard the song over twenty years ago and I fell in love with the song. Many years later, I met Cesar Camargo and I asked him for the song and he sent me the piano part for that. It means the son of the Indian. It's a great song," explains D'Rivera. The scintillating trumpet charts of Buenos Aires native Urcola, who occasionally performs in George Chuller’s Orange Then Blue, simply outpace everyone else, except for fellow Argentinean, pianist Eskenazi, whose poised narration sets the tone for the remainder of the session.

An up-tempo D'Rivera original, "El Cura," follows with the saxophonist uncorking a burning solo, blowing hard to the ideal backdrop laid out by Eskenazi, Stagnaro, and Walker. The saxophonist expresses, "That is a dedication to a very dear friend of mine, the great guitar player and one of my main influences in jazz music, Carlos Morales. He was the guitar player in Irakere for more than twenty years. We called him 'El Cura' because he looked like a priest."

D'Rivera's rhapsodic clarinet playing for Urcola's homage to his native Argentinean homeland, "Buenos Aires," is a main point of interest. D'Rivera professes, "What he (Urcola) wrote reflects very well the atmosphere of Buenos Aires, especially at night. I have been there many times. It's a beautiful city."

"To me ‘Tobago' sounds like a theme inspired by Horace Silver," says D'Rivera. Eskenazi's "Tobago," features inventive solos from Stagnaro on electric bass and Walker.

"Como Un Bolero" is a bolero that the leader wrote while he was with the Caribbean Jazz Project with Andy Narell and Dave Samuels, "It’s is a romantic bolero. The bolero is the national Cuban ballad. I call it a ballad with some black beans and rice," explains D'Rivera.

"Centro Havana," an original penned by guest flutist Oriente Lopez, is a rich melody that is destined to become a standard. "I heard that piece first recorded by Regina Carter. I liked it very much and I called Oriente and asked him for the piece and he gave me the whole arrangement. That piece is killing," confirms the Cuban-American bandleader.

The Grammy Award winning D'Rivera's credentials speak for themselves and as evident by this performance, the Cuban-American has become a great leader. Join D'Rivera for an extraordinary journey into the music of Latin America by genuine Latin Americans.”

Fred Jung, Editor, Jazz Weekly

Paquito D'Rivera on "Alfred Nobel and the Invention of the Microphone"

© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

Many Jazz fans, particularly those with an awareness of sound engineering and audio systems, have been making the argument that Paquito D’Rivera puts forth in the following essay for years.

Of course, the title that the Cuban-born clarinetist and saxophonist and winner of 14 Grammy Awards chose for this piece is an intentional error meant to capture the attention of the reader and thereby reinforce the point he is making in this article which appeared in the Woodshed: Pro Session column of the June 15, 2015 issue of Downbeat magazine.

Paquito explains it this way.

                                                     

“I strongly believe that technology is here to help the art form, not to overwhelm it. But tragically, with a few exceptions, the invention of the microphone (credited to the German Emile Berliner in 1876) has had truly damaging results — almost as damaging as the dynamite invented by Alfred Nobel in 1867.

Both have been abused to create irreversible devastation: namely, material destruction by the latter, and serious damage to the good taste of listeners by Berliner's artificial amplification device. All of that came to be with the support of sound engineers and the consent of the musicians—some of them talented professionals—who increasingly ask for more and more volume in their reference speakers, and consequently in the house. It seems as if we've all reached the same conclusions that the louder music is heard, the better it is; that volume is supposed to be a synonym for energy; and that the one who screams loudest is the one who wins. Doesn't it go that way? How sad!

I have witnessed the volume and reverb go up so high on Dave Valentin's flute that it converted his gorgeous, natural sound on tunes like "Obsesion," the beautiful Pedro Florez classic that Valentin and his many fans enjoy so much, into something more appropriate for a heavy metal band. These days, the circus-like atmosphere, the unnatural pyrotechnics, the reliance upon gimmicks to provoke easy applauses, bad taste and excessive volume have hit jazz and popular music with such tsunami-like force that everything now is forte and fortissimo.

A few years ago, the legendary recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder— who made all those famous recordings for Impulse, Blue Note, CTI and Atlantic with John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Freddie Hubbard, Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, Lee Morgan and all those hip jazzmen of the '50s and '60s — had the guts to say that jazz pianists don't want or don't know how to get a decent sound on the piano. And, to a certain point, he was right, since it is really difficult to find jazz pianists with the elegant, delicate yet swinging sound of Kenny Barron, Teddy Wilson, Makoto Ozone, Renee Rosnes, Oscar Peterson or Bill Evans. There is no doubt that some of the fault lies with the drummers who play louder every day, forcing the pianists to bang on the keys and ask for more volume in their wedges, thus destroying the inherent acoustic character of the instrument. I'll bet that was one of the reasons that Nat "King" Cole many times didn't use a drummer in his trio.

"Give me more piano in my monitor" is the usual request onstage, and my response is always a simple question: "Why don't you play more softly so that you can hear what the freakin' pianist is playing? You left the brushes at home, or what?"

The great Argentinean pianist Jorge Dalto was convinced that drummers were carriers of the "original sin," and when they did play another way-meaning softly and tastefully — it was with great effort and went against their nature. "Otherwise, they would have taken up the harp or the violoncello, no?" he would say, half in jest. I think Dalto was exaggerating a little bit, since you are still able to find drummers like Ben Riley, Ernie Adams or the wonderful Brazilian Edu Ribeiro to swing your butt off without breaking your eardrums. So, please do not misunderstand me. The drum set, as well as the brass and even the saxophones, are instruments that have strong sonorous presence. I think that keeping that in mind all the time would make a big difference in balance and finesse.

Here is a statement that I've been hearing since my early days at the conservatory: "If you can't hear the guy next to you, you're playing too loud. That's the only way to play in tune." But how in heaven can I listen and play in tune with the guy next to me if I am not even able to hear my own horn with all that noise around me? And then, since the electric bass emerged on the scene, we have the bassists who think they're always playing with Kiss or Metallica. Usually they ally with the drummers, and I even think that they buy earplugs together, in sets of four, so that they can have some fun among themselves while making life unbearable for the rest of the musicians.

Wynton Marsalis told me once that he thought that mics are here to enhance the music, not to cover it. That's probably why they have removed even the contact microphone from the contrabass of Carlitos Henriquez (I love his walking bass!) in the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra — so the drummer has to come down to hear what his partner in rhythm is doing.

One evening at the annual jazz festival in Punta del Este, Uruguay, trumpet player and bandleader Terence Blanchard ordered the removal of all the microphones, including that of exquisite pianist Ed Simon. And guess what? Miraculously, everything was heard crystal-clear and with tremendous energy and swing.

The only thing required was to be quiet, and to listen with attention. That is what music was invented for in the first place, isn't it?                              DB

Paquito D'Rivera is celebrated for his artistry in Latin jazz as well as his achievements as a classical composer and performer. He is also known for his heartfelt convictions and playful sense of humor. Visit him online at www.paquitodrivera.com.