He's set a course for Latin music
Although he's spent this week at Berklee College of Music as a Herb Alpert Visiting Professor and will perform tonight at the Berklee Performance Center, Michel Camilo's first encounter with the college was not exactly auspicious.
Living in the Dominican Republic as a 17-year-old classical-piano student with a growing interest in jazz, Camilo ordered a correspondence course from Berklee. How did the fledgling jazz student do?
"The truth of the matter is that I never sent back my lessons," Camilo says by phone between rehearsals. "The mail was terrible in the Dominican Republic, and I was afraid of my lessons getting lost. I never got a grade, but I did study it, so it paid off." Paid off quite nicely, as can be heard on his latest recording, a two-disc tour de force "Live at the Blue Note." The 49-year-old pianist/composer/arranger says the recording is an accurate statement of his life in jazz to date.
"It's the sound I've worked on for the past 20 years," Camilo says. "It captures all the angles in my music."
From the off-kilter phrasing in "Hello & Goodbye" to the playful rendition of "Tequila," Camilo and his trio demonstrate the cozy relationship jazz and Latin music have enjoyed ever since Dizzy Gillespie played with Cuban percussionist Chano Pozo at Carnegie Hall in 1947.
It was hearing piano virtuoso Art Tatum's recording of "Tea for Two," that ignited Camilo's desire to play jazz. "It was mesmerizing for me," Camilo recalls. "I just decided I wanted to understand this music and as much as possible, study it."
His classical musician friends were similarly in awe of jazz. "They knew it was really hard," Camilo says. "It's one thing to play the notes on the paper and another thing to come up with your own notes."
While he continued to study classical piano (at 16 he became the youngest member of the Dominican Republic's National Symphony Orchestra), Camilo sharpened his jazz chops by studying classic recordings.
"I was really trying to learn the language of jazz and transcribing the masters: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Horace Silver," Camilo says. "I was trying to understand what it's about, picking up on the phrasing of jazz and what makes it swing."
Although he had put together a trio and was gigging around Santo Domingo, Camilo knew that the road to jazz success would have to lead him back to New York, where he had briefly visited in 1975. Four years later, his wife Sandra was able to get a job transfer to New York, and they took the plunge. Camilo studied classical music at Juilliard while taking private lessons with big band composer and arranger Don Sebesky.
If you had heard Camilo play in those early days, he says, you'd never have known he was from the Caribbean. "You would hear mainly bebop and a lot of `Stella by Starlight' and old blues and things like that," he says.
What led Camilo to add a Latin tinge to his music was a bit of homesickness. "I think what happened was, I felt very nostalgic. It was only me and Sandra there in New York, and we felt nostalgic for our families, our culture, and our friends, and somehow that translated into the music."
Although he's closely identified with Latin jazz, Camilo says he considers himself a jazz musician with Latin influences rather than the reverse. "I cannot deny where I come from -- the Caribbean," he says. "Why not use my heritage as well and incorporate it into my music? But definitely, I feel like a jazz musician first."
The first half of tonight's concert will feature Camilo's trio, with Charles Flores on bass and Cliff Almond on percussion. Following intermission, the audience will be treated to the culmination of Camilo's work with Berklee students this week. The Berklee Concert Jazz Orchestra, with Camilo's trio serving as rhythm section, will play music from "One More Once," Camilo's 1994 big band tribute to Count Basie and Sebesky.
Gary Burton, Berklee executive vice president and noted vibraphonist, says that Camilo was just the right choice as the school's fourth Herb Alpert Visiting Professor. The appointment brings a leading musician to the school for two weeks per year for three consecutive years.
"We have a growing interest in Latin music at the school, both in pure Latin styles and Latin jazz," says Burton. "Michel, of course, is one of the leading Latin jazz performers these days. He's got big band music and performs with a trio all over the world, so he's a major artist with a lot of diversity to his talents.
"We also discovered from getting to know him at summer festivals that he's terrific working with students, explaining things and teaching things, so he was a perfect fit for us."
Camilo says his arrangements have definitely challenged the students, who began rehearsing them just last week.
"I handpicked some of the charts to give the students something to bite on," he says. "At the same time, I think they're having a ball, by my being so demanding."
Tonight will mark the first time a student ensemble has ever tackled these arrangements, Camilo says. "Let's see what happens," he says. "I hope it'll be something very special."
Michel Camilo's concert is sold out. However, there may be returned tickets available at the door.
