Anyone from New York here who visits Guantanamera?

[vasikgreif]

Hi everybody, is here anyone from NYC in this group? Couple weeks ago I came across videos of Pedrito Martinez Group : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEWLdim-Xv8 (many more in the suggestion tab on YT), and I would like to ask if it would be possible for someone to record more of them in Guantanamera restaurant - there's so much to learn from those guys, I already learned many piano montunos from the pianist, who is incredible, and would love to learn more...

[jorge]

Hi Vanessa,
Happy holidays. I go to Guantanamera a lot for dinner, the food is great and the music is outstanding. Pedrito's band is the house band and yeah, they are all monsters. Not sure which piano player you meant, Ariacne Trujillo or Axel Tosca Laugart, they are both incredible pianists. They play some montunos that sound circular at first and hard to know where you are, but have a definite clave inside that will keep you straight if you listen for it.

Pedrito already has a ton of stuff up on YouTube, I am not sure it is worth doing more amateur recordings, there are some well done professional videos already done. Search on jicamocubano, pedro martinez music, and martincongahead (LP has recorded some great stuff from Pedrito's band too). That will keep you busy practicing for a long long time. Once you got all that, learn the break in this piece, starting at 4:20, making sure you hold clave with your foot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oC-j8wXhZ4

Or you could just move back out East and study with Pedrito, his ahijado/student Jhair Sala is an amazing percussionist, check out his conga solo in the video of La Luna you posted.

[vasikgreif]

Hi Jorge, thanks for your post. First of all, I'm not Vanessa, but Vasik (I wrote you the email regarding bata stand)...

I know all the videos you pointed me to, I'm long time fan of Pedrito and I check all the channels regularly. I spent few hours today looking for the Guantanamera recordings - there are the oficial ones, that are great sound/video quality - I already learned them, than there are few other versions from bode200, that have reasonable sound. All the other have either bad sound or are just parts of the songs, not complete ones, or both.

The reason I would love to have more of the complete recordings is we are building a band here in CZ (first gig in January) and we really like the style of Pedrito Martinez Group (especially with Axel Tosca, who's montunos are really original, as the whole band is), and we would like to play their songs in the beginning - it's easier to learn the songs from recordings than invent them, and even we are pretty experienced musicians, those guys are cubans and they really know their stuff - with every other montuno I learn from Axel (or from Melon, thanks to Kevin Moore's Beyond Salsa Piano serie) I feel my vocabulary gets bigger and it soaks into my own playing. Other thing is we currently have the same lineup as Pedrito has, so it's great to see how big sound one can get in so small lineup.

It would be really great if it would be possible for you to record one concert in a whole, that would be an absolute inspiration!

P.S.: The break in the Pedrito/Mauricio duet is already a long time on my to-do-list, this is really incredible!

[jorge]

Sorry about that, Vasik, one of your posts quoted Vanessa's post and I misread it and thought she had signed it.
Regarding learning some of the Pedro Martinez Project's songs, check out some of their recordings first.
1) Pedro Martinez: Slave to Africa (iTunes download) Mauricio and Pedrito play some killer stuff together.
2) Pedro Martinez, Roman Diaz and Angel Guerrero: Ecobio Enyenison http://www.amazon.com/Ecobio-Enyenison/dp/B003IZEZHS Get the CD if you can. Abakua in modern musical format.
3) La Bola: Sin Comentario. Ariacne Trujillo is the muscial director http://www.latinpulsemusic.com/albums/show/352
4) Xiomara Laugart (Axel's mother): La Voz with Axel, Pedrito and Yosvany Terry. http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=8258317

A lot of their songs are standard, just done in their unique improvisational style. I find it hard to imagine learning to play that kind of music without hanging out with those guys and immersing yourself not only in Afrocuban folkloric music but in the improvisational style they are developing. I don't think you will get there from the videos alone. A few months (or years) in Cuba would help, but those guys are sworn to the drum and eat, drink, sleep and live their music 24/7. They are the ultimate perfectionists.

[vasikgreif]

Thanks, jorge, for the CD tips, I didn't know them and I will definitely check them!

To be clear, I don't suppose I will come even close to the level those guys are. They were born with the drum, and clave is nature for them. The music my father had in CD player when I was raising was Led Zepellin and Deep Purple... But, because I played modern jazz before seriously starting with afrocuban music, I'm used to some extensive improvisation, and it really helps when I found 3 versions of La Luna from Guantanamera and see at least a little how they approach it differently every time they play it.

As I mentioned already in this forum, there's no bata/folkloric teacher/player here in Czech republic, there is even no good salsa/timba group here, so we are left to learn from YT, recordings, and sheet music. Trust me, I feel like a fool when learning oro seco from a score.

I was even thinking about buying a flight to NY just to see them. Anyway, if it would be possible for you or someone to record some of their concert, preferably with Axel on piano, that would be of great help.

Btw., did you learn the break?

Edit: I checked some of the CDs already - some of them are on YouTube - and love them!