Armando Peraza

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Armando Peraza (1999)

Armando Peraza (born May 30, 1924 in Havana , Cuba ; † April 14, 2014 in San Francisco , USA ) was one of the pioneers of Afro-Cuban music with Chano Pozo and Tito Puente . Through his many years of work with the jazz pianist George Shearing and the guitarist Carlos Santana , he was one of the most famous Latin American percussionists from the 1950s to the 1990s. He played bongos and congas in particular , and danced and composed.

Career

At the age of seven, Peraza was an orphan. He got by selling vegetables, professional baseball , boxing and training boxers. He made his first professional appearance as a musician with Alberto Ruiz . He built a reputation as a percussionist and dancer with Havana's small bands or “conjuntos”, the most famous of which was Ruiz ' Conjunto Kubavana .

In 1949 he emigrated to the United States with his friend, the conga player Mongo Santamaría . In New York , Peraza recorded his first record with Charlie Parker and Buddy Rich . With his compatriot Slim Gaillard he played a session in New York in November 1949, which resulted in a virtuoso recording on "Bongo City". After a time in Mexico City , he returned to the United States and settled on the west coast. Here he worked with Dizzy Gillespie and with Gaillard and an Afro-Cuban dance revue in the Cable Car Village Club, which had guests including Errol Flynn , Marlon Brando and Rita Hayworth .

In San Francisco he met the British pianist George Shearing , with whom he was at the forefront of the wave of success in Afro-Cuban music. During the time with Shearing, Peraza began to compose. Shearing developed pieces like “Te arranco la cabeza”, “Mambo in Chimes” and “Mambo in Miami” from Peraza's ideas. They were at the center of the “ mambo craze ”, a time when this music was very popular in the USA, and Peraza was very much in the public eye, which was unusual for an Afro-Cuban at the time .

On a tour through the USA with Shearing, Peraza came into uncomfortable contact with racism. During a stay in Miami in 1959 with Shearing and Peggy Lee , he was not allowed to sleep in the same hotel as the other band members. Shearing and Lee could only prevail by threatening to cancel the gig.

Peraza also played with the vibraphone player Cal Tjader ; they recorded the famous song "Guachi Guaro", which later found new resonance in the London acid jazz club scene. In 1959, Peraza recorded the 'Mongo' album with Mongo Santamaria and the conga player Francisco Aguabella , whose song "Afro-Blue" became the jazz standard through John Coltrane's version.

In 1968 he recorded the solo album "Wild Thing" with the Skye label, on which the pianist Chick Corea and the saxophonist Sadao Watanabe can be heard. As early as 1959 he had set a standard on the album 'More Drums on Fire' with his masterpiece 'Artistry in Rhythm' on congas and bongos.

Adaptability and an open mind are hallmarks of Peraza's approach, so that in the late 1960s he was one of the first Latin American percussionists to play congas to a rock piece , on Harvey Mandel's "Cristo Redentor" album in 1968 .

In 1972 Peraza joined the band of Santana , of which he was a member for almost twenty years; as a percussionist he had colleagues like Chepito Areas and Orestes Vilató . Some of his compositions were recorded by Santana, including "Gitano" on the album "Amigos" and the jazz-influenced piece "Mandela" on the album "Freedom". His conga solos can be heard in the pieces “Hannibal” (“Zebop!”), “Bambele” and “Bambara” (both on “Viva Santana”) and “Mother Africa” (“ Welcome ”). Bongo performances are particularly present on “La Fuente Del Ritmo” (“ Caravanserai ”), “Flor de canela” and “Promise of a Fisherman” (a sequence on “Borboletta”). John Santos once described Peraza as "perhaps the largest bongosero in the history of the instrument."

Peraza left Santana in 1990, but came back to Santiago de Chile in 1992 for a concert in front of an audience of over 100,000. The video "Viva Santana" contains a part with a conga improvisation by Peraza from 1985.

Peraza lived in San Mateo , gave workshops and played at jazz festivals around the world. In 2005 he played on an album by the musician John Santos from the San Francisco Bay Area . Santos' "20th Anniversary" set also included "El Changüí De Peraza," which highlights Peraza's bongo game. In 2002 Peraza went on a trip to Cuba, the first in over 50 years.

In July 2006, at the age of 82, Peraza performed with Santana at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland . In August 2006 he played at the San José Jazz Festival in California with the Julius Melendez Latin Jazz Ensemble and gave a course with Raul Rekow and Karl Perazzo , both of whom come from the Santana band.

Armando Peraza with George Shearing

Discography

As a soloist:

'More Drums on Fire' ( World Pacific 1959 - two pieces on one LP with different musicians)

'The Soul of Jazz Percussion' (Warwick 1960 - three pieces on one LP with different musicians) - as CD under the title Donald Byrd & Booker Little : 'The Third World' (Collectables, 1999)

'Wild Thing' (Skye 1968)

' ROAR ' (Tabu 1985)

1940s:

Conjunto Kubavana - 'Rumba en el patio' (Tumbao 1994 - republication of the recordings 1944–1947)

Machito - 'Cu-Bop City' (Roost Records 1949) Slim Gaillard - 'Laughing in Rhythm' (Proper 2003 - CD box reissue)

1950s with George Shearing:

'An Evening With George Shearing' (MGM 1955), 'Shearing in Hi-Fi' (MGM 1955), 'George Shearing Caravan' (MGM 1955), 'The Shearing Spell' (Capitol 1955), 'Velvet Carpet' (Capitol 1956), 'Latin Escapade' (Capitol 1956), 'Black Satin' (Capitol 1957), 'In the Night' (Capitol 1958 - George Shearing and Dakota Staton ), 'Burnished Brass' (Capitol 1958), 'Blue Chiffon' (Capitol 1958), 'Latin Lace' (Capitol 1958), 'George Shearing on Stage' (Capitol 1959), 'Latin Affair' (Capitol 1959), 'Beauty and the Beat' (Capitol 1959 - George Shearing and Peggy Lee ) , 'On the Sunny Side of the Strip' (Capitol 1959), 'Satin Affair' (Capitol 1959), 'White Satin' (Capitol 1960), 'The Swinging's Mutual' (Capitol 1961, George Shearing and Nancy Wilson), ' Mood Latino '(Capitol 1962),' San Francisco Scene '(Capitol 1962),' Love Walked In '(Jazzland 1962 - George Shearing and The Montgomery Brothers),' Rare Form '(Capitol 1965),' Latin Rendezvous' (Capitol 1965)

1950s and 60s with Cal Tjader:

'Vibist' (Savoy 10 '1954),' Ritmo Caliente '(Fantasy 1954),' Mas Ritmo Caliente '(Fantasy 1957),' In A Latin Bag '(Verve 1961),' Soul Sauce '(Verve 1964),' Soul Bird '(Verve 1965),' El Sonido Neuvo '(Verve 1966),' Along Comes Cal '(Verve 1967),' Cal Tjader Plugs In ', (Skye 1969),' Latin + Jazz = Cal Tjader (Actual Jazz 1993 - CD reissue), 'Jazz' Round Midnight '(Verve 1996 - compilation),' Talkin Verve: Roots of Acid Jazz '(Verve 1996 - compilation)

Sessions with Mongo Santamaría :

'Mongo' (Fantasy 1959), 'Mongo's Way' (Atlantic 1971), 'Mongo At Montreux' (Atlantic 1971), 'Afro Roots' (compilation, RCA 1972), 'Skin On Skin - The Mongo Santamaria Anthology' (Rhino 1999)

Jazz Sessions in the late 1950's / early 1960's:

Victor Feldman - 'Latinville' (Cont 1959); Freddie Gambrell - 'Mikado' (World Pacific 1959); Randy Weston - 'Uhuru Africa' (Roulette 1960) Modesto Duran - 'Fabulous Rhythms of Modesto' (Raynote 19 ??); Hector Rivera - 'Viva Rivera' (Columbia / Epic 1961); Candido Camero - 'Candido's Comparsa' (ABC - Paramount 1963); Buddy Collette & Charles Kynard - 'Warm Winds' (World Pacific 1964)

Towards Latin rock in the late 1960s:

Lalo Schifrin - 'Che!' (Tetragrammaton Records 1968 - soundtrack); Harvey Mandel - 'Cristo Redentor' (Philips 1968); George Duke - 'Inner Source' (MPS 1971) Doug Clifford - 'Doug Clifford' (Fantasy 1972)

18 years with Santana:

' Caravanserai (1972),' Welcome '(1973),' Borboletta '(1974),' Lotus '(1975),' Amigos '(1976),' Inner Secrets '(1978),' Marathon '(1979),' Zebop! ' (1981), 'Shango' (1982), 'Beyond Appearances' (1985),' Freedom '(1987),' Viva Santana '(1988),' Spirits Dancing In The Flesh '(1990),' Dance Of The Rainbow Serpent '(1995) Carlos Santana solo -' Love, Devotion, Surrender '(1973),' Illuminations' (1974), 'Oneness' (1979),' The Swing Of Delight '(1980),' Havana Moon '(1983 ), ' Blues for Salvador ' (1987)

Guest performances from the 1970s:

Brenda Patterson - 'Brenda Patterson' (Playboy 1973) Albert Hammond - 'Albert Hammond' (Mums 1974) New Riders Of The Purple Sage - 'Brujo' (Columbia 1975) Roy Buchanan - 'Rescue Me' (Polydor 1975) Stoneground - ' Flat Out '(Flat Out 1976) Sly and The Family Stone -' Heard You Missed Me, Well I'm Back '(CBS 1976) Alice Coltrane -' Eternity '(Warner Brothers 1976) Gato Barbieri -' Tropico '(A&M 1978 ) John McLaughlin - 'Electric Guitarist' (Columbia 1978) Rick James - 'Street Songs' (Motown 1981) Sister Sledge -' All American Girls' (Cotillion 1981) Patti Austin - 'Patti Austin' (Qwest 1984) Aretha Franklin - ' Who's Zoomin 'Who' (Arista 1985) Vital Information - 'World Beat' (Columbia 1986) Herbie Hancock & Foday Musa Suso - 'Jazz Africa' (Verve 1987) John Santos And The Machete Ensemble - 'Africa Volume 1' (Machete Records 1988) John Lee Hooker - 'The Healer' (Silvertone 1989) Tom Coster - 'From Me To You' (JVC 1990) Soundtrack - 'The Mambo Kings' (Elektra 1992) Linda Ronstadt - 'Frenesi' (Elektra 1992) Eric Clapton - 'Crossroads II' (Polydor 1996) Merl Saunders - 'Fiesta Amazonica' (Summertone 1997) John Santos And The Machete Ensemble - '20th Anniversary' (Machete Records 2005)

Video / DVD:

Herbie Hancock & Foday Musa Suso - 'Jazz Africa' (Polygram Music Video 1987), Santana: 'Viva Santana' (Columbia 1988), 'Sesion Latina' (Rhino Home Video 1989), Francisco Aguabella - 'Sworn To The Drum' ( Flower Films 1995), Carlos Santana & Wayne Shorter - 'Live In Montreux' (VBPR 2005 - 1988 film concert)

Lexigraphic entries

Web links

Commons : Armando Peraza  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Obituary for Armando Peraza in LP-Music ( Memento from April 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Ayer falleció Armando Peraza , El Salsero of April 15, 2014 (Spanish)
personal data
SURNAME Peraza, Armando
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Cuban musician
DATE OF BIRTH May 30, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Havana , Cuba
DATE OF DEATH April 14, 2014
Place of death San Francisco , USA