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LATIN LEGATO
 | | D’Rivera |
In the jazz landscape, string instruments are hardly newcomers. What would jazz be without the double bass? And with virtuoso fiddlers like Joe Venuti and Stéphane Grappelli, the violin can also boast a distinguished jazz history. But the viola? And in a Latin big band?
That’s the genie Paquito D’Rivera uncorked when he admitted violist José Valente into his Latin Jazz Professional Training Workshop, a program of The Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall, taking place March 14–19, with a final concert in Zankel Hall on March 19.
What role does D’Rivera see the violist playing in the big band?
“It’s a totally different color, so we’re going to experiment with him,” D’Rivera says, adding that the viola would be used both for solos and for doubling in the rhythm section. “String instruments have always been a mystery for me. I'm attracted to them, how they think.”
Though there are 17 other talented young musicians in this year’s jazz workshop, musicians who hail from around the globe—from Canada to Curaçao, Indonesia to Indiana—it is Valente and his instrument that are the most unexpected.
But neither Valente nor D’Rivera is a stranger to the unusual and the eclectic. D’Rivera began his career in the multifaceted ensemble Irakere and is currently putting the final touches on a contrabass concerto commissioned by the Caramoor Music Festival. Valente, currently a student in jazz at The New School, is classically trained, and his idols include saxophonist Kenny Garrett, pioneer of the Portuguese guitar Carlos Paredes—and, not least, Frank Zappa.
As a child in Coimbra, Portugal, Valente studied Portuguese folk music on flute and guitar. The viola came later, at age ten, after a conversation with his instructor. “He said, ‘I think you should play viola. You are big and chubby, and you look like a viola player,’” Valente recalls. “I had no idea what a viola was, but I trusted him.” That trust paid off, and today Valente wouldn’t trade his instrument for anything.
Through all his classical training, however, jazz and rock remained close to his heart, and New York beckoned. As a relative newcomer to the city, he is still in awe of the great musicians who make New York their home. Valente first encountered D'Rivera’s work on a film soundtrack with other jazz greats, and the Latin Jazz Workshop brought an invaluable opportunity for the young violist to work up close with a master of the art form.
For his part, D’Rivera hopes the inclusion of Valente will encourage other string players to explore jazz: “We have to try to have a bridge between the two worlds, unify and learn from them.”
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Young Artists Concerts
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MON, MAR 19, 2007
Paquito D’Rivera
Young Artists Concert
Zankel 7:30 PM
Mark Your Calendar:
SAT, APR 14, 2007
Osvaldo Golijov
Dawn Upshaw
Young Artists Concert
Weill 7:30 PM
SUN, APR 15, 2007
Osvaldo Golijov
Dawn Upshaw
Young Artists Concert
Weill 7:30 PM
SAT, APR 28, 2007
Kronos Young
Artists Concert
Zankel 7:30 PM
WED, MAY 23, 2007
Emerson String Quartet
Young Artists Concert
Weill 7:30 PM
THURS, MAY 24, 2007
Emerson String Quartet
Young Artists Concert
Weill 7:30 PM
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