Orquesta Akokán Nominated for a Grammy
Congratulations / felicidades to Orquesta Akokán for the Grammy nomination for their latest release on Daptone records. I was honored to have to privilege of writing the album’s liner notes.
Read / listen here: https://www.orquestaakokan.com
Collaboration: Dos Santos new album "LOGOS" feat. Antibalas horns out 6/15/2018
About 15 years ago I was passing through Austin Texas on my way back from México. My man Adrian Quesada introduced me to musician (and at that time grad student) Alex Chávez. I moved to Austin and lived there for several years, and got to collaborate on a few occasions with Alex and the group MITOTE.
The years went by...Alex earned a Ph.D and is now a professor at Notre Dame and a few years back got an exciting new project called Dos Santos up and running out of Chicago.
Last fall, while on tour with Antibalas, we linked up again and recorded two songs for the new Dos Santos album. The session was a trip: we had very little time in between soundcheck and the gig, so they built an impromptu recording studio across the street from Thalia Hall at 606 Records. Amidst the bins of vinyl and sips of very good tequila, the four of us--Jordan McLean and Eric Biondo (trumpets), Morgan Price (tenor sax) and myself (baritone sax) knocked out the two songs with great charts by Nick Mazzarella.
Thanks to Dos Santos for inviting the Antibalas horns to be a part of this beautiful work.
L-R: Pete "Maestro" Vale, Martín Perna, Alex Chavez
The record is officially out 6/15/2018 on International Anthem. Preview/order the record HERE.
Jamcruise 2018: Reflections
Putting aside for a moment the strangeness of being on a massive floating city and fraught politics of global capitalism inherent in pretty much everything we do, Jamcruise 16 was amazing and along with going to Cuba and Benin, probably the richest musical experiences of my life.
Five days, nights and morning of performing, listening, collaborating and creating with some of my most favorite and esteemed musicians, people I listened to and adored well before I ever imagined myself playing music: Maceo Parker, George Porter if the Meters, Steel Pulse, John Scofield, to make just a few.
I am truly grateful to have been a part of this and in awe of the tremendous amount of work it took to put together such a magical event. It was transformational and I want to see this happen again and that far more people- musicians and fans can experience this.
I am fascinated by the concept of modifying the concept of a cruise ship into something more sustainable. How could it run with a zero carbon footprint, with equitable labor practices, cooperative ownership, healthier connections with the people in the different port cities to build systems which promote economic self determination and cultural understanding and appreciation.
The cruise ships are sophisticated, well oiled machines and I wonder how much of this is possible only because of all the social and environmental costs and externalities that are hidden from us. Having several friends from Nicaragua who have spent decades working on and off ship, it is a mixed bag. It does offer new possibilities, relationships and income not possible at home. At the same time, the work is intense and demanding and full of assaults to ones dignity. And the price of being separated from ones family and community for periods of nine months at a time over several years.
All that to say that in addition to my gratitude to the people who organized the event, I am even deeper indebted to the people on the ship grinding tirelessly to create a space for other people to experience such an intensely joyful event. Til next time.
¡Orquesta Akokán! Out 3/30/18 on Daptone Records
Orquesta Akokán at Areito studios, La Habana, Cuba. (Photo: Joel Pront)
On March 30, Daptone Records will release the new album by Orquesta Akokán. It is among my favorite albums of the past few years--so much flavor, amazing arrangements and creative orchestration. Read more about them here at NPR program alt.Latino.
I was honored to have been asked to write the liner notes for the, which I'm including here:
Listening to the new LP by Orquesta Akokán, you can't help but feel the spirits of Cuba's musical giants radiating from the speakers. But honoring and caring for these spirits is not easy work, nor is it a task to be left solely to one generation. It is a collaboration of young and old; The elders know the traditions, the gestures, the incantations, but it is the younger generation that have the duty to learn, the strength to carry on, and the fire and soul to make new songs for new spirits.
In November of 2016, Michael Eckroth traveled to the hallowed Areito studios in Centro Habana with a stack of charts tucked under his arm. Arriving in the cavernous wood-paneled live room, he took stock of the players assembled by producer Jacob Plasse: a dozen or so of Cuba’s most ferocious and pedigreed wind and rhythm players from storied groups including Irakere and Los Van Van, the sensational veteran vocalist José “Pepito” Gómez, and a handful of seasoned young New York Latin music freaks. These musicians would transform his charts into the living, breathing document you’re holding in your hands.
An arpeggio tumbles sweetly down the keys of the piano, and the set bursts forth en masse with exclamatory trumpet blasts, introducing saxophones that immediately establish themselves as the center of a rhythm section. The arrangements carry the exquisite beauty, pathos, and playfulness of the renowned dance orchestras of the 1940s and 1950s who had recorded in this very room, evoking the ghosts of Arsenio Rodriguez, Perez Prado, and Beny Moré. And the robust, time-tested musical architectures of son cubano and mambo are present and skillfully honored through all nine of these original compositions. The melodious tres cubano, the swinging tumbao of the congas, the tight blend of vocal harmonies — they’re all there. Yet there’s something unequivocally fresh — saxophone sections playing montunos where you’d imagine a piano, an angelic, swinging flute you’d expect in a charanga recording, sones — vocal improvisations that have the seasoned flow and cadence of mid 1970s “salsa dura” singers, and of course, the appearance of the inimitable César “Pupy” Pedroso on piano. Somehow this synthesis of musical grammar and compositional styles, of Havana and New York, of old and new, makes perfect sense.
Akokán is a Yoruba word used by Cubans to mean “from the heart” or “soul”, so it comes as no surprise that a recording like this would find its way back to Brooklyn’s Daptone Records. For nearly a generation, the venerable label has brought us soulful music in a myriad of styles, made in the present, but with all the craft and flavor of the classic recordings of the past. In doing so Daptone has enshrined both the genres it honors as well as artists creating new works in the universal canon of dance music. It’s a perfect kitchen from which to serve this captivating baile between old and new — una sopa levantamuertos (soup to raise the dead), prepared with rhythm, with care, and above all, con akokán.
-Martín Perna, Antibalas
Misc Projects and Collaborations Summer 2017
Besides Antibalas stuff I have been doing a lot of writing and recording for the next Ocote Soul Sounds album.
In June I went to perform at the Bonnaroo Festival in Tennessee with Angelique Kidjo's Remain in Light project. It was hot, muggy, and intense. U2's bassist Adam Clayton was there on the side of the stage digging the show. This was a big nerd moment for me as the first concert I attended was the U2 Joshua Tree Tour at JFK Stadium, Philly in 1987. (That's Adam of U2 front left, Angélique Kidjo center stage and me on the far right with the big saxophone).
Last week I was at Studio G in Brooklyn with Lyrics Born, the Antibalas horns, and Grammy nominated producer Joel Hamilton recording a Lyrics Born's "Don't Change," for a special livestreamed session using the amazing gear that Universal Audio makes. You can watch the whole session below:
A few weeks before that I was at Good Child Studios in Brooklyn working with producer Lawson White and Balún, an amazing electro-acoustic band from Puerto Rico. They wrote a beautiful song that featured the Antibalas horns.
When I'm not driving or sitting in a van on the highway, I have been doing lots of vegetable gardening--tomatos, kale, peppers, salad greens, eggplant, herbs, flowers, apples) (pics forthcoming) and building out my studio on the side of a mountain in Appalachian Pennsylvania.
Aretha Carnegie Hall Show Photos / Video
I was blessed with the role of musical director (and flutist/baritone saxophonist) for this show at Carnegie Hall last Monday, putting together charts and arrangements for Antibalas, the ace house band for 18 of the 22 songs performed onstage that evening, among them:
- Living Colour "Rock Steady"
- Kenny Loggins "Until you come back to me"
- Melissa Etheridge "I Never Loved a Man"
- Ceelo Green "The Night Time is the Right Time"
- Taj Mahal and Deva Mahal "Chain of Fools"
- Ledisi "Daydreaming"
- Ruthie Foster "Natural Woman"
- Sam Moore (of Sam & Dave) "Don't Play That Song"
- Don Bryant (Hi Records songwriter/singer) "Drown in My Own Tears"
- Bettye Lavette "Ain't No Way
- G-Love "Think"
- Todd Rundgren "Since You've Been Gone"
- Sarah Dash (of Labelle) "Dr. Feelgood"
- Naomi Shelton "A Change is Gonna Come"
- Little Kids Rock "Respect"
- Rodney Crowell "The Weight"
- Antibalas "Who's Zoomin' Who"
- Full ensemble with Living Colour: "Respect" (Reprise
Here are some of photos collected from the roving eyes of the Internet.
Antibalas with vocalist Courtney Trice at City Winery NYC 3-7-2017 / Music of Aretha Franklin Afterparty
New Music / Collaboration // "Gracias" by La Banda Bastön
New collaboration with La Banda Bastön (Mexico) and members of Antibalas (NYC) for their latest album "Luces Fantasmas"
This past spring, Antibalas performed at the Bahidora Festival in Morelos, Mexico. The festival was beautiful and amazing, and we made a lot of new friends, including La Banda Bastön, a hip hop group from Mexico City. A few of us stuck around to DJ/perform at a party in Cholula and then we spent some time at the Bastön studios in Mexico City, working on their new record.
The result: the song "Gracias," from their brand new album "Luces Fantasmas."
Check it here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/luces-fantasmas/id1207376131
New Ocote Soul Sounds 45 out TODAY!
New 45 single release by Ocote Soul Sounds feat. Quantic and Chico Mann. Out 6/17/2016 on Wonderwheel Recordings.
I made some new music with Ocote Soul Sounds! This 45 single with the songs "A Pesar La Vida" and "Not Yet" with Chico Mann and Quantic.
"A Pesar La Vida" featuring Chico Mann on vocals, is dedicated to immigrants, past and present, looking for something better amidst all obstacles.
Thanks to Nicodemus and the Wonderwheel Recordings family for putting this out.
Click on the pic above to buy, or below to listen:
Benin
Members of the band including myself recently collaborated with students and teachers from CIAMO (International Center for Art and Music in Ouidah) and filmmaker Jon Fine and Sarah Dupont on a music + video project (still in progress) to promote methods of malaria prevention. Last year, malaria killed over 400,000 people on the African continent, so it remains a serious problem which destabilizes families and ruins lives and communities on a mass scale. The song and video outline the most effective steps that families can take to protect themselves: protect all members of your family, particularly children under 5, with a mosquito net from dusk until dawn, go to a community health clinic to get checked if you show symptoms.
I received a demo of a song recorded by Sim de Souza and his students at CIAMO last year. The melody and the lyrics - in French and Fon - were beautiful, the bridge, the verses, everything made sense. What we did was speed up the tempo, and suggest that they change the chorus from "We're afraid of you, malaria" to "We'll beat you, malaria". We wrote some horn lines, and tracked drums, bass, guitars, and horns in New York. Then, we sent the track to Angelique Kidjo, who recorded the verses on the song.
In late March, I as part of a four-person US-based crew, flew to Cotonou, Benin, to begin filming and recording the project. We spent our first night in Cotonou and a meeting at the US Embassy, where we met several partners from UNICEF, USAID and ISMA, the audiovisual college in Cotonou.