Today was busy. I got up at a decent hour (9AM!), I had breakfast and then decided to go to the University of Miami, in search of a translator for some interviews I need to conduct. I went to the CHC and asked their advice, they suggested I go to the ARC (Academic Resource Center), the ARC suggested I go to the Spanish Language Department. The Spanish Department told me to send them an e-mail with what I need and they would forward it out to their ListServe to see if anyone was interested/in town. After this, I went to the music building and practice for a little while, recorded some of my piano playing, practiced some Cuban Montunos, played some standards (both Cuban and Jazz) and then I decided to go and get some lunch. Before I went to get lunch, I called my friend Joel who just arrived in Miami to go to UM Law, and wanted to see what he was up to. He and his mom were putting together a desk and I ended up going over to his apartment to help and hang out for a little while. I didn't expect to help put together a desk while I was in Miami, but it was a nice change of pace for a little while from my activities here in South Florida. I spent maybe an hour or two there spending time with Joel and his mom, and then decided to come back to my hotel and try to get some work done (phonecalls, etc.).
As soon as I got back to the hotel, I wrote the Spanish Department an e-mail detailing what I needed. I was very anxious to find a translator that immediately after I e-mailed the Spanish Department, I called Eloy Cepero (who was one of the first people that I met when I arrived here). He is the one who gave me the phone numbers of Fausto and José Curbelo (two older Cuban musicians living in Miami who performed with big bands in the 1940's and 1950's in NYC and Cuba before that). Fausto is 100 years old and José is 93 years old, so it is amazing that they are still living and willing to talk with me. Fausto suggested I find a translator because he does not speak English real well, so I thought I could call Eloy and see if he would assist me, considering he is the one who told me about Fausto. Eloy agreed to translate for me with my upcoming interview with Fausto, as well as for another Cuban musician, Trompetica, whom does not speak English. Eloy told me he would call both musicians and get back to me about setting up times to go and interview them. I will look forward to hearing back from Eloy, and hopefully those interviews will occur in the coming days. From experience down here, I know that I will need to follow up with everything I do. I have faith that Eloy will call me back, but if I don't here from him tomorrow, I will probably call him to check in and see what is going on (I only have a limited amount of time here so I must use my time as effectively as possible and make sure I accomplish everything I want to accomplish).
Since talking to Eloy and e-mailing the Spanish Department (both events occurring at about 3PM), I have received two e-mails from Grad students at UM, who would be interested in translating during my interviews (one grad student is even interested and studies some Cuban music). I will see what happens with Eloy, and use these grad students if necessary (or for other interviews is they arise). I will definitely be contacting the one grad student about her interest and studies into Cuban music, as it will be very interesting to hear someone else's opinions and findings.
Tomorrow, I have one interview/lesson with Jorge Gomez, who as I mentioned earlier, is the piano player and leader of Tiempo Libre, a fantastic group from Cuba. I am very much looking forward to meeting him and talking/studying with him. I was supposed to have another interview tomorrow with another Cuban piano player, but had to postpone/cancel it for a few reasons that I won't go into at the moment. Suffice it to say, I will be following my other leads first, and interview him if necessary towards the end of my time in Miami.
This evening, I met with Yoel Del Sol, who is a very friendly and knowledgable musician and person. He is a percussionist and studied in Cuba through the first two Conservatory levels and taught in Cuba at the National School of Art for 6 years. His insights into the Cuban music education system, and the balance of Cuban percussion versus classical percussion within the Conservatory system was very fascinating. He gave me a synopsis of his "life story," which narratively explained many questions I had about the Cuban Music Education system and Cuban Popular Music's role within the educational system and within Cuban culture. It was very interesting to me that he picked up a lot of his Cuban Popular rhythmic knowledge through other teachers outside of Cuba and outside of the confines of the conservatory system. Ironically, he went to school with a Cuban drummer who lives in Philadelphia, Francois Zayas (my apologies if I am not spelling this correctly). While I do not know Francois personally, many people have mentioned his name to me around the Philly music scene, and I am told that he is a fantastic drummer and musician. I will definitely be looking him up and hopefully talking to him when I return to Philly. Yoel also mentioned something very interesting about his own life that I found important to mention. He told me that after being in Cuba and performing Popular music, which he loved and enjoyed to perform, he realized he needed and wanted more than what he had. You know, he mentioned that for a lot of Cuban musicians, the Classical Music Route does not get you much, because there is only one Symphony Orchestra in Cuba and the line to audition and join it is very long. He said the real way to succeed and to be exposed to the rest of the world, is to study Cuban Popular music and join a group that tours. This way, you are not only able to travel, but also make more money than you would otherwise be able to make in Cuba. He told me that on a personal level, it was very hard for him to leave Cuba (leave his family, friends, country), but in the end, he knew that there would be more opportunities outside of Cuba for him to grow and expand and increase his musical abilities and musical knowledge. He told me that when he was in Cuba, he really didn't know about all of the different musical genres in the rest of the world, and it was very eye-opening to travel and be introduced to so many other genres of music and to become a very versatile musician. To bring back the phrase from yesterday's Blog, "querer es poder". Yoel knew what he wanted, and sought after it. Thats all any of us can hope for. And once we know what we want, nothing can stop us! Anyway, thats my short synopsis of our talk, but there was a lot more that he mentioned in our 45-minute interview.
On a technical note, I was a little weary that the audio recording would not come out well because we met at a Starbucks. First, we sat outside and then moved inside. Both places were very noisy, but amazingly the recording came through very clearly (with the occasional gust of wind). This Zoom recorder is very incredible, it isolated Yoel's voice and really was able to pick up his speech and minimize the bleeding in of any extraneous noise around us. Yoel was very generous with his time, and I promised to send him a copy of my final research project and findings when I was finished. As always, I'm very impressed and humbled by the Cuban people and their personalities. Truly incredible.
While we were talking, I had a cup of coffee, which I haven't had in a long time (usually I only drink single espressos on occasion). This cup of coffee really energized me and is probably why this Blog post is EXTREMELY LONG Haha. 3 Hours later, the caffeine is just starting to wear off. After the interview concluded (a little after 10PM), I decided to drive South on Route 1 to check out a Jazz Jam session that I heard takes place at a Bar about 20 minutes South of Coral Gables (where I am staying). I took the drive, found the bar, and the place was closed. It looked as if they had been out of business for a couple of months. Definitely a let down, but at least I checked it out and found out that it no longer exists; one less option for a Thursday night.
Anyway, I think I've written enough for tonight. Until tomorrow...
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