Havana-born Paquito D’Rivera, who performs tonight with his quintet at the National Concert Hall, says he’s achieved his goal of becoming an accomplished jazz musician. But he paid a high price.
“I had a dream to be a musician in New York City and that cost me the childhood of my son and my marriage,” said D’Rivera, a Grammy-winning composer and multi-instrumentalist who plays clarinet and the alto and soprano saxophones.
Speaking on the phone last week with the Taipei Times from his home near New York, D’Rivera recalled how he defected to the US while on tour in Spain in 1980, leaving his family in Cuba.
At the time, he was a member of Irakere, a group that combined jazz, classical, rock and traditional Cuban music.
He made his escape at the airport in Madrid, where he ditched his Cuban handlers and ran up an escalator that was moving in the opposite direction.
“Woody Allen said that comedy is tragedy plus time. So that’s very funny now, but in those days it was very scary,” said D’Rivera, who is 62.
“Nobody was chasing me because nobody knew what I was going to do. But when you’re living in a communist country — you have mainland China over there so you know what I’m talking about — you think you always have somebody watching you,” he said.
D’Rivera saw his career reach greater heights after settling in New York, where he found himself free to pursue his various interests: be-bop, classical and Latin music.
He spent time playing with renowned jazz figures including Dizzy Gillespie, who helped connect him with other New York musicians, and also developed a deep interest in Brazilian music.
D’Rivera brings in pan-American influences into his jazz music, and also draws from classical training that began during his childhood.
He has won nine Grammy awards in both classical and jazz categories, for works such as a chamber composition, Merengue, recorded by cellist Yo-Yo Ma (馬友友), and the be-bop and tango fusion album Funk Tango (2007).
In 2005, D’Rivera received a Jazz Master Award from the National Endowment for the Arts, the highest official recognition for jazz musicians in the US.
D’Rivera says his interest in classical music partly explains his affinity for the clarinet, an instrument falling into obscurity in the jazz world today. But die-hard jazz enthusiasts still recognize his skills: D’Rivera was voted best clarinetist in Downbeat Magazine’s annual reader’s poll last year.
Tonight’s concert sees D’Rivera returning to the National Concert Hall for a show that was almost sold out as of press time. During his last visit, D’Rivera was here as an accompanist for Yo-Yo Ma, with whom he collaborated on the renowned cellist’s album of Brazilian music, Obrigado Brazil.
As for his former homeland, D’Rivera speaks bluntly about Cuba’s political situation. “We have been suffering that dictatorship for 50 years. It’s too much,” he said.
He has even expressed support for Cuban dissident groups through his music. One of his recently completed compositions was a chamber piece dedicated to Ladies in White, a group of wives and mothers of Cuban political prisoners.
In 2005, he wrote a public letter to Carlos Santana criticizing him for wearing a T-shirt bearing Che Guevara’s image at the Oscar Awards ceremony.
“I remember people going to jail for listening to Carlos Santana,” he said of his reasons for writing the letter. “And now that Carlos Santana is wearing a [Che Guavra T-shirt]? Give me a break.”
“I cannot understand how some people, especially in our profession, still try to defend the undefendable. Some people still have nice things to say about Castro. For me ... I cannot understand that.”
D’Rivera says he was only able to see his wife and son after 10 years, when they were finally allowed to visit the US. By then his son had grown up and his marriage was over.
“What I mean to say with this is that everything in life has a price. If I had to do it again, I would do it again,” he said.
Tickets for next week’s show with Cuban pianist Chucho Valdes are already sold out, but seats are still available for American saxophonist Joshua Redman’s concert on Sept. 3 and Brazilian singer Elaine Elias’ concert on Sept. 10.
National Concert Hall Summer Jazz Party 2010:
Performance Lineup:
Chucho Valdes and the Afro-Cuban
Messengers, Sunday, 2:30pm (sold out)
Joshua Redman Trio, Sept. 3, 7:30pm
Eliane Elias Concert, Sept. 10, 7:30pm
On the Net: event.ntch.edu.tw/2010/jazz/
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