An Interview with Afro Latin Jazz Bandleader Bobby Matos

Bronx born Bobby Matos began playing music by beating on pots and pans and went on to take lessons from conga drum masters Patato Valdez and Mongo Santamaria. His long professional career began in the '60s. He has recorded, toured and performed with numerous greats and many legends, too, including Willie Bobo, Tito Puente, Ben Vereen, Bette Midler, Fred Neil, Jim Croce, Ray Rivera, Joe Loco and the late Miriam Makeeba. When Bobby relocated to Los Angeles he began experimenting with an Afro Cuban Jazz band to blend musical elements from Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Tito Puente, Mongo Santamaria, Wayne Shorter and Eddie Palmieri. He has five critically acclaimed CDs for Ubiquity Records' Cubop label. He has also produced CDs for Ray Armando, Pucho and The Latin Soul Brothers, Dave Pike, John Santos, and Jack Costanzo. In recent years, he has recorded several CDS with LifeForce Jazz including Acknowledgement, Charanga Chango and Gratitude. His latest release, Unity, is available in stores and online at cdbaby.com.

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to talk with Bobby. Here are some excerpts from that interview.

Q: How would you describe the music you and your band play?

A: This is real music played on real instruments. No samples, thank you. It's real music by real musicians who care passionately about their work. This is healing energy, meditation and medicine encoded as sound. This sound yoga can make even the lame dance. And I've seen that happen. It can make you forget your troubles and has the echoes of all our people no matter where they're from. This is Latin Jazz.

Concept is everything! How we see and hear and express this music is what gives our voice it's identity. First of all, I believe that this music we create is not really ours but some cosmic creation that comes to us and is expressed through us because we are really just instruments. The better-crafted and tuned instruments are the more capable they are of expressing this music. And these instruments, the members of my band, are called musicians, composers and arrangers.

Q: When did you first know that playing music was in your blood?

A: I remember hanging out with my uncle when I was 6 or 7, and he was always listening to really cool music with all his friends. He introduced me to the music of Louis Armstrong and the Nat King Cole trio. At the same time my mom turned me on to Josh White, Billie Holiday, Teddy Wilson, Lucky Thompson, Machito, Tito Puente and more. At that age I would dance myself into a frenzy whenever I heard this music. By the time I was in seventh grade, I discovered Rhythm and Blues, progressive jazz, and Latin jazz. In high school, I sang, danced, and collected records obsessively and started venturing out to places where I could experience all this music live

Q: When did you begin your professional career?

A: While I was in Brooklyn Community College I was hanging out a lot in Greenwich Village, looking for opportunities to jam. I met some new friends who invited me to sit in with them in a group they were involved in at the Cafe Wha? The leader of the group, Charlie Campbell, became my mentor. Charlie taught me many of my first basic rhythms. My playing before that was uncontrolled with very little real technique. Then I dropped out of school, moved to the village and decided that I was a professional. We made very little money. Still, I was playing music, and I continued this life style for a few years until I decided to go to Europe with my drums to look for work.

In Europe, I lived like a music gypsy, occasionally playing with jazz and Latin groups and dance companies. When I returned to New York, a year later, I had more confidence in my playing skills and freelanced for a year until I was drafted into the Army.I got the chance to play occasionally, but I hated Army life. My head was flooded with melodies and arrangements that I didn't have the skills to articulate. That's when I knew I would go back to school when I got out of the service to major in music and learn enough skills to write out the music in my head.

Q: Who has influenced you the most?

A: Eddie Palmieri, Mongo Santamaria, Willie Bobo, Tito Puente, Cal Tjader, Machito, Art Blakey, Horace Silver, Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock, Wayner Shorter, Miles, Sabu's Jazz Espanol, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderly, Mon Rivera, Cortijo y su combo con Ismael Rivera, the Moonglows, The Flamingoes, Bo Diddley, Ahmad Jamal, Patato Valdez, Israel Cachao Lopez, Larry Harlow, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, The Rascals, Jon Lucien, Milton Nascimento, Jobim, Jorge Ben, Freddie Hubbard, Hubert Laws, Count Basie, Joe Williams, Armando Peraza, Lee Morgan, Hank Mobley, Kenny Dorham, Max Roach and Olatunji.

Q: You mentioned multi cultural music. Can you define what you mean by that term?

A: Most modern American music, especially Afro Latin Music, is music that comes from many different sources. In modern Latin music, you hear obvious West African influences, from a number of different African nations, along with French chamber music, Spanish military music, Flamenco--which is Spanish folk music with much Moorish influence--English folk songs and country-dances, jazz, and blues. The most desirable thing to me is to blend these elements without sacrificing any of their essential elements.

Q: So you believe music plays an active role in ours life beyond merely being a form of entertainment?

A: Occasionally times can get so stressful, depressing and painful that everything seems hopeless. Then out of nowhere you'll hear a great piece of music that suddenly transforms and transcends all the negative stuff. Music can actually change your brainwaves and even act as a healing force for the body. As I mentioned, I've seen old men with walkers get up and dance. I've seen crowds all moving in time to the beat of the music, and I know that music has this power to unify us and make us one.

Q: I have heard you mention that there's a difference between artists and entertainers. Could you clarify that premise?

A: Entertainers are related to the old job concept of court jester, a.k.a. fool. They had to amuse the power structure or ruling class--often royalty--without bringing up anything disturbing or controversial. They would not hesitate to make fools of themselves "job description" grinning, shuffling, shucking and jiving.

Artists are more related to the concept of the bard, troubadour or griot. Often wanderers, they would bring news, stories and traditional tales to their audiences with the power of their music and their poetry. They were considered mystics, poets, seers and truth tellers. And they would not hesitate to provoke their audiences. If they met with disapproval they would move on seeking audiences that wanted the truth of their messages.

Q: Who are the musicians you are presently listening to.

A: All the same ones that originally influenced me plus Jerry Gonzalez, John Santos, Wallace Roney, Jorge Dalto, Los Terry, Los Van Van, Alfredo de la Fe, Branford Marsalis, Arturo O'Farrell, Mario Bauza, Antibalas, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Batacumbele, Irakere, Chucho Valdes, Steve Berrios, Steve Turre, Justo Almario, David Sanchez, Mario Rivera.

Q: I also know you enjoy reading. So who or what are you actively reading these days?

A: Walter Mosley, everything he writes, mystery, sci-fi, contemporary stories and social criticism. I also like Octavia Butler's way of telling the truth and telling a fantasy story at the same time. I also like Philip Jose Farmer, Robert Farris Thompson. Ned Sublette's book Cuba and It's Music was stunning. I think I read it at least three times. Then there's that other guy I enjoy, that Charles Shea LeMone. He writes great fiction and I love his poems. I'd like to orchestrate some of them.

Q: What do you hope to accomplish with your musical career?

A: I want to enlighten, inform, cure, inspire and lead people to self-realization and the well being of all humanity.

Q: Does having your son play with your band feel like a dream come true?

A: Not really. It just seems natural, given who he is. It was what he wanted to do, not what I dreamt about. It's just one of many things that he does, and he does it for love. He wants to be a graphic designer. What seems like a dream come true is seeing him grow up healthy and a decent human being, a long way from when he was an underweight premature baby with birth related health problems.

Q: Do you think you'll ever get around to writing a book about your life and music?

A: Other people have asked me that. I do like expressing myself with words but I have too much respect for writers to take it casually. My serious commitment has always been music. Maybe, I might sneak up on a book, writing a little at a time.

Q: Tell us about the musicians in the band.

A: I'm glad you mentioned that. This is the best band I have ever been in, and I'm privileged to play with these wonderful musicians, who are also composers and arrangers. Theo Saunders is our pianist and he's played with Freddie Hubbard, Sonny Fortune, Azar Lawrence and many jazz greats.

John B.Williams is our bassist. He's has played with a full spectrum of the jazz world from Louis Armstrong to Dizzy Gillespie, Nancy Wilson, Natalie Cole, Manhattan Transfer and many more artists.

Danny Weinstein is a multi instrumentalist, playing mostly trombone, violin and viola, English horn, Sousa phone, tuba and trumpet. Danny also composes and has been featured with Ray Charles, Cachao, Larry Harlow and many others.

Pablo Calogero is a gifted reed player, focusing on tenor sax and flute with us. He's played with many of the greatest Afro Latin Orchestras including Mario Bauza, Chico O'Farrill and Arturo O'Farrill.

Robertito Melendez is a gifted conga player and percussionist, who has played and recorded with many outstanding Latin groups including Poncho Sanchez, Tito Puente, Dave Pike, Pucho and the Latin Soul Brothers as well as Ray Armando.

Jud Matos is my son and has been playing percussion since he was 4-years-old. It was always something that he wanted to do, so he absorbed all the rhythms necessary. Jud has played with Larry Harlow, Wayne Wallace, John Santos, Chembo Corniel, Eddie Martinez, Chris Washburne and more.

In addition, we have many friends that interact with us as special guest artists, like Sal Marquez, Elliott Caine, Lewis Kahn, Eddie Martinez, Chembo Corniel, Phoenix Rivera, Larry Harlow, Dee Dee MacNeil, Eliseo Borrero, Leo Chelyapov, and more.

I think this combination of musicians with their diverse experience and energy is what makes our sound.

People can find our music online at www.cdbaby.com and on our website www.bobbymatosmusic.com . On our Myspace page www.myspace.com/bobbymatosmusic There you can even download 3 songs FREE.