The Little Jazz Orchestra Latin Night at the Heid Out September 4, 2014, 6:30 pm

The New Orlean’s  creole Jazz musician Jelly Roll Morton called it the “Spanish Tinge”. Dizzy Gillespies called it Afro-Cuban; the Brazilians called it Bossa Nova; on the New York dance scene it is called Salsa and off to the side the West African musicians call it Rumba. So even from the earliest days Latin music has had a profound and ongoing influence on jazz and music though out the world. So, for the Little Jazz Orchestra (LJO) (Dave Ward – trumpet, Janice Nicili – electric bass, Jim Cameron – guitar, Graham Knipfel – drums) it was fertile ground for one of their themed nights at The Heid Out. With the addition of Sven Heyde and Rod Wilson on congas and percussion the LJO became their picante counter part, The Latin Jazz Orchestra. Their goal for the evening was to explore the Latin  Jazz repertiore and have a whole bag full of fun. In deference to an ongoing business meeting downstairs the band (minus some of the percussion) kicked off the evening with a number of “Latin Lite” tunes that included Morning of the Carnival (Luiz Bonfa’s theme from the 1959 movie Black Orpheus) and Michael Bubble’s hit Sway. The second set kicked off with an extended percussion jam before settling down to the serious business of playing some classic tunes. The tunes included Chick Corea’s Morning  and Sea Journey; Freddie Hubbard’s Little Sun Flower; Antonio (Tom) Carlos Jobim’s  Corcovada and Triste; Sergio Mendes’ Mas Que Nada; Luis Alberti’s famous Merengue Campadro Pedro Juan; Duke Jordon’s Flight to Jordon; the marvelous theme from The Bona Vista Social Club, Chan Chan and last, but not least Tito Puente’s 1963 recording classic Oye Coma Va that later became the 1970 Carlos Santana’s rock classic. The names of the tunes may not be that well known but I am sure that the melodies rang more than a few bells. It was a marvelous night of picante music with all the musicians in top form and obviously having a load of fun as well.

Just in case the tunes aren’t that well known here are a couple of YouTub links  Carlos Santana’s Oye Coma Va  , Tito Punte’s Oye Coma Va  , Freddie Hubbard’s original version of Little Sun Flower , Tito Puente’s version of Flight to Jordon  (check out Giovanni Hidalgo’s conga playing),and the great samba beat of Sergio Mendes Mas Que Nada and the theme from the Bona Vista Social Club  Chan Chan

Not many photos I afraid. I was too busy playing percussion:                            

And Dave Ward “greasing the wheels”In case you haven’t noticed the sound in The Heid Out has been improved with the installation of “sonic baffles” (I don’t know what they are called) high on the walls.

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