Poncho Sánchez at Alys Stephens Center
Continuing The Essentials jazz series, conga man and vocalist Poncho Sánchez brought
his eight-piece band to the ASC. Latin music has been a part of jazz since its earliest
days: host Eric Essix mentioned Jelly Roll Morton speaking of the “Spanish tinge” as a
key element of the music Morton claimed to have invented in 1902, and Dizzy
Gillespie’s groundbreaking collaborations with Cubans Mario Bauzá and Chano Pozo
were major developments as far back as the 1940s. Top bandleaders in the Afro-Cuban
vein (Tito Puente, Mongo Santamaría, Eddie Palmieri) were deeply into jazz, and many a
jazz player (Chick Corea, Hubert Laws, et al.) learned volumes about the surgical
precision of Caribbean rhythms from residencies with these masters. Sánchez is in one
sense the converse of this: a Latino bandleader whose career began in a band led by a
non-Latino, vibes man Cal Tjader. But Tjader was steeped in Latin music of all flavors,
so his band was a perfect training ground for his young conguero (conga player). Texasborn, Los Angeles-raised Sánchez spent seven years with Tjader, who helped get him a
contract with Concord Records, where Sánchez has made over 20 albums.
Now over 30 years into his career, he is carrying the tradition with enthusiasm, and his
current band is as strong as the units he led a quarter-century ago. They are: Francisco
Torres (trombone, musical director), Ron Blake (trumpet, flugelhorn), Rob Hardt (saxes,
flute), Andy Langham (piano), Joey de León (timbales), Giancarlo Anderson
(percussion), and Rene Camacho (bass). Despite the complexity of the overlaid
Caribbean rhythms, the music’s infectiously danceable beat made it expedient for the
soloists to have their say in very direct, not to say less poetic forms; this was the essence
of what jazz improvisation should be. This organic integration was particularly evident
on Torres’ clever arrangement of John Coltrane’s challenging “Giant Steps”, where
Langham, Hardt, and de León scored fine solos. Another Coltrane piece, “Liberia” and
Duke Ellington’s “The Feeling of Jazz” got the concert going in this jazz-based vein, but
there was also a soulful medley of more traditional Latin tunes from another great master,
Willie Bobo, with a powerful statement by Blake. “Si Te Dicen”, a bolero (or ballad, in
jazzspeak) had the leader doing the vocal and an appropriately romantic solo by Hardt on
tenor sax.
Those who have followed Sánchez’s career know of his love for playing and singing
classic R&B: a righteous medley of Montgomery-born Eddie Floyd’s “Raise Your Hand”
(with a tease of his “You Don’t Know Like I Know”, made famous by Sam and Dave)
got the audience inspired in a very different direction from the main program. After this
crowd-pleaser, it wasn’t surprising to see a whole bunch of people dancing by the final
salsa tunes. They, as well as those who came just to listen, knew they had been
experiencing the real thing.
--Bart Grooms