>> From the Library of
Congress in Washington, D.C. >> Talia Guzman-Gonzalez: Okay. I'm going to start. I was giving people a couple
of minutes to find the room. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the
Library of Congress. My name is Talia Guzman-Gonzalez
and I am reference librarian in the Hispanic Division. On behalf of the Hispanic
Division and our co-sponsors, the Music Division and the
Hispanic Cultural Society, it is my immense pleasure to welcome three
outstanding musicians. Eva and I have been working
on this event for a month now so it's very exciting
to finally see it, you know, come to fruition. We have here with us Adonis
Gonzalez, Yunior Terry, and Yosvany Terry, three
highly accomplished musicians that will be talking
about sounds and rhythms of Cuban music, and
their careers as musician and educators in
the United States. I will talk a little bit
about them in a little bit. I want to say something first about our collections
at the library. We have a small display
in the back, and you're welcome to browse. They're books from the
general collections so please take a look at them. The library has been
collecting Cuban material since the mid-nineteenth
century. And we have probably the
largest collection here in the U.S. The Hispanic
Division is the gateway to explore those collections
but it is in every format across the library,
including, obviously, music. Some resources that you can use to explore those
collections come from the work of the Hispanic Division. One of them is the Handbook of
Latin American Studies and it's in the Hispanic Division. And also the Archive of
Hispanic Literature and Tape which has recorded nearly
30 authors, Cuban authors, reading from their work. The American Folk Life Center
also recorded Cuban music and culture from
the 1920's onward. And there you can find a set
of long playing records titled "[Foreign Language Spoken]",
published in Havana and compiled by the great anthropologist,
Lydia Cabrera. I could on and on about our
resources and I hope you come to the division and learn about
them with us, but you're here to hear our three guests today. So I will introduce
them in this order, starting with Adonis Gonzalez. Adonia is a pianist
and composer. And he's a graduate from the
[Foreign Language Spoken] and holds a Master's of Music
Degree from the University of Southern Mississippi,
and a Doctorate Degree in Piano Performance
from Rutgers University. He has performed as a
soloist with many orchestras around the world, including
the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra in Germany,
the National Philharmonic of Venezuela, the Master
Awards Festival Orchestra in Washington, D.C., the
Cuban National Symphony, and the New York City
Opera Orchestra among many, many, many others. As a composer, Adonis has
collaborated with the Works and Process Series at the prestigious Guggenheim
Museum in New York City. And his symphonic poem
for piano and orchestra, "[Foreign Language
Spoken]", was premiered by the National Symphony
of Costa Rica. He was a composer in residence of the Rockefeller
Brothers Fund. And he's currently an
artist in residence of the Cuban Artists Fund in New
York, and a professor of Music at Alabama State University. Adonis has a long list of impressive collaborations
including legendary artists such as mezzo soprano
Denyce Graves, violinist Arnold Steinhardt, and also with clarinetist-saxophonist
Paquito D'Rivera. Gonzalez won the first prize of the [Foreign Language Spoken]
International Piano Competition in Caracas, Venezuela,
and the first prize of the most important Cuba
piano competition organized by the National Association
of Cuban Writers and Artists. He's also a laureate of the
International Piano Competition of the Principality of Andorra, and the Ernesto Lecuona
International Competition of Havana. Adonis is a Latin Grammy
nominee in the category of Best Classical Album for
his solo debut, "Adios a Cuba". Our second guest, Yunior
Terry is a clinical assistant professor of music at New York
University School of Music. He is a graduate of the National
School of Art in Havana, Cuba, with a double major
in violin and bass. And he holds a bachelor's degree
from CalArts and a master's from Rutgers University. While in Cuba, he
performed and toured with the Havana Symphony
as a violinist. Yunior Terry is an
[foreign language spoken] and cultural bearer of the
African rhythms, chants, and ceremonies that originated
in the African [inaudible]. He continues to research these and other African diaspora based
musical and cultural traditions. In the United States,
Yunior Terry has studied under Charlie Hayden,
Derrick Olds, Peter Row from the Los Angeles
Philharmonic, Porter Smith, Alfonso Johnson,
and Kenny Davis. Since moving to New York he
has deepened his understanding of jazz traditions through
performing with Steve Coleman, Jerry Gonzalez, and the Fort
Apache Band, Jeff Watts, Daphne [Inaudible], Eddie
Palmieri, [Inaudible], Michelle Roseman, Andy
Marrow, [Inaudible], and Yosvany Terry, his brother. He was part of the Latin
Jazz All Stars Project with [Foreign Language
Spoken], and Steve Turr, and [Foreign Language Spoken]. Prior to joining NYU,
Cabrera taught master classes and workshops around the world. Yosvany Terry is an
internationally acclaimed composer, saxophonist,
percussionist, bandleader, educator, and cultural bearer
of the Afro-Cuban tradition. In Cuba he studied at the
prestigious National School of the Arts in Havana, and
the [Foreign Language Spoken]. He has performed with major
figures in every realm of Cuban music, including
celebrated [foreign language spoken], pianist
[Foreign Language Spoken], and [Foreign Language Spoken],
the band led by his father, violinist and [inaudible] master
[Foreign Language Spoken]. Since arriving in New York,
Terry has collaborated with many important
figures in the jazz and contemporary
music community, playing along Branford Marsalis,
Rufus Reed, Dave Douglas, Steve Coleman, Roy
Hargrove, and many others. In 2015, Terry was
named a recipient of the prestigious Doris Duke
Artist Award and was hired by Harvard University as
Director of Jazz Ensembles and Senior Lecturer of Music. He has received recent
commissions from the San Francisco
Yerba Buena Garden Festival, the French American Jazz
Exchange with support from the Mid-Atlantic
Arts Foundation and the Doris Duke
Charitable Foundation. His album, "New Throned King",
which features music based on cantos and rhythms
of the Arara people of the western Cuban province
of Mantanzas, was nominated for a 2014 Grammy Award. His previous album from 2012,
"Today's Opinion", was selected as one of the top ten
albums of the year by the "New York Times". And last, but not least, is my
colleague, Eva Reyes Cisnero, who is here, and you don't know
that she's also a musician. Maybe you do, but
maybe you don't. Eva is my dear friend,
colleague, and partner in organizing
this [inaudible] for you all. She was born in Cuba,
and, like our guests, is a classically
trained musician. She studied guitar performance at the [Foreign Language
Spoken], and musicology at the [Foreign Language
Spoken] in Havana. In the U.S. she received a
bachelor's in Guitar Performance from Florida International
University, and she did her graduate
work in Latin American and Caribbean Studies with
a certificate in Cuban and Cuban-American Studies. Prior to coming to D.C.,
she worked at the University of Miami Libraries and
the Florida International University Library. Today she's a librarian
in the [inaudible] section of the Africa, Latin American,
and Western European Division of the Library of Congress. Eva will lead this first
part of the conversation with some questions
for our guests. Then we're going
to open the floor for your questions to them. And maybe we'll get to listen
to something, I don't know. We'll see. So join me in welcoming
our guests to the library. [ Applause ] >> Eva Reyes Cisnero: Thank you,
everyone, for being here today. And thank you, the three of you. Oh, it's not on? >> Adonis Gonzalez: It's not on. >> Eva Reyes Cisnero:
Can you hear me now? [ Inaudible ] Let me say that again. Hello, everyone. Good afternoon. Thank you so much
for being here today. And thank you to our
guests for coming. It's a pleasure. This is a long time friendship
like a family, extended family, more than three decades
of studying together, and going to school
together, growing together. So I have a few questions
for them to allow you to know
them better. And I'm going to start,
using Yosvany first. Yosvany, in a video
about your visit to Cuba with the Harvard Jazz
Ensemble, we hear your mom, who wasn't there before, saying
that when you were little, she wanted you to be a doctor
because you were so serious. [ Laughter ] Instead you chose to be a
musician like your father. The same is true for
your brother, Yunior, also for the three of you. To me the association
of being serious with medicine is very
interesting since your training, and this is true, is
a leading testament that studying music
is a serious business. Can you talk a bit about
your schooling in Cuba and how did it prepare you for continuing your musical
education in the U.S. and succeed professionally
as musicians, composers, and also, educators? I'm passing the microphone
to you. >> Adonis Gonzalez:
That microphone. Who wants to start? >> Eva Reyes Cisnero:
Who going to start? >> Yosvany Terry: Well, music
is serious, as we all know. And it's such a rigorous
discipline, I would say. But I believe from my mother,
since my father was a founder of [Foreign Language
Spoken], which is one of the more important
[inaudible] orchestras in the interior, and she saw
how much sacrifice he put in behind his craft
with the orchestra. And besides that since she was
a nurse, you know, specializing in pediatrics, she has
different ambitions for us. But unpredictably we
all decided for music. You know, music played
such an important role in the house growing up. And also it was one of the
biggest sources of experience because every time when my
father would play in town and we will go to his
performances, that was clearly, that's what we wanted to be. So but my father was
really adamant in instilling in us the disciplines
and the rigorous work that was behind music. And that's why at the
beginning it was opposed for us to be [inaudible] but then after
we showed that we were serious about it then that
was the end of playing with friends on the weekend. So, yes, you know, because
of that incredible role model that we have at home,
we had at home, we went through the conservatory
system [inaudible] right before. And, yes, for me, it's like
music is an art in general. It's a serious [inaudible]
discipline as we know. And the time, the
dedication, the discipline that goes behind the incredible
work that most people don't see when they see you
performing on stage. It's a testament of like how
hard musicians have to work to polish and develop
their craft. So just because of that
I would say and because of the [inaudible] work that
we put behind all the time, we have been able
to keep growing. And this is something
that doesn't finish. It's like we still today,
we're just working as hard as we were working before
in order to keep growing and to keep doing
different things. And I think it's this hard
work also that help us to join a bigger community which
is a community of New York, and the community of where we
live now also has I would say allowed us to join the
big educator community which is something that we
believe before leaving Cuba, and even the time we
were living in Cuba. So I hope this answer
the question. I don't know if I, it
was a long question. >> Eva Reyes Cisnero: Yeah. [ Laughter ] Yeah. Let me give a
chance to Adonis as well. And talk - sorry -- if you
can comment a little bit more about the school of
art system [inaudible]. >> Adonis Gonzalez: Absolutely. The music education in
Cuba is very well organized that you have to study certain
instruments at a certain age. So I wanted to play the piano
but he didn't know [inaudible]. And because piano and
violin you start earlier than other instruments like
from the third grade on. When all my courses were
[inaudible] I finally had to put some hours. And my mom was very
strict about that and I'm very grateful
because of that. But that discipline, you know,
carry on all through your life and that's, just expanding
on what he was saying, that has helped me, has
helped me to keep growing as I became a professional,
so to speak. But I also wanted to say
there is a similarity between being a doctor
and a musician because I know the doctor
had to constantly be updating so we have to do
exactly the same. This never ends like
Yosvany said. But it's a great thing, especially when you played a
long [inaudible] ready to teach, you are teaching but at the same
time you are learning so it's so enriching for our lives as a [inaudible]
musician [inaudible]. >> Eva Reyes Cisnero:
What about you, Yunior. I have a microphone here. >> Yunior Terry: Oh. Okay. >> Eva Reyes Cisnero:
You can use this one. >> Yunior Terry: I'll go stereo. [Laughs]. Hello, everyone. I just want to add a
little bit what they said. Yes, we have the,
in Cuba, the system, it's like a conservator based
on the Russian standards. So like at a certain age, what
Adonis said, violin, piano, cello, dancers like
ballet dancers, start at seven years old. So all the instrument like
the saxophone, percussion, start when you're like ten, eleven when you're
already in fifth grade. So for us, we have to make
a decision really quick. Actually I didn't, I knew from
the start I was going to be a, that I wanted to be a
musician and a violinist because my father
plays a violin. And that was real
important for us growing up that we already knew
so how, like I already, my mom has like a story
of me already saving soap to go it's a boarding school. So you have to be in
the boarding school so I was saving soap when
I was five years old. This is coming for when I go. [ Laugher ] At the boarding school. And all the other kids I
remember, she always said that all the other
kids were like crying or their parents were crying
because imagine taking your kid at seven years old to a school and only see him
in the weekends. From Sundays to Friday and
on Friday you come back home and you go back again
on Sunday night. So a lot of moms kind
of like in the middle of the week they would
cry and bring sandwiches and I said to her, "Don't come. I'm good here." [ Laughter ] "I'm enjoying it here." But, yeah, so based in that
system we had our first teacher was Russian. I don't know for you guys? My first teacher was a Russian,
[Foreign Language Spoken]. And I just remember that we
couldn't understand a word he said and we had a translator. And all of us came
out of the room crying because [inaudible]
brought napkins for us like, "Oh, you going? Okay. Can you not [inaudible]?" He couldn't talk but he wanted
to say so much, you know, and be so specific
about it to [inaudible] that at certain times
it was too much and he was kind of [inaudible]. But he was really, he provided
a really strong foundation for all of us. Since we grew up in Cuba,
you know, a lot the books, a lot of the information was,
you know, Russian information and the way of approaching
the music was from Russia, either directly from Russia
or some of the professors that went on study [inaudible]. That was like one thing
you look forward to, to like be really good to get a
scholarship to study in Moscow. So that was something
to look forward at that time [inaudible]. So based on that I just
wanted to add a little bit about the education
because that's something that maybe wasn't clear because
here it's completely different. I've been here in
the system here. I did my bachelor in California. And when I came in, the levels
are completely different here, the levels of knowledge
[inaudible] completely different. In Cuba you sort of, you can
track like everybody sort of at the same level because
studied like the same roots and, you know, here you maybe
have like a private teacher until when you get to
school you have, you arrive and maybe you [inaudible]. It's completely different
way of studying here. I don't know where I'm going. I could say many things. >> Adonis Gonzalez: But, yeah. I also wanted to add that for
me has been like a full circle because of what you said
about the Russian teachers. My theory teachers and
my [inaudible] teachers from early on were Russians. And I didn't understand them,
but I make fun of the accent. So now I'm on the other side. They say [inaudible] the accent
is so different [inaudible]. >> Yunior Terry: Yeah. It's like -- . >> Eva Reyes Cisnero:
That is great that you bring those
stories right now because part of that I forgot. [Laughs]. It's also [inaudible]
to mention that in the school of art, that system, that
is a boarding school, is not only the music students
living in, it's all dancers, classical ballet
students, the fine arts. >> Yunior Terry: Painters, too. >> Eva Reyes Cisnero:
Later on the actors and actresses join the school. So you can, basically you
build a family that's going to continue with you. It's not just like, you
can track the students, but every one at that year are
going to be playing something, at the same level, but it's
also you can track the group of the family. You go back three decades so. [Inaudible] we played
together since second grade so it's very interesting. And finishing with that, let
me just move on to something that is very important because
that is what you're doing right now. And there is a long tradition
with musical exchange between Cuba and
the United States. Starting in the nineteenth
century with, for example, the [inaudible], even
through the frequency of the social exchange it
was many times dictated for a long time, especially
in the twentieth century, I have been dictated by
the political climate between the two countries. During your years as
musicians in Cuba, could you mention any
musician from the United States that inspire you, that you were
looking forward to playing with, that you were trying to copy in
the style of the performance, that you were I imagine
at a certain point that you would come to
the U.S. and study here because you were listening to
them in Cuba and there was kind of like a goal to go to -- . >> Yunior Terry: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. >> Yosvany Terry: Yes. Well, the saxophone is
different than piano and violin because it's like the saxophone
school was developed in France so all of the saxophone teacher, at least that's the
information that they had. There was a strong
French school. But looking up to American
artists, yes, something happened to me at the age of thirteen, fourteen years old
I discovered jazz. And jazz became for
me an obsession. It was an obsession but at the
same time I loved classical music for sure so you
have to really work harder in order to practice both. But, yes, some of the
biggest inspiration for me from the U.S. came from
the jazz [inaudible], looking up to Miles
Davis, to John Coltrane, to Charlie Parker,
Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Sonny Rollins, Clifford Brown. I mean the list is on and on which is basically they
biggest contributors to these musical traditions. So, yes, I remember growing up
and finding what jazz was about and then finding great
stations and then -- . There were two radio stations
that broadcast jazz in Cuba so that became, we knew exactly
when the jazz shows started. So they had a really white
programming I would say, going from the 40's all the way to the most contemporary
art parts of jazz, including Ornette Coleman, and
everything that was happening with what then was
called new music. So that's in my imagination,
you know, the biggest influence that I would say from
jazz from the same time I, so that I noticed that there
was always a collaboration between Cuban and American
artists, not only going back to [foreign language spoken]
which was like the, you know, the great [foreign
language spoken]. They were the architects of what
is called African [inaudible] but also even going back
in history, you know, when the word [inaudible]
between bands from Cuba that would interpret
[inaudible], that would visit New Orleans,
would visit Mexico and Haiti. And there was a lot of
exchange in the Caribbean. So it's always been a
great exchange between Cuba and the U.S. and the
central Caribbean. You want to say something? >> Adonis Gonzalez:
Honestly, because of the times when I was student, we didn't
have that much exchange of American classical
musicians coming to Cuba. So for me it wasn't an
inspiration at that time. I did have the opportunity
to see many American artists at the jazz festival in Cuba. Dizzy Gillespie, I remember when I saw Carmen McRae
it was really -- . >> Yosvany Terry: Max Roach. >> Adonis Gonzalez: Oh, yes. But unfortunately not
even the recordings of the first biggest stars of
the American pianist tradition like Van Cliburn, [Inaudible],
we didn't get any of that. We got a whole bunch of
Russian recordings [inaudible]. But I do want to mention
that before that happened, a century before that,
there was [inaudible] and we was constantly
[inaudible]. It was like his backyard. Because when there he
toured the whole island and I did the research on him
and [inaudible] for piano. And I considered him,
even though he was born in the United States, the
first Afro-Cuban musician. He wrote more, probably almost
more Cuban dances than any of the other composers. He was especially supported
music from the Caribbean. They called that kind of
music Caribbean freedoms. His symphony, one his
symphony [inaudible] is called "A Night in the Tropics". He goes at first to
[inaudible] to bring a group of Black musicians playing their
drums, amazing classical music that had not been done. The popular music of
Cuba was the influenced by the country dance and
for the European dances. But it has its place. It was at the ballroom, but
not in the concert hall. So the first one that
dared to do that was him and [inaudible] what we
call today crossover. But that exchange of culture and
traditions between the Americans and the Cubans goes a long time, even before the jazz is
started doing the same thing. >> Yunior Terry: No, I just,
yeah, I would just want to add a little bit of
what you were saying. [Inaudible] was really
ahead of his time because he was really traveling,
and picking up information and tradition from
different places, and including it in his music. And even the titles
[inaudible] so it's like a real important
composer and actually influence at the time what was [inaudible]
influenced like [inaudible]. He met at the time [inaudible]. But he influence, he was, he had like a this [inaudible]
he was just compiling and then was able to
put it in his music so he was really
ahead of his time. So let's just keep
it as a [inaudible]. [ Laughter ] >> Adonis Gonzalez:
[Inaudible] the culture. >> Yunior Terry: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> Adonis Gonzalez:
Even the [inaudible] which is a very specific things
[inaudible] not many know he wrote one of the biggest
fantasies for piano based on the greatness of that. >> Yunior Terry: And
brought musicians to Havana from Santiago and made one
of the biggest concert, he put one of the biggest
concert at the time with [inaudible] musicians. So it never happened before. I would say that I came,
I'm younger than him. We're brothers. So he was already listening
to jazz and he got me into it. I was first started with the
violin and after that switched to bass because somehow
he was playing the piano. He was like, "Oh, can you
find the notes on the bass?" And so how little
by little I started. And after that went to
school and really studied. But there were some recordings
of artists that we grew up listening to like
Coltrane, as he was saying, but also some more contemporary
like Branford Marsalis, Jeff "Tains" Watts,
Charlie Hayden that we got, that we've been here and
since we've been here, we've been able to
work with them. And that's been really an
experience for us and an honor, actually, to being able
to be friends with them and actually to work with them. I was able to study with Charlie
Hayden, as I said earlier, which I listened to
when I was a kid. I just never imagined my life that I would be able
to study with him. And with Jeff "Tain" Watts,
one of the living legends, drummers these days, that I
never imagined to be working with him and to be, you know,
to call my friend, you know, that's just been really an
amazing experience for us. And it's something that
we both always keep -- . One time I was in
a tour with Tain. That's an interesting story. One time I was in a tour with
Tain and we went in Europe. And I felt, when I
started working with him, we had a couple of
drinks at the time. And I asked him, "Why
did you call me?" Because there's a lot of other
bassists, young bassists, anybody from here that
already grew up playing jazz. And he said, "Because you
have something different. You have something
interesting that is different. You have another way
of looking at it." And that broke open the gate
for me to be even more wild. [ Laughter ] Now I knew he was
really interested of me not really imitating
while they're recording that I have to play. I could be more myself. And that was something, that was
some kind of illumination for me to appreciate and to
believe in my knowledge and my roots even more
because I know that's something that he's interested about
and that's the same thing that I'm interested about him. He's interested to
learn from me. I'm interested to
learn from him. And that's how we both
keep growing, right. So that was an experience. >> Eva Reyes Cisnero: Great. Thank you. Talking a lot about Cuban
music and the influence of the American music
in Cuba, vice versa. I would like to for maybe
people that are not so familiar with the Cuban music
roots, if you could explain, if you're going to dissect
the Cuban musical landscape, what is it made out of? What the foundation of that? What we call Cuban music, for some people it
could be a stereotype of the conga line,
or Carmen Miranda. >> Yunior Terry: Ricky Ricardo. >> Eva Reyes Cisnero:
Ricky Ricardo. [ Laughter ] Exactly. But that the
Cuban music is a lot of different things. And what are the
roots of that music? What is the musical
landscapes made of ? If you could dissect that? >> Adonis Gonzalez:
Do you want to start? >> Yosvany Terry:
Do you want to -- ? You can start. [ Laughter ] I guess I'll say
something, yeah. >> Yunior Terry: Go ahead. >> Yosvany Terry: Go ahead. >> Adonis Gonzalez: Well,
obviously it started with the mixing of the
European traditions and African traditions,
but not only for the sense of what happened in Cuba, but
the sense that what happened in the Caribbean in general. So what we call the [foreign
language spoken] is something that sounds very Haitian to me. Sounds like from Haiti. >> Yosvany Terry: Mm-hmm. >> Adonis Gonzalez: And just
before [inaudible] our musical roots is like a rainbow. We have French influence. We have Chinese influence. It's not only the Spanish
and the African traditions. There is English even
because the [inaudible] at one point became for us the
first national kind of dance that we're calling the
[foreign language spoken] came from the country dance that
was something that was danced in England and then it went
to France, changed name to [foreign language
spoken] like the games. Once was country but it
got lost in translation. [ Laughter ] And then I guess in Cuba got
again the translation got to [inaudible]. So we say we feel
so many things. But I will Yosvany expand that. [ Inaudible ] >> Yunior Terry: Responding
all that is all that plus a lot of different tradition
from West Africa. It's not just anywhere
in Africa. We're talking about West Africa. We're talking about
[inaudible] tradition. We're talking about [inaudible]. We're talking about tradition
that came also from the Congo. So it's a vast area
that accounts for a lot of different traditions and
how all those traditions, at one time they have to
coincide in one place in Cuba and kind of melt because there's
a lot of things that in Cuba and you see that in Africa. They are separate, you know,
if you are from [inaudible], you just practice,
you know, [inaudible]. You are from [inaudible] you
practice just one [inaudible] in Cuba. They all have to coexist
in one place and they have to bring all the traditions
together and, you know, sort of form this big palate
of freedoms, and knowledge, and traditions that's
what we have in our music. >> Yosvany Terry:
And also I will add because most have been said, that [inaudible]
Cuba is an island. It's a big island so sometimes
you could be traveling from the most western side of
Cuba to the most eastern side and there [inaudible] that
these people didn't know from are practiced in the
other side of the island. There's a lot of musical
traditions, I mean [inaudible] that are different
than the one practiced in my province [inaudible]
that has nothing to do with what's practiced in
Matanzas and then [inaudible]. But different set of drums
played in different places, different [inaudible]. Even from Spain they're like
influences from different side of Spain in difference
parts of [inaudible]. Like Eva said, we
cannot just say Spain, but we have to open it to a
lot of different countries, even from the northern, from Morocco there were
influences in Cuba, too. So it's like a huge, huge
hybrid that somewhere, somehow found way to
create an identity that at the same time
defines Cuba music. For us, even for
us it's really hard to define what Cuban music is. But and also at the same
time happens something which is really interesting
and it's like the Caribbean being one
of the centers in which a lot of places, a lot of
countries from the world came. Turned the Caribbean into
like something, for me, [inaudible] at some point became
like the center of the universe. And it was interesting when
[inaudible] I will explain why. There was an exhibition
in New York four years ago that was about Caribbean art. And this exhibition that was like in different
museums across New York. And the studio museum in
[inaudible], in the museum in [inaudible], and there
was another museum in Queens and I'm forgetting the name. You could go to the
museum and they, the curator of the
exhibition were really smart because they selected pieces
from artists from the 1700's, 1800's, 1900's, up
to the present. So when you would visit that
exhibition it was really hard to define or to accept that
this is a Caribbean artist. It looks like it could
be a French artist. It looks like it could be a
Velasco, it could be a Rubens. It could be any artist. So after visit that exhibition
for me it was a big revelation because even though
we were born in places that you can [inaudible] history
by just seeing a building that was built in the
1600's, but at the same time, you really understand the
centrality of this geography for the culture of the world. And you really understand
how hard it is to define what the Caribbean is,
what Cuban is because, I mean, the concept of the art, the concept of the music
defies any given concept that you could have
of the geography. So it can bring an
artist from the 1700's, it's could be a European
artist, could be a Chinese art. It could be an artist from
anywhere in the world. So as you can see that
nowadays, you can either see that through the
music, you can see that through the visual
arts, through the films. You can see through, I
mean, most of the art forms. [ Inaudible ] >> Adonis Gonzalez: I just
want to add so when we talk about Cuban music especially
now, there is mixture of purity and impurity in terms
of African music. In many other countries where the slaves were
brought [inaudible] us on how they managed to be disguised especially
the religious traditions because they were allowed to [inaudible] do what
they celebrated in Africa but using the saints that
the Europeans wanted them to worship. Those [inaudible] with
a great sense of purity. You can go to all the islands and you see there is
still a sense of Africa, of African traditions
[inaudible] so pure. But I say purity and impurity
because what Terry said that it got mixed
with that music from so many places
and it got mixed. So it's hard to find
something purely from the Congo or from Nigeria. It's all mixed. But not, when you
listen to any music now, whether it's a jazz number,
or something for the masses, something like to
dance in a party, there will always be a section that is totally Afroid
[inaudible]. And if it doesn't have that,
something is lacking in the mix. So I just wanted
to add that part. >> Eva Reyes Gonzalez:
thank you. Before we go on to
the next questions and turn the microphone
to the audience, I would like to ask you,
make a comment first and then the question
will come up from there. About art as an instrument
of transformation because I think the three
of you believe on that. The power of the music as a
instrument of transformation on so many different levels
and the power of the music that goes beyond walls
and different barriers. So if you can expand in
that sense and [inaudible] and a cultural ambassador
because I will say that. How do you manifest that,
how you work on that? >> Yosvany Terry: Well,
this is something with, that is really relevant and
important to artists in general and especially given
the nature of music, and even when you go back
to the first musicians, you can see how [inaudible],
how important was [inaudible] and also was because of
work opportunities they have to be moving in between
countries, they have to start
traveling [inaudible] different geographies. When they have to learn how to
communicate in different parts of the world where they are. You can go back to Mozart,
so once he go to Italy, he learns the Italian opera. He needs to learn how to write
that opera in the Italian style. But then he goes to France,
he learned how to treat it as a French, and as German. But also you can see it here
in cases like Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong who
were ambassadors of, you know, jazz in the world. So I think that was really
important for me growing up. It was the teaching of my
own father, being a musician, and also having the opportunity,
especially the opportunity to play in places where Cuban
didn't even have political relationship with those
country at the time. And music was the way in which
Cuba established relationship with those country. So he instilled in us, again, at
very early age, the importance to understand art and music
as an ambassador and also to understand the mission that
we have as an artist to erase and also, not only erase
barriers and barriers that can make us, can
create differences, but at the same time to
see ourselves as someone that is unmuzzled, that has
to reestablish connections, that has to really foster
relationship that's, we need to foster collaboration. So it's with that idea
that and that, you know, we grew up in my house because
it was practice from my father and actually the house. >> Yunior Terry: Mm-hmm. >> Adonis Gonzalez: I
haven't had the fortunate to enter students to Cuba, but
that's something that will be so [inaudible] for them to see, and to [inaudible] I don't
see any reason why should that barrier be there. So I'm very, I'm not going
to talk a lot about that. But I'm glad that now there
is this legal opportunity for the exchange
between both cultures, to have them with more freedom. I just hope that it remains
that way for a long time. It's very, it is very limited
for the people to not be able to share their traditions
and empower their roots by learning what is
[inaudible] more similarities than there are differences
so I'm totally for that. >> Yunior Terry: Yeah. I want to add that I've been
[inaudible] we're brothers, as Yosvany said. One of the reason I wanted
to take music as a profession from the beginning was
because all the tales of my dad of traveling and how he saw
the world through the music. He was able to visit
many places in Africa, in the eastern European places,
the way he went out before. And I've been able to see,
with the music I've been able to see a lot of the world, and I've been able
to teach also abroad. I was teaching in
India for six weeks in a university over there. And it's really enriching to see
how the students over there were so eager to learn the music. And at the same time I
was learning with them, trying to learn a little
bit of their culture. And that's information
and that's a way of like really getting
to know each other and what's really important,
not just for itself but also for everyone involved
in that change. I was talking about my culture, about how who plays certain
things because it's related to certain dynamic
in our culture. And they explaining to me, [inaudible] to me something
similar how, you know, in the music these had to deal with this other aspect
of the culture. And also how the music
is loved by many people and like the [inaudible]
style, for example, in Africa, when you go to Africa playing
[inaudible], I don't know if you guys heard of [inaudible]
style music with violins, and piano, flute, and was
really prevalent 40's, 50's, 30's, 40's, 50's. That's a tradition that it kind of stay frozen over
there in Africa. You go to Senegal, you go
to some of those places like they revere you
playing their music. The same with when you
go to Columbia as well. I think it brings down
the barriers as they said, brings us closer to each other
and it's real important for all of us to feel that [inaudible],
to have that serious. >> Eva Reyes Gonzalez: Okay. >> Yosvany Terry: I also
wanted to give you an anecdote. Last year I had an opportunity
to take the Harvard Jazz Band on a trip to Cuba and we
stayed there one week. And during that week
I organized all of the activities for the tour. We visited three
music conservatories and we [inaudible] them. They played for us. We played for them. I arranged to have one of
the important music coach to work with the band. I took them mostly to
Matanzas to visit even like [inaudible] museums
where they have a lot of remnants of the slavery. They saw [inaudible] one of
the big authorities in some of the Africa communities
[inaudible]. And we did a concert
with special guests and professional musicians
from Cuba Casa de las Americas. And the most amazing part of
the trip it was at the end, to see the power of
transformation that music and art has in all the students. So they went to Cuba, not even with the concept
of what Cuba was. And I made sure before
we went on tour to bring different professors of
the university to lecture them about where they were going. They'd talk about politics. They'd talk about history. They talked about everything. But nothing that they, I mean none of those lectures
prepared them to the reality of being [inaudible]
the culture. And so that was a truly
transformative experience for those students. I mean they were
changed I believe for the rest of their life. So, again, this is just like
a little anecdote the power of transformation that
music and art have. Yeah. >> Eva Reyes Gonzalez:
Thank you very much. Thank you. So we're going to take
[inaudible] someone from the audience. Before that, thank
you very much. Please join me to -- . [ Applause ] Yes. We'll be able to
take some questions. >> Yes. So my question
is [inaudible]. The first part of the
question is I know that like in Afro-Cuban religions
certain rhythms are sacred. Can you incorporate those sacred
rhythms into jazz or something if you are not a [inaudible]? And the second part
of my question is in two weeks I'll be in Havana. I'm very excited. I've been waiting
five years in Miami and [inaudible] that Havana. Is there one place that you
could recommend that I would go to hear the best
[inaudible] jazz? [ Inaudible ] >> Adonis Gonzalez: Okay. There are many sacred things about the Afro-Cuban
religions but, not I think the rhythms are
used I think what they pray [inaudible] but the rhythm
itself we can't be using [inaudible] it cannot be used
but we don't [inaudible]. They permeate everything. Yeah. Mm-hmm. >> Yosvany Terry: No, no. It's important to understand
that life is not separated from the daily spirits, meaning like the practitioners are also
the musicians that are part of the popular band and there
also are musicians that went to the classical
music conservatory, or the composers, or everyone. So it's impossible that if I'm a
practitioner that I'm not going to use something that for
me has a lot of importance. So like, as just
he's commenting, what Adonis said,
you can't use it. Of course there is
that it also happens. I'm looking in the other
side of the spectrum. Appropriation happen also there. People that aren't
the practitioner that also use those
musical tradition for different purposes,
you know. But, yeah, there's no I would
say limitation, and especially because when you're, it
all depends on the mission and what the result of
what you're using it for. I could give you an example of
there was a CD that I created that the name is
"New Throned King" in which the entire CD is
based on the musical traditions that came from the [inaudible]
which is now in [inaudible]. Yes, I used everything
from the, that I've learned from this type of,
from this culture. But at the same time, to me
it's not a religious record. It's a cultural record. So therefore it isn't one that
context that we working with all of this, this is this
vast heritage that came from West Africa, yeah. >> Yunior Terry: Responding
to that, of course, you could also find some close
minded people that might say, "Oh, you shouldn't
really use that." But your using it
out of [inaudible]. You don't use it at
[inaudible], you know, the religious aspect of it. So it would definitely
have completely different like if you listen to the
recording of [Inaudible] when he was [inaudible]
nobody hardly ever [inaudible] the society. But, you know, we're
using a [inaudible] that is complete world now
to be able to use [inaudible] at the time when
he was doing it, it was something completely new. But he was doing it so out
of context, he was doing, playing with Dizzy, he
was at Carnegie Hall, was a completely different,
you know, it's one thing to do, you know, so it's
accepted to use it. And talking about -- . [ Inaudible ] And that would be one of them
to go and see live music. I will say if you're there with
somebody [inaudible] experience on the street that is
every, every Sunday and it's really the
neighborhood people, and the neighborhood playing. And it's an amazing experience
that I will say something not to miss if you go there. [ Laughter ] >> Eva Reyes Gonzalez: Any other
question from the audience? [ Inaudible ] >> Yunior Terry: I think it's,
we talking about two things that are really interesting
because music at one point here
was pop music here. Jazz was pop. I always made the comparison
like Ella Fitzgerald was like Beyonce or something
at the time. You know, was [inaudible] was
on TV was like really popular. So -- . >> Nat King Cole. >> Yunior Terry: Nat King Cole. Nat King Cole. One of them two was on television all
the time performing and influenced many people. We don't have that anymore here. It's different. For a certain degree
it's harder to see. It's a little more expensive for the younger [inaudible]
to have access to it. I think that that makes
it a little more far to, a little sad, for to find a way
for them to have a opportunity for they don't see
it closely every day. We can talk about
many other things. I could say Cuba jazz
still is like anything. Now we're [inaudible] we've
been here for a few years now. There's a generation of
people now that it's more into like whatever is really
popular right now there's people doing reggae tune
that for me it's like completely different
music and maybe I'm not into it at the moment. But maybe. [Inaudible]. That's what popular over there. There's so more people doing
it because it's maybe catchy because a sort of somehow
people make money quick. I remember we had the time
when we were over there. We were listening to more
jazz because there was groups that were included
in their music and it was more prominent
like [inaudible]. There were more groups that
were really like the top group at the time that were
infusing it more. So we grew up in a generation
in Cuba that had more jazz. We're like every day seeing it. And maybe they, like I said,
the kids now, they see it less because some of the [inaudible]
hit the country so strongly that they just wanted whatever
is popular at the moment. They still, but still
if you go there, there's some amazing players
over there, young players. I don't think it's died off. I think -- . >> Eva Reyes Gonzalez:
Different times. >> Yunior Terry:
Different, just different. But it's a lot of
the great players. When you go over there,
Jazz Festival is in sometime in December, sometime
in January. [Inaudible] a lot
of music and a lot of great players you get to see. >> Yosvany Terry:
There's a question. >> I have so many questions
for you but I'd dearly love to hear what you're
talking about. So if you could play
something -- . >> Yosvany Terry: Right here. [ Inaudible ] >> Adonis Gonzalez: We're
trying to figure out what. [ Laughter ] [ Inaudible ] [ Applause ] [ Inaudible ] >> Yosvany Terry: It was
too early to bring to wake up the saxophone and the bass. [ Music ] So instead I brought
the [inaudible]. >> Eva Reyes Gonzalez:
Yosvany, could you tell us about the [inaudible] quickly? >> Yosvany Terry: Yeah. Yeah. This instrument
is named [inaudible]. And the tradition that my
father learned it from is come from the [inaudible]
from Nigeria. He learned with his uncle but then he developed
his own technique. And he's now considered like the
king of this instrument in Cuba. He's even, he had even traveled
back to Nigeria and went to different [inaudible]. And, yeah, [inaudible]. And it's just a gourd that is
pressed with a net of beads and outside this and it
make a change depending on where you get it. If you, in Africa they sell
it dressed with curry shells. In Cuba it's different [foreign
language spoken], a nice red or black and that's how you
use it, that how you dress it. And now these [inaudible] are
using beads, plastic beads, or even sometimes glass beads. So, as I said, the gourd grows
in many different places. This gourd is actually from
North Carolina or South Carolina because it grows here in
the United States as well. And [inaudible]. It's like I can give it to you
and [inaudible] it will be hard to get something out of it. But, yes, let's listen
to it -- . [ Inaudible ] [ Laughter ] It's an improvised concert. [ Inaudible ] [ Music ] [ Applause ] >> This has been a presentation
of the Library of Congress. Visit us at loc.gov.
