Pedrito Martínez is the new face of an old Cuban tradition. His guarapachangueo – an open, heavily improvisational, polyrhythmic rumba that evolved from guaguancó, one of three twentieth-century rumba styles – is steeped in the multicultural cross-currents of New York, where he’s lived for twenty-two years. But Martínez’s roots lie deep in the Cayo Hueso secction of Centro Habana, the cradle of modern rumba. Martínez made his Madison debut at Overture’s Capitol Theater in February, 2015. Next week, on March 27, he returns – this time to the Wisconsin Union Theater’s Play Circle. It’s a small venue for such a major musician, but that gives us an intimate, almost club-like opportunity to hear Martínez’s quartet, and that’s gotta be good.
Martinez is a wondrous percussionist who’s taken the States by storm. Two
years after coming to the States he won top honors in the Thelonious Monk
Institute Afro-Latin hand percussion competition, and he’s reaped many more
medals since. He’s both classic rumba vocalist and surprising innovator. His
instruments of choice are tumbadoras (congas) and the hourglass-shaped,
double-headed batá – for performace, a secular version of the sacred drum used
to call up the Efik spirits of Afro-Cuban Abakuá.
When he first came to Madison he had one album out – Grammy-nominated The Pedrito Martínez Group (Mótema
Music, 2013). Now he has two more: Habana Dreams (Mótema Music, 2016) and Duologue, a soulful improvisation on
themes both island and Yuma with classically trained Cuban pianist Alfredo
Rodríguez (Mack Avenue Music, 2019).
Both albums are touring right now, but it’s the Habana Dreams group (minus the star-studded list of guest artists
featured on the album) that’s coming to the Play Circle.
I caught up with Martínez by phone on a bitter early February day.
CulturalOyster: When I interviewed you in 2015 you told me
your music is Afro-Cuban “con mucho de Nueva York,” but that at heart you’re a
folkloric musician, a rumbero from the marginal streets of Cayo Hueso. When you played here that year you’d been in
New York eighteen years, your group had a single, eponymous album out, and you
were playing guarapachangueo bastante neoyorkizao, if there is such a word. I’ve only heard a little of Duologue so far, but the other new
record – Habana Dreams – is
definitely more Cuba than New York, maybe because it was recorded at
Egrem. Do you see it that way?
Martínez:
Definitely. The fact that we recorded it in Cuba makes it completely different
in flavor. The folklore is more present
and direct, very clear. It was a big
inspiration to be in the studio with my brothers and friends I haven’t seen for
a long time. It was a very emotional
recording. And it was a dream come true
to have [master Cuban percussionist] Román Díaz, who was my inspiration growing
up, and Isaac Delgado, and Wynton Marsalis, Angelique Kidjo, and Telmary Díaz
guesting in the studio with us. Ruben Blades was there for one track, too. He was amazing. And Edgar Pantoja [Martínez’s
former pianist] did two tremendous arrangements for that album. It was great.
That record is definitely better than the first one.
CulturalOyster:
Almost all the best Cuban musicians are expats now, but Cuba is so beautiful –
Havana is so beautiful – after that trip didn’t you want to go back and live
there?
Martínez:
You know, I know the US more than Cuba, I’ve been here so many years. It’s kinda weird, every time I go to Cuba I
feel very emotional and sad that I don’t live there but my family is here now
and my daughter was born here and all the recognition I’ve had as a musician
has come from the US. In Cuba nobody
knew who Pedrito was until Pedrito got out of Cuba. All the awards I’ve been getting here – I owe
a lot to the US. Every time I go to Cuba
I absorb the energy – it’s a blood transfusion, and I continue with that force
of nature, trying to do new music and use new ideas I bring from Cuba. But I
belong to both, fifty-fifty.
I’ve learned a lot from the
US. I’ve been on so many records and
collaborated with so many great musicians.
The Thelonious Monk award opened so many doors for me. In 2014 and 2018
I got best jazz percussion player of the year awards. And in 2014 I got the Sphinx Medal of Excellence
[Sphinx is an organization dedicated to supporting the power of diversity in
the arts]. I was never going to have
that in Cuba, and I was never going to play with Paul Simon, with Bruce
Springsteen – none of that ever would have happened. I thank Cuba for the many
things it gave me, the knowledge I have of folkloric music from the island –
and thanks to that I’ve had all these opportunities outside of Cuba. Maybe in the future I can go back there to
live, but not at this point.
But I just came back from
there a week ago – I played at the Jazz Plaza Festival with Harold López-Nussa
and others, it was a tribute to Tata Güines, who I played with in Cuba for
three years – he was one of my icons, one of the greatest congueros who ever
lived – so that was amazing. I’m going
more often to play music there now, but I’d like to go soon and play for the
public with my own group.
CulturalOyster:
Juan de Marcos once told me that you come straight from the source, and that
you will conserve rumba for the future. And in one of the videos on your
website – the one called “Havana Cultura” [it’s at the top of this post] you
say that in your youth you were seen on the island as a rumbero, not as a
musician – but that now rumba is in style.
What was the personal journey you had to take to love the rumbero that
you are?
Martínez:
It was a long way to go. Rumba was a way
to live in Cuba when I was young. I
discovered that I love Cuban folkloric music more than anything. Unfortunately, because of the economic and
political and social situation then, being a folkloric musician wasn’t great –
there weren’t as many opportunities as there are now. But I learned from the
real ones, and that’s essential to the knowledge I have now as rumbero, as
batalero. A mission I have now is to
pass along that spirituality and knowledge – to pass along the legacy of all
the rumberos who’ve passed away – to keep alive the African diaspora. In every record I try to incorporate Yoruba
chants and play some of the rumba patterns I learned when I was little.
I’m still learning and
it’s a long way to go, to inject this culture into the new generation – but I
want to make sure they know this is a beautiful culture that can give them so
many alternatives. People used to think
that because I didn’t go to music school I wasn’t going to be an amazing
musician or a great composer or singer, but the opposite is true – in Cuba if
you go to music school they teach you classical. If you want to learn modern
styles like timba, or the folkloric styles, you need to go to the street, and
my school was the street. I’m very happy
about that.
CulturalOyster:
That same video reveals the Abakuá in you, the babalao, the echoes left by the Muñequitos
de Matanzas and all the other great rumberos of a now-gone era. But rumba has always been open to new
influences, that’s how guarapachangueo came about. You aren’t a young musician
any more – you’re a lauded master of Afro-Cuban percussion. So tell me, what’s the future – where is
rumba going now, entering the third decade of the twenty-first century? This is a musical question but also a social
one – some of the songs you wrote for Habana
Dreams have very socially conscious lyrics.
Martínez:
I’m extremely happy that rumba is at such an amazing level right now. People recognize it all over the world. Everybody wants to be a rumbero, which is
something that’s never happened before. When I lived in Cuba being a rumbero
was something marginal. No one wanted to
be a rumbero. But now in any kind of
music people want to incorporate some rumba.
We need to continue innovating, but we cannot lose the identity of
old-school rumba – we can’t lose what all the great rumberos did for us. We’re students, we’re just contiuing the
history book they put on the table for us to use, to keep building on, to keep
it alive. I’m not doing anything
new. I’m just continuing to build on all
the ideas they had for us.
CulturalOyster:
What’s been the highlight of your musical career, to date?
Martínez:
When I was young and in Cuba I used to listen to Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen,
Elton John – and some years ago after I moved to the States I was part of a
fundraiser Elton John does for the AIDS Foundation. I played that event three
times. They always invite big stars – Lady Gaga was there once when I was
invited, and Springsteen was there and asked me to do two albums with him, and
then I played with Paul Simon twice at Lincoln Center. That’s a big deal for a rumbero from the
middle of Havana. It’s insane. It’s a
big step.
CulturalOyster:
Last question – who’s coming with you this time? It looks like the singer and percussionist
Jhair Sala, who was with you last time, is on the bill – he’s Peruvian, right?
Martínez:
Yes. He’s been with us for over fifteen
years. The bass player who’s coming this time is new for me, though – Sebastian
Natal, from Uruguay. He’s a virtuoso – a
great singer and a unique human being. I really love this band. I’m not saying I didn’t love the previous
one, but this one is very special, and everyone’s very humble and down to
earth.
Our
keyboardist is Isaac Delgado – junior, that is, not the timbero who started NG
la banda. He was playing with his dad but he decided to come to New York and
coincidently my former pianist was leaving, so he’s been with us a year – he
sings just like his father. We were together in Harlem just last night and
Isaac senior was there, singing with us.
CulturalOyster:
Pedrito, gracias. Aquí te
esperamos.
_________________ interview by SK. Text has been slightly edited for clarity.
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