Posted on February 10, 2008

One on One with Arturo Stable
Notes On Canvas - Jazz Portraits of My Favorite Paintings
Origen Records 2007

by Danilo Navas

“Music, Art and poetry have always fed each other as evidenced in the great works of artists such as Steve Lacy, Jack Kerouac and Erick Satie. Arturo is a visionary artist... He has developed a reputation for bringing people together through his refreshing and captivating compositions. 'Notes on Canvas' takes his innovative composing and producing skills to extraordinary levels... 'Notes on Canvas' was realized with such an inventive, ambitious, and exuberant determination that I am sure you will appreciate and enjoy very much."
-Jane Bunnett

Intro

Arturo Stable belongs to a young generation of Cuban musicians living abroad. Formally educated in Cuba, graduates from prestigious music schools, they have had the opportunity to travel and further their education outside of the island, while at the same time growing as artists and educators. In Arturo's case, he lived in Mexico, and from there moved to US (see his bio). Back in September 2004, our Co-Editor Tomas Peña interviewed Arturo when he released his first CD, entitled "3rd Step." Three years later, we find him releasing "Notes on Canvas," a superb project exploring the magical combination of visual arts, paintings, and music. It's now my turn to talk to Arturo about his "Jazz Portraits of my Favorite Paintings," as he puts it. It was a pleasure to meet him in during the 35th Conference of the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE), which was held in Toronto on January 8-12, 2008). He came as a clinician, and also as a performer. Accompanied by a local band of Cuban/Torontonians, led by pianist David Virelles, Arturo performed at one of the best hangouts for Latin Jazz, Cuban and World Music, LULA Lounge. One of the great Ladies of Jazz, Jane Bunnett -who wrote the liner notes for Arturo's CD-, participated as a special guest. The big surprise of the night was to have legendary Bobby Carcassés in the house. He made a drawing of Jane Bunnett on a canvas while Arturo, Jane, David and the rest of the band, performed the song "La Ventana Mágica - The Magical Window," one of the tracks on "Notes on Canvas."

Biography

The winds of change are blowing through the Latin jazz world. Increasingly, they are as fresh as they are strong, signaling the emergence of new stylistic directions for the venerable genre and the arrival of the idiom's next generation of innovators and leaders. In the vanguard of the movement's most talented young exponents is Arturo Stable, an energetic, resourceful and innovative free spirit whose broad range of talents defies easy categorization.

Stable was born in Santiago de Cuba, the cradle of the island nation's most important center of culture and home of such elemental music styles as the Guajira and Son. Nurtured in a family deeply involved in the performing and visual arts and encouraged by his father Arturo Sr., a musician and a painter,
it's not surprising that the youngster began his formal study of music at the age of four, taking piano and theory lessons. When the family moved to Havana, he continued his music education. He earned his first degree, in percussion, at the Amadeo Roldán Conservatory, the same esteemed institution that has over
the decades groomed the talents of countless other celebrated Cuban musicians, among them pianists Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Hilario Durán and saxophonist Yosvany Terry.

In 1993, Stable relocated to Puebla, Mexico, a bustling metropolis south of Mexico City. While there he polished his skills as a percussionist working as a sideman, performing everything from Latin jazz to rock and traditional Latin styles with such noted artists as Los Hermanos Castro, a famed Mexican vocal group, and flamenco guitarist Roberto Amaya. He also began his career as an educator, teaching classical and Afro-Cuban percussion at the Puebla State University (Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla). At the same time, Stable continued his quest of knowledge, pursuing a post-graduate degree in music education from the Puebla State Development University (Universidad del Desarrollo del Estado de Puebla).

His rapidly expanding talents did not go unnoticed. In 2001, Stable received a scholarship to study at the Berklee College of Music, where he earned a degree in Contemporary Writing and Production and cultivated friendships with
many of the musicians who accompany him on Notes on Canvas. Stable has gained invaluable experience performing or recording with such illustrious leaders as Dave Samuels, Paquito D’ Rivera, Jane Bunnett, David Sanchez, Victor Mendoza, Hector Martignon, Leonel Loueke, Lincoln Goines, Giovanni Hidalgo, Miguel Zenon as well as with the Caribbean Jazz Project and the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, where he accompanied pianist Peter Nero. Today a resident of the Bronx, he serves as an endorser of and clinician for Latin Percussion Project.

Interview

Arturo Stable performing at Lula Lounge with special guest Jane Bunnett. Bobby Carcassés drawing at the back. January 2008.

DN: Hi Arturo, welcome to Toronto. How did this concert at LULA Lounge come together? I believe this is your first visit to Toronto as a performer.

AS: Hi, Danilo. First I would like to thank you for your time and for your support to my music. I love your web site and I’m very happy to be part of Latin Jazz Network. Now, about the concert at Lula Lounge, Yes, it is my first time in Toronto and I have to thank many people for that. It was a collective effort. I was invited by IAJE to present a Clinic during the convention and Don Lucoff, who is the publicist I’ve been working with on the Notes on Canvas project, recommended me to look for a gig in the city. Then I decided to call my friends in Toronto and they gave me a few tips and offered me all their support. I’m talking about David Virelles, Jane Bunnett and Larry Cramer. Without their support I just couldn’t have made it. I also have to thanks Adriana Flores from Origen Records and Tracy and Howard from Lula Lounge. They were also very supportive and always willing to go the extra yard.

DN: Tell us about your involvement with IAJE, and your participation as a  clinician on this conference.

AS: IAJE was a trip! I had a great time. I made many new friends and some great contacts within the industry. I prepared myself for the conference, not only for my Master Class, but for the people I wanted to speak with, and some specific goals I was after, such as some endorsements and record labels interaction. I’m very happy with the results, and the Clinic itself was really happening. I thought nobody was going to be there at 9:00 in the morning, but the space was almost full for a moment and I had musicians such as Paquito D’Rivera sitting on the audience… That made it even funnier and enjoyable!

Arturo Stable performing at Lula Lounge. 01/10/08

DN: Jazz Portraits. Visual arts, paintings and Jazz music is indeed a magical combination. How did you make the project possible, from the beginning, when it was only an idea, to the actual realization of the final product?

AS: Well, that project took like one and a half year to be out in the market. The whole concept behind the music is and idea that has been with me for many years. I love Fine Arts and I always wanted to do some work combining different art disciplines such as music, poetry and painting. There are many ways to approach this concept, and I just decided to go for writing music inspired on some of my favorite paintings, because it came fairly natural to me. First I spend a few months researching for the right paintings and then, I chose around twenty of them, and started writing some sketches. After a few weeks, I picked nine of the best pieces and finished the arrangements. In some cases I even knew the musicians I was writing for, which was a great advantage for me. The studio sessions were a lot of fun. I’m actually very happy that every musician that I wanted was actually able to play in the album, because it was not only about the music, but also about the intentions behind the compositions, and the relationship with the paintings.
 
After I finished the master, I got a little stuck with the business part of the project, but finally everything came into place and after a few months we continued in our way. The final product is of the best quality. The design is superb as well as the packaging and definitely pays tribute to the work of so many talented musicians that participated on the recording. The CD includes a 12 pages booklet with all the paintings and commentaries about the painters, the studio sessions and a bunch of information that in my opinion, made this album something special, something you want to collect and not only to hear the music.

DN: Every song in Notes on Canvas is a microcosmos. I'm curious about the creative process, the different phases you went through while thinking, writing, arranging, composing...

AS: It’s really not that difficult you know, after you made up your mind and the concept is clear on your head, it’s just a lot of hard work and discipline. Something that I also wanted to work in this album was the possibility of playing percussion in different settings and with different approaches. In some tunes I’m playing in a trio format, in others in a quartet and in some of them as a quintet. The way I interact with the band is different in many of the tunes. Sometimes my playing is more open in comparison with a regular Latin Jazz groove. It is a great advantage to write your own music, because you have a much clear idea of your role within the band.

Bobby Carcassés working on a drawing of Jane Bunnett while she's performing with Arturo.

DN: Tell us about the musicians who participated on this project, and the songs they laboriously crafted under your guidance.

AS: There are 17 musicians in Notes on Canvas. They are all amazing and they played the music with a lot of passion and commitment. I decided to use that many musicians because this album is very much a compositional work, and I wanted to support the fact that each composition is different from each other, because of course, all the paintings are different. I have the privilege to have in the album musicians such as Paquito D’Rivera, David Sanchez, Victor Mendoza, Esperanza Spalding, Francisco Mela, Dafnis Prieto, Aruan Ortiz, George Garzone and many others. All of them great!

The songs on the album have the same name as the paintings, such as La Jungla (by Wilfredo Lam), Gioconda (by Leonardo da Vinci) Clock Explotion (by Salvador Dali) and so forth.

DN: It was a great experience to see you performing while Bobby Carcassés was drawing a portrait of Jane Bunnett, inspired by the notes of your music. It was like closing the circle, you and the band playing music inspired by paintings and at the same time inspiring an artist to draw. What can you comment about this?

AS: Well, that was definitely a great surprise. I know Bobby since I was a kid. He and my dad use to hang together back in the 60’s and 70’s and when Jane Bunnett told me that Bobby was in Toronto, I was very happy to hear it. She came up with the necessary tools because she is also a little beat of a painter herself and the rest you saw it. Bobby is a great artist and one of the founders of the new Jazz scene in Cuba. It was really a treat, not only for the audience, but also for us on the stage. You don’t see that every day. It was a little beat magical…The saints were around that night, if you know what I mean.

DN: Arturo, another legendary musician attended this IAJE conference. I'm talking about one of the greatest Cuban congueros, Candido Camero. Can you give us your impressions about him and his legacy?

AS: It was a great pleasure to see Candido again, and in such a good shape! He played the congas on his interview and it was truly amazing to see how precise and logic his playing still is. He is a living legend and his contribution will be there forever on the dozens of recording in which he has participated. From Dizzy's to Art Blakey, Tito Puente to Jobim, to Charlie Parker... I can only hope one day I will achieve half of his experience!

Arturo Stable with Legendary Cuban Master, Percussionist Candido Camero.

DN: In my intro to this feature about you and your music, I state that you belong to a young generation of Cuban musicians who have established outside of Cuba. What commentaries can you make about this experience of life, being formally trained in your own country and then opening up to the world in another country (ies)?

AS: Well, that’s actually a great point Danilo, because I believe my generation is the one leading the course of our music right now, and most of us share that fact in common. We were all trained in Cuba, but we had the opportunity to later interact with other cultures and especially with Jazz. Our music reflects all the richness of the Cuban folklore and traditions, but also is full of new ideas and sounds as a consequence of our experience abroad. I think is a very special time in history to be a Latin musician living in New York. Many things are changing and we are in the middle of everything, we are part of that change.

DN: Finally, what can you tell us about the recent passing of two of the greatest Cuban Masters, Patato and Tata Güines?

AS: Well, these are two irreplaceable losses for the international music community. Tata and Patato were Latin Jazz pioneers, and two pillars of the modern technique of the congas. They both found their own schools of playing throughout their recordings, performing and teachings. Tata's sound on the congas is just unique, and his improvisational ideas are just so fresh and logical that they have become hard to match. Patato, on the other hand, was a very energetic performer. He always had the audience on his pocket, and he developed unique melodies on the congas, that opened up a whole new world for our generation. They are gone physically, but their spirits and their legacy will remain with us. They will continue to grow on the hands of all the good Congueros of newer generations.

For additional information on Arturo Stable visit: www.arturostable.com

Danilo Navas - Editor
Latin Jazz Network
February 2008

From left to right: David Virelles, piano; Devon Henderson, bass; Arturo Stable, congas; Ethan Ardelli, drums; Luis Deniz: alto sax.

Song Titles:

1. La Jungla (The Jungle); 2. Guernica; 3. Impression/Sunrise; 4. Frida's Portrait; Gioconda; Van Gogh's Self Portrait; La Ventana Magica (The Magical Window); Composition #8; Clock Explosion.

The Musicians:

Arturo Stable: congas, percussion, spoken words; Aruan Ortiz: piano (3, 5, 6, 8, 9); Barry Ries trumpet (5); Charles Flores bass (1); Dafnis Prieto: drums (1); David Sanchez: tenor sax (1); Esperanza Spalding: voice, spoken words(4); Fernando Huergo: bass (4); Francisco Mela: drums (3, 5, 6, 8, 9); George Garzone: tenor sax (2, 9); John Lockwood: bass (2); Osmany Paredes: piano (1); Paquito D’ Rivera: clarinet (7); Peter Slavov: bass (3, 5, 6, 8, 9); Rafael Alcala: piano(4); Rene Izquierdo: guitar (7); Victor Mendoza: marimba (4).

Note: All photographs on this feature taken by Danilo Navas