Paquito D’Rivera — who brings his jazz artistry to McCarter Theater in Princeton’s “Jazz in June” series on June 9 — remembers a defining moment in his native Havana, Cuba.
He was eight years old and heard a recording of clarinetist/bandleader Benny Goodman.
D’Rivera’s professional saxophonist father had brought home a copy of the 1939 “Spirituals to Swing,” an album featuring the first time Goodman’s band was joined by African-American musicians on a concert hall stage.
“I asked my father, ‘What is this music?’ He said, ‘This is swing, this is jazz, the Benny Goodman Orchestra.’ That was a turning point,” D’Rivera says during a telephone interview from his North Bergen home.
“Ever since, I wanted to come to New York City. My father played that record for me in 1956.”
“Music — classical and jazz — was always around in the house,” D’ Rivera continues about his early life. “(My father) was a classical musician, but he loved (jazz masters) Lester Young and Stan Getz and so many other jazz people, so, I have to blame him for that, for sparking my interest in jazz.”
While his parents were eventually able to come to the United States several years after the communist-led Cuban Revolution in 1959, their son had to wait.
“My parents came here with my sister in 1968, but I had to stay in Cuba because I was at what they call military age. I played and marched in a military band,” he says.
However, he also says he also got his first big break in his professional career there, thanks to a world-famous New Jersey jazz musician. “I met Dizzy Gillespie in 1977 in Cuba. He was there on a cultural visit to Havana with a group with [saxophonist] Stan Getz, (pianist) Earl Fatha Hines, and (multi-instrumentalist) David Amram.”
D’Rivera became a working musician and used time in Spain to arrange a visit to the United States in 1980. “Since my parents were already here, I asked for political asylum and got into this country.”
Now 40-some years later, he continues bringing his Latin and Afro-Cuban tinged versions of traditional jazz tunes to international audiences.
And for the McCarter performance, he’ll be joined by trumpeter Diego Urcola, drummer Daphnes Prieto, bassist Armando Gola, and percussionist Roberto “Tato” Vizcaino.
But most importantly, the event will feature D’Rivera’s longtime friend, 81-year-old Florida-based, Cuban-raised pianist Chucho Valdes – hence the concert being promoted as the “Chucho Valdes and Paquito D’Rivera Reunion.”
“I met (Valdes) when I was about 15 years old at a club in Havana,” says D’Rivera. “He was born in 1941; I was born in 1948. Somebody took me to a jam session, and Chucho was playing piano. I was blown away, and also, my father was a friend of his father, also a piano player, Bebo Valdes.”
“I remember it was a jam session in a nightclub on a Sunday afternoon,” he says, “and later on, two or three years later, I got a gig in a variety theater and Chucho was the pianist, so we’ve had a long friendship and long career together.”
The concert presentation will highlight music composed by D’Rivera and Valdes for their album “I Miss You Too.” The work was created after Valdes was able to emigrate from Cuba and the two were able to work together again.
“I Miss You Too” is just one of D’Rivera’s recordings. Shortly after arriving in the New York area in the 1980s, D’Rivera was signed to CBS and has since recorded more than 30 albums and won 11 Grammy and Latin Grammy Awards.
In addition to his presence as a recording artist and New York City musician, D’Rivera was a founding member and co-director of the innovative musical ensemble Irakere and a founding member of the United Nations Orchestra, a 15-piece ensemble organized by Dizzy Gillespie to showcase the fusion of Latin and Caribbean influences with jazz. The group received a Grammy in 1991, the same year D’Rivera received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Carnegie Hall for his contributions to Latin jazz music.
While D’Rivera’s concerts and recordings reflect his dedication to jazz music, his contributions to classical music are also noteworthy. He has appeared as a wind soloist for several European and American orchestras, including the London Philharmonic, Warsaw Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony, Florida Philharmonic Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Puerto Rico Symphony, Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra, and others.
He also contributed to the art form with two books. “My Sax Life” published by Northwestern University Press, chronicles his national and international travels, and “Letters To Yeyito” is his reflection on music and his career as shared to a young music lover.
Now at 75, D’Rivera says he has so much to be thankful for, actualizing his childhood vision to come to the center of the jazz world, New York City, and to be able to tour internationally from his home base in Hudson County.
“Really, that’s all I know how to do. It’s all I have been doing since I got here to the New York area is playing jazz and classical music. I’ve been fortunate enough to travel around the entire world.”
Chucho Valdes & Paquito D’Rivera Reunion, McCarter Theatre, 91 University Place, Princeton. Friday, June 9, 8 p.m. $25 to $65.
Other concert events for “Jazz In June” are as follows:
Joey Alexander, Saturday, June 10 at 8 p.m. The 19-year-old Indonesian jazz pianist taught himself to play jazz at six by listening to his father’s records, won the Grand Prix at the 2013 Master-Jam Fest when he was nine, and by 11 years old, he had released his first album, “My Favorite Things,” becoming the first Indonesian artist to crack the Billboard 200 album chart. He’s made waves for his virtuosic renditions of standards like Thelonious Monk’s “Round Midnight,” but he continues to grow as an artist: His fifth and latest album Origin (released last year) is his first to feature entirely original compositions.
Melissa Aldana Quartet, Friday, June 16 at 8 p.m. The Brooklyn-based, Chile-born bandleader and tenor sax player wields a meditative interpretation of language and vocabulary. She’s the first female instrumentalist to win the Thelonious Monk Award in 2013, which led to a contract with Concord Jazz to record her LP Melissa Aldana & Crash Trio in 2014. Tracks from her last two albums — 2019’s Visions and last year’s 12 Stars — were nominated for the Best Improvised Jazz Solo Performance Grammy. “12 Stars,” her first LP for the jazz label Blue Note, grapples with the concepts of child rearing, familial forgiveness, acceptance, and self-love — written and recorded in the wake of a long relationship.
Maria Schneider Orchestra, Saturday, June 17 at 8 p.m. The composer and bandleader began making musical statements with her first recording, 1994’s “Evanescence.” In addition to writing for her 18-member collective, she’s won seven Grammys, collaborated with David Bowie, and was named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2019. Her 2020 “Data Lords” was a Pulitzer Prize Finalist and named Jazz Album of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association, and won France’s Grand Prix de l’Académie du Jazz.
For more information: 609-258-2787 or www.mccarter.org.
