by Rebecca Fasanello
Office Manager, Content
WNET.ORG

Latin music permeates the air of New York City: It’s in the streets, the clubs, the subways, the classroom, the concert stage, in our homes and schools. Like all the arts, it’s at once a stimulus, a playground, and a reflection of humanity. It can fire up our souls and send us soaring. Why does it have such wide appeal?

In order to explore this appeal, I helped produce these four short “interstitials” as locally-aired companion pieces to PBS’s Latin Music USA series, which premiered nationally in October 2009.


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The assignment was daunting and exciting: Coming at it as a television production neophyte — and with very little knowledge of Latin music beyond Mozart’s Requiem — I was, at least, armed with an improvisational musician’s background. I was also fortunate to work with three very talented shooter/editors and a great interviewer. Latin music was everywhere in my life for the eight weeks I worked on this project. And I loved every minute: listening, researching, shooting, writing, and launching it!

Watching the sketches of the 4-part series, Latin Music USA, really got my inquisitive juices flowing: dispelling my own parochial notion that Latin music consists of beating a cowbell with a drumstick and little else. I’m still not crazy about the cowbell but I’m adding plena to my own vocal studies. I set out to investigate the local Latin music scene from two angles: What are the local resources? How/why does it regenerate?

Where in NYC can you learn Latin music in a formal setting – at any age? One of the places I found that really impressed me was the Harbor Conservatory for the Performing Arts in East Harlem. Located in the same building as the newly renovated El Museo del Barrio New York, the Harbor Conservatory also contains the Raices Latin Music Museum Collection, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution. This is where I learned about James Reese Europe’s 369th Infantry (World War I) “Hellfighters” Band. Harbor is about all the performing arts, not just music, and not just Latin music – though Latin music is its specialty. We interviewed Ramon Rodriguez, the Conservatory’s director, as well as three of the students/professionals, about what this music does to them, and what the Harbor Conservatory experience means to them. And I found (not surprisingly) that neither the appreciation for it, nor the performance of it is confined to the Latino population.

WNET’s Rafael Pi Roman was able to secure an interview with the fascinating Cuban musician and educator, Paquito D’Rivera, who emphasizes that “arts education is not a luxury, but rather, a necessity of society.” D’Rivera also voices his concern about the gap between classical and jazz music education due to snobbery between those two musical worlds. That evening our film crew was allowed to tape his show at “The Blue Note” in the Village; a performance which clearly underscores his passionate views on that topic.

Explore it all with open ears!* As Paquito advises: “When you think you are a finished musician … you are finished!”

* still to explore…the Jewish connection