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Tiempo Libre: Jorge Gomez (left), Luis Castillo, Joaquin Diaz, Hilario Bell, Leandro Gonzalez, Tebelio Fonte and Cristobal Ferrer Garcia
CRACKERFARM
Cuban–American Tiempo Libre Fires Up Bach-Fused Timba
When Miami-based Tiempo Libre signed to
Sony Masterworks last December, it would have
been expected for the band to bring solid Afro-
Cuban timba to wider audiences. But the seven
Cuban émigrés, together since 2001, took a surprising
turn toward the baroque on the new disc
Bach In Havana.
“We mix everything,” said bandleader/keyboardist
Jorge Gomez.
Tiempo Libre’s fiery conflation of Johann
Sebastian Bach works with traditional Cuban
sounds, Latin jazz and pop. It isn’t a huge
stretch. Cuba has a long tradition of embracing
European classical music and the members of
Tiempo Libre studied at Havana’s prestigious
National School of the Arts, where Bach’s
music is respected. Bach was heard at Gomez’s
home, too, as his father, Jorge Gomez Labrana,
is a respected classical pianist. Evenings found
the students caught up in Afro-Cuban music at
dances and religious ceremonies.
“It was inevitable that the two would eventually
merge creatively,” Gomez said. “We revere
Bach for his musical genius. He was composing
works for his contemporaries as a popular artist,
while also creating deeply religious compositions.
He was fascinated with dance rhythms,
which makes him an even more powerful inspiration.”
Tiempo Libre’s take on “Minuet In G” and
“Mass In B Minor” fuse Bach with Cuban
dances, including bata, bolero, danzón, guaguanco,
son and timba. Guest saxophonists Yosvany
Terry and Paquito D’Rivera also add to Bach In
Havana’s improvisational direction.
The group, whose name translates as “free
time,” was one of the first bands to specialize in
timba. Gomez called timba “a combination of
the Buena Vista Social Club and Chick Corea.”
He drew a distinction between timba and betterknown
salsa: “We have different instruments.
We play electronic keyboards, and the bass has
five or six strings, looking for a big sound.
We’re more energetic and more jazzy. We have
a lot of solos.” —Frank-John Hadley
Shank Sailed
Above Expectations
Bud Shank, a leading multireed voice of West
Coast jazz, died of a pulmonary embolism at his
home in Tucson, Ariz., on April 3. He was 82.
After a tenure with Charlie Barnet, Shank
gained national attention as Stan Kenton’s lead
alto in the Innovations in Modern Music band of
1950–’51. He seldom got to solo and went to
Los Angeles, where he gained confidence in
George Redman’s raucous r&b band. He joined
Howard Rumsey’s Lighthouse All-Stars and
blossomed as a player, sharing fluidity with his
main inspiration, Lester Young.
Shank picked up the flute casually around
that time. He led his own bands from ’56–’61
and, when the jazz market was depressed,
Shank’s treatments of pop material—like the
Michelle album—were big sellers.
Shank then plunged into recording work and
became Los Angeles’ first-call flute player,
enhancing “California Dreamin’” by the Mamas
and Papas and The Association’s “Windy,”
among others. But Shank chafed at being what
he called “a studio sausage” and found gratification
in racing sailboats.
Beginning in 1980, Shank began to remake
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Bud Shank
himself into a hard-edged alto saxophonist. He
continued touring and playing throughout the
past few years, including duos with Brazilian
pianist João Donato.
Pianist Bill Mays played with Shank since the
early ’70s. “Bud wanted to be taken seriously as
a jazz player, that’s why he gave up the flute,”
Mays said. “He felt he was typecast as part of the
old West Coast jazz period and he wanted to be
seen as a bebopper. He was stubborn. The same
thing that made him sail from California to
Hawaii made him continually reach for something
in his music.”
—Kirk Silsbee
Avakian Hits 90
Columbia Records producer George
Avakian (left) celebrated his 90th birthday
with his wife, violinist Anahid
Ajemian, on March 18 at New York’s
Birdland. Guests included Tony
Bennett (right), Quincy Jones and Bob
Newhart. Paquito D’Rivera was also on
hand and sat in to perform Louis
Armstrong songs with David
Ostwald’s Gully Low Jazz Band.
JACK VARTOOGIAN/FRONTROWPHOTOS
16 DOWNBEAT June 2009