Program Notes: The Roots of Rhythm

PROGRAM (Selections to be announced from the stage.)

JOHN SANTOS

Saturday, January 27 | 8PM

THE ROOTS OF RHYTHM A Jazz @ The Jacobs Concert Gilbert Castellanos, Series Curator Special Guest: percussion John Santos percussion Danny Barber percussion Clayton Cameron percussion Carlos Chavez percussion Matt Dibiase percussion Taku Hirano percussion Monette Marino piano Irving Flores piano, saxophone Kamau Kenyatta bass Mackenzie Leighton The Jazz @ The Jacobs Series is sponsored by Doctor Bob and Mao Shillman.

Performance at the Jacobs Music Center's Copley Symphony Hall

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PROGRAM NOTES | THE ROOTS OF RHYTHM – JANUARY 27

ABOUT THE ARTISTS A seven-time Grammy®-nominated percussionist, US Artists Fontanals Fellow and 2013-14 SFJAZZ’s Resident Artistic Director, JOHN SANTOS is one of the foremost exponents of Afro-Latin music in the world today.

Born in San Francisco, he was raised in the Puerto Rican and Cape Verdean traditions of his family, surrounded by music.

The fertile musical environment of the San Francisco Bay Area shaped his career in a unique way.

CLAYTON CAMERON is known as a dynamic drummer who has also experimented with and perfected the art of brush technique. Cameron has toured with Sammy Davis Jr. and Tony Bennett as well as other legends of the jazz world, including George Shearing, Joe Pass and Joe Williams. During Cameron's time with Tony Bennett the group performed with many great artists including Frank Sinatra, Billie Joel, Sting, Mariah Carey, Brandy, the Back Street Boys, James Taylor, K.D. Lang, Elvis Costello and Ricky Martin.

His studies of Afro-Latin music have included several trips to New York, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Brazil and Colombia. He is known for his innovative use of traditional forms and instruments in combination with contemporary music, and has earned much respect and recognition as a prolific performer, composer, teacher, writer, radio programmer and record/event producer whose career has spanned four decades. John has performed and/ or recorded with acknowledged, multi-generational masters such as Cachao, Dizzy Gillespie, Tito Puente, Bebo Valdés, Max Roach, Eddie Palmieri, Chucho Valdes, Buena Vista Social Club, Joe Henderson, Regina Carter, Chester Thompson, John Faddis, Ed Thigpen, Poncho Sanchez, Oscar Castro Neves, Arturo Sandoval, Nestor Torres, Pete Escovedo and Carlos Santana, among others.

In 1990, after the release of his video The Living Art of Brushes, Clayton was given the honorary title "Brush Master."

John is widely respected as one of the top writers, teachers and historians in the field and was a member of the Latin Jazz Advisory Committee of the Smithsonian Institution. He is currently part of the faculty at the California Conservatory of Jazz (Berkeley, CA), Laney College (Oakland, CA), and the College of San Mateo (CA). He has conducted countless workshops, lectures and clinics in the US, Latin America and Europe since 1973 at institutions of all types including the Smithsonian, the Adventures in Music program of the San Francisco Symphony, the Berklee School of Music in Boston, UCLA, Yale, Stanford, the University of Wisconsin at Madison and the University of Michigan, among others. He has contributed to the international magazines Percussive Notes, Modern Drummer, Modern Percussionist and Latin Percussionist.

In addition to his video, Cameron has created a ground-breaking book on the elusive art of brush playing, entitled Brushworks.

You can hear his masterful work on his 2012 CD Here's to the Messengers: A Tribute to Art Blakey. n

John was the director of the Orquesta Tipica Cienfuegos (19761980) and the award-winning Orquesta Batachanga (1981-1985).

He was founder and director of the internationally renowned, Grammy-nominated Machete Ensemble (1985-2006). He currently directs the highly acclaimed John Santos Sextet Latin jazz ensemble with five full-length CDs under their belt to date.

John received the Community Leadership Award from the San Francisco Foundation in 2011. He was featured prominently in the PBS American Masters documentary, Cachao: Uno Mas (2008), and is the subject of another PBS documentary by Searchlight Films (Oakland, CA), currently in progress. He is an advisory board member of the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance (NY) and the Oaktown Jazz Workshop (Oakland, CA), and a Trustee of SFJAZZ. n

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Born in Los Angeles, California, Cameron received a degree in music from California State University at Northridge. During college, he played in clubs around LA behind artists such as O.C Smith, Ernie Andrews, Jimmy Weatherspoon, instrumentalist Teddy Edwards, Larry Gails (of Thelonious Monk fame) and Gerald Wilson. After graduating from college, Clayton moved to Las Vegas to perform nightly with a jazz group called the Kirk Stuart trio. While in Las Vegas, Cameron experimented with brush techniques. It was during this time that some of the rough ideas for his future videos and books were developed.

Series Sponsor Spotlight

DOCTOR BOB AND MAO SHILLMAN

THE SHILLMANS generously support all San Diego Symphony Orchestra jazz programming through their sponsorships of Jazz @ the Jacobs and Thursday Night Jazz.

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PROGRAM NOTES | THE ROOTS OF RHYTHM – JANUARY 27

TAKU HIRANO, one of the top percussionists on the touring and recording circuit, has been referred to by rock legend Mick Fleetwood, founder and drummer for Fleetwood Mac, as his “secret weapon" for good reason: his training encompasses Classical concert percussion, jazz drum set and traditional Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, West African, Middle Eastern, Indian and Japanese styles and instruments.

She has since branched out as a solo artist releasing her debut album, Coup d’Eclat, and also opened her own school of percussion called MO’RHYTHM. In addition, Monette Marino has created an iPhone App “Mo’Rhythm Africa – Play Along Djembe/ Dunun” now available on iTunes for iPhone/iPad/Apple TV. Prior to her involvement in West African percussion, Monette studied folkloric and popular rhythms from Cuba, Brazil and Korea. n

This training has included a BM with honors from Berklee College of Music as the institution's first graduating Hand Percussion degree major, four years under the tutelage of conga master Giovanni Hidalgo, Middle Eastern percussion studies under world fusion percussionist Jamey Haddad and frame drumming virtuoso Glen Velez, graduate studies in World Music Performance at California Institute of the Arts studying West African and Indian percussion, time spent with Tokyo’s leading taiko drumming dojo through the Nippon Music Foundation and studies in Havana, Cuba both privately with percussion legend Jose Luis "Changuito" Quintana. He also spent his formative yers under the guidance of Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra principal timpanist Kristan Phillips, jazz drumming legend Alan Dawson and jazz fusion/pop drumming guru Ndugu Chancler.

Taku has toured the world with Fleetwood Mac, Whitney Houston, John Mayer, Bette Midler, Stevie Nicks, Lionel Richie, Isaac Hayes, Japanese pop superstar Utada Hikaru, as a soloist on Japanese and Indian percussion with Academy Award-winning Bollywood composer A.R. Rahman (Slumdog Millionaire) and as a featured soloist on the #7 top-grossing concert tour of all time, Cirque du Soleil’s “Michael Jackson: THE IMMORTAL World Tour.”

Taku is a regular contributor to Modern Drummer and DRUM! magazines, was an instructor at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, has taught master classes and seminars at NYU, University of Missouri, Los Angeles College of Music and at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC). n

MONETTE MARINO is a world percussionist. She spent the majority of the last 20 years studying under Master Drummer Mamady Keita from Guinea.

In 1999 she received her Teaching Certificate from Mr. Keita and opened a branch of Tam Tam Mandingue USA in San Diego, California. From 2004–12 she managed Mamady’s world tours, assisted him in teaching master classes and performed with his ensemble, Sewa Kan. She received her diploma from Mamady Keita and Tam Tam Mandingue in 2011.

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