Project Created: “The Journey”
Bio: Pablo Batista has performed, recorded and toured international for nearly 30 years with some of the biggest stars in rhythm and blues, jazz, Latin, pop, and gospel. In 1991, while teaching at AMLA between tours Pablo received his first grant from the Philadelphia Folklore project. He went on to receive this award four times, and continued travel to Cuba to study under the masters Pello ‘el Afrokan,’ Roberto Vizcaino, Miguel ‘Anga’ Diaz and others. In 2000, Pablo was the recipient of the prestigious Pew Fellowship in Folk Arts. This enabled him to deepen his knowledge of the Afro-Cuban tradition at the source. Pablo Batista continues to study, practice, record, tour, and teach. In 2010 after several previous tours and Grammy-winning recordings with soul mega-star Alicia Keys, he was back on the road with her “Elements of Freedom Tour.” This culminated in a performances at the World Cup ceremonies in South Africa before an estimated combined live and broadcast audience of over one billion people. 2011 found him working on a new, innovative series of compositions and arrangements that seek to integrate African Yoruba elements in the more accessible musical styles which he is so familiar, and so proficient. In this way, Pablo Batista hopes to make the tradition more widely accessible to new audiences of varied ethnic backgrounds and musical tastes, and to show how deeply the “Latin tinge” continues to inform and animate American popular music.
Project Description: “My concept is to combine the elements of straight-ahead jazz in the vein of John Coltrane and Miles Davis, with the big-band Latin arrangements made famous by Tito Puente, Machito, and Mario Bauza, and the traditional ancient, African rhythms of the Yoruba of Nigeria… to fuse 3 genres of music: the ancient Bata rhythms of the Yoruba, Afro-Cuban rhythms, and jazz. I will collaborate with Dennis Guevara, pianist and arranger for my ensemble Pablo Batista and the Mambo Syndicate, to outline and orchestrate the structure of each genre and write the individual music instruments charts.” – Pablo Batista, 2014
Credits:
Pablo Batista - Principal Composer; Arranger; Percussionist
Victor Pablo Garcia-Gaetán - Co-composer; Percussionist
Dennis Guevara - Co-composer; Keyboards
MUSICIANS & DANCERS
Nelson Miranda – Trumpet
Jay Webb – Trumpet
Don Collins – Trombone
Jose Maunez – Trombone
Mike Rivera – Bass
Kimberly Garrison – Storyteller
Dorothy Wilke – Dancer
Ron Woods – Capoiera Dancers / Martial Artist
Jesse Bermudez – Opening Remarks
BATA DRUMMERS
Andreas Cisneros – Iyá
John Wilke – Itótele
Christian Noguera – Okónkolo
THE JOURNEY STRING QUARTET
Maria Monclova – Violin
Luis Cuevas – Violin
Kristine Yang – Viola
Yeliza Alemán-Gaetán - Cello
Performance Dates: Pablo was in residency from November 1, 2013 – June 21, 2014. His student workshop was held on February 28, his public workshop on March 18, his work-in-progress on May 15, and his world premiere was held on June 21, 2014.