Chano Pozo: his work and musical legacy deserve greater visibility

July 9, 2018

When almost 70 years have passed since his murder, Chano resists dying as a legend: he has left enough to reappear again and again in the imagination of all those who once heard or spoke his name or remembered some segment of that life which was undoubtedly a true thriller worthy of the best cinematography. Chano has decided to make himself corporeal and tangible, demanding to be taken into account beyond the anecdotes about the vicissitudes of his complex life.

And indeed, his work and musical legacy deserve, along with his anecdotal history, greater visibility and conscious recognition in our country, for being not only the brilliant composer, percussionist and performative actor that he was, but one of the Cuban musicians who has exerted the greatest influence on music worldwide, with his responsible participation, alongside Dizzy Gillespie, in the organic incorporation of Afro-Cuban percussion into jazz.

As I began to inventory the incursions into this subject made by my predecessors in journalism, literature and audiovisual media, I became aware that I wanted to rely essentially on primary sources and testimonies and to use secondary and successive sources cautiously.

And it was my almost obsessive purpose to transcend the anecdotal, acknowledging it or subjecting it to the scrutiny of doubt and its subsequent verification, wherever possible, to further highlight Chano the musician, Chano the composer, Chano the performative actor, personal qualities that still suffer from the supremacy and even sympathy for the marginal Chano.

It has been he himself, through the traces left during his short but intense life, who has guided my steps toward the primary sources that can evidence them; by his hand appear in this book his personal imprint perfectly documented in what appears to be the only interview found and granted by Chano to a journalist, which has an essentially autobiographical character up to the moment it was published in June 1942.

Also evident in the book is the place that the Cuban press dedicated to him in his multiple facets and events of diverse kinds, from the first appearance of a news item referring to him at the early age of 13 years, until his death, and which demonstrates the magnitude of Chano Pozo's popularity and influence on Cuban life and the musical scene in those years, before traveling to the United States.

He was not a marginal figure touched by a magic wand that placed him on a plane or ship to New York: there was exponential growth from total empiricism on the streets, the Prado's open-air spaces where he brushed past, the carnivals, until he conquered recognition as a musician in his own country.

Of special significance was following Chano Pozo's passage through the radio station RHC Cadena Azul during the first decade of the forties, when RHC was the station with the highest ratings, and which had an unavoidable importance in the launch of his musical career with ventures into radio, theaters, cabarets and even cinema in Cuba.

I was particularly interested in reflecting on and analyzing the impressions and memories of Cuban and American musicians who shared stages and tours with him and who were able to distill, through biographies, memoirs and interviews, firsthand information and opinions for the book. Of particular significance are the memories shared about Chano by the Cubans Miguelito Valdés, to whom he was united by a proverbial friendship from very early on; Silvestre Méndez, rumbero and composer; the bolero singer Miguel D'Gonzalo, Ramón Cabrera, popular composer and friend of Benny Moré, Mandy Vizoso, the journalist, producer and promoter Ibrahim Urbino and, most importantly, the tobacco magnate and radio broadcaster Amado Trinidad, among others.

From his North American period, the book features testimonies from musicians who worked with Gillespie's band during Chano's time, such as bass player Al McKibbon, composer and multi-instrumentalist George Russell, trumpeter Benny Bailey, arranger Walter Gilbert Fuller, critic and promoter Leonard Feather and others, and of course, Dizzy Gillespie himself.

It was fortunate to be able to find documents of invaluable worth that are included in the book, such as specialized reviews written on the spot at many venues by journalists from the United States, Sweden, Belgium, France; notes and comments written by those who were then mere music lovers and later became prominent intellectuals, such as French anthropologist Michel Leiris and Danish jazz journalist and critic Ebbe Traberg. And of course, Chano Pozo's lived connection with Cuban musicians based in New York who led the nascent cubop: Mario Bauzá and Frank Grillo Machito.

This entire complex of interpersonal and musical connections places Chano Pozo at the center of contrasting opinions and feelings, but in no case questioning his excellence on stage and before the drums.

Contextualizing as many moments or stations as possible in Chano Pozo's life was also a purpose, limited only by the number of pages this book would have. The need to distinguish within the book the work of Chano Pozo as a composer, in order to truly assess his dimension, led to the two appendices that include the works created and documentarily recorded, and also the first recordings of these. A third appendix includes his original discography commented on in his capacity as principal interpreter and session musician, both in Cuba and in the United States.

I was also obsessed with the idea of being able to contribute an attractive photographic portfolio that would illustrate Chano's life. It is at this point that I want to thank Editorial Oriente, in the person of its director Noel Pérez García, who received this project with enthusiasm, complicity and without limitations.

I also thank all the people at the Instituto del Libro who have helped us to present it here today. And of course to all those who in one way or another participated in this project, which I never tire of saying would not have been possible without that help.

Enjoy, know and understand Chano Pozo. This will also allow us to enjoy, know and understand the postmodern Chanos who, with identical origins, today attempt to do the same as he did.

By: Rosa Marquetti.
Source: Bohemia.cu