Pablo Menendez comes to Seattle with a Mix of Rhythms
Posted on 23. May, 2010 by Hector Aviles in Blog
Pablo Menendez and his band Mezcla will be performing at Seattle’s Jazz Alley on June 1st and 2nd as part of his current U.S. tour. An American born in the San Francisco Bay Area, Pablo has been residing in Cuba since age 14 (I can’t remember many of those after Hemingway), and will bring a mix of Cuban and American rhythms which has music critics providing all kinds of praise, but also scrambling to find a particular category for his music. True to his group’s name, Mezcla (Spanish for “mix”) will play a mix of rhythms from their past work, which includes several afro-cuban, jazz, and rock mixture.
Pablo Menendez y Mezcla
“I’ll See You in C.U.B.A.” is Pablo Menendez and Mezcla’s latest album, which was released early this year. In an interview with Pablo, he said “this is our 2nd jazz album, although Mezcla has recorded about 10 albums, including albums with more Afro-Cuban, Rumba, or Nueva Canción rhythms, and in a typical Mezcla show we play all the rhythms.” Pablo mentioned that the reason they made this album with a heavier jazz influence was that people often commented that their jazz was very different from everybody else’s, and that they should record it. “Its amazing because now we are invited to jazz festivals and jazz clubs, and Jazz Alley is a great club and we’re really happy to be playing there”.
Mezcla toured in the U.S. about 5 times during the Clinton Administration, but the Bush administration was less open to providing visas. With the Obama administration, the policy has opened again allowing more movement of Cuban musicians to visit the U.S. Pablo Menendez visited Olympia, Washington just last year as part of the Jazz Art Guitarist Summit, and hopes to have some of the friends he made in that event to come and jam in his visit to Seattle.
The son of folk, blues, and jazz singer Barbara Dane, Pablo mentioned in our conversation that although he grew up in Oakland and plays electric guitar, he was not influenced by Carlos Santana. As part of his rebellious nature and the influence from folk and blues music, he decided to play the electric guitar. With his move to Cuba in 1966, Pablo then started learning Afro-Cuban music and adding elements of it to his music. At that point Santana was still not famous, but they may have been moving towards using Latin percussion in their music. “We were playing the same instrument, going about things the same way, and when Santana started selling millions of records I then spent my whole career trying to sound different than Carlos Santana”, explains Pablo.
The group will have their whole catalog of CDs for sale at the Jazz Alley performances. In terms of what people can expect to get out of the performances, Pablo said “I want people to go home with a lot of joy and happiness and faith that people can get together and do beautiful things.”
Pablo Menendez is a very energetic person who in our conversation constantly eradiated happiness. Here’s an audio of part of my interview with Pablo Menendez:
[audio:00_Pablo Menendez Interview.mp3]
Pablo Menendez and the Mezcla will be performing June 1st and 2nd at Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley in Seattle. You can get more information at their web page HERE.
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