Born in Havana in 1964, a fourth generation musician, Juan-Carlos learned the technique of the Feeling guitar in childhood from the creators of the genre: Mendez, Froilan, Guyun. After mastering the guitar, he studied bass with Andres Escalona, the first bassist of the Havana Symphony Orchestra, and became the bassist for the jazz pianist Emiliano Salvador. But when he tried to develop a career as a composer and guitarist, he found that the system in Cuba didn't permit unauthorized innovation. "While still in my twenties, at a time when most musicians are full of hope, I was resigned to a future of marginalization," Juan-Carlos recalls.
In 1993, while touring Mexico as a replacement for bassist Cachaito Lopez, Juan-Carlos escaped and swam across the Rio Grande to seek political asylum in the United States. He settled in New York City, where he was eventually joined by other exceptional Cuban musicians of his generation -- but encountered a new set of obstacles. "We came to New York as pilgrims and mendicants, looking for a mecca of creative freedom – but found that we had to keep seceding from what we call ‘oficialismo’ -- the official definition of jazz , and the terrible and imbecilic idea of what Latin music is 'supposed' to be -- a loud dance party. We had to make our own rules."
His years of struggle in exile were vindicated when his debut album, "Songs from a Little Blue House" produced by the legendary engineer/producer John Fischbach, was nominated for a Grammy in 2000.
"With brilliant technique and profound originality, Juan-Carlos Formell has turned the conventions of AfroCuban music inside-out." -- GLOBAL RHYTHM MAGAZINE His next release, "las calles del paraiso" (EMI Latin 2002), also produced by John Fischbach, was the critically-acclaimed concept album that Formell describes as "the soundtrack of an imaginary movie" about a day and night in the city of Havana."
"A Cuba consisting of heat, light and flesh as re-imagined by a terrific band that trafficks with fierce subtlety in the politics of rhythm, taking off where Buena Vista Social Club peaked" -- VILLAGE VOICE
Then, after several years of touring with his band and some major concerts -- with Buena Vista Social Club veteran Eliades Ochoa, and world music stars Cesaria Evora, Milton Nascimento and Susana Baca -- Juan-Carlos decided to take on the challenge of a solo guitar project. Inspired by a sojourn in New Orleans, Juan-Carlos returned to the Crescent City in May of 2005 to record "cemeteries & desire", which was released by Narada Records in August 2005. The album features powerful original ballads -- songs now haunted by the devastation of the city.
"He joins the company of Garcia Lorca and Nicholas Guillen, the poet-singers, the love--death--rebirth obsessed ones, whose compressed surreal lyricism works simultaneously as literature and popular song." -- Norman Weinstein, author of "A Night in Tunisia" His next project, "son radical", was the spontaneous combustion of rock en clave that came out of Los Angeles recording sessions with two other exceptional Cuban musicians -- drummer/producer Jimmy Branly (of NG la Banda) and bassist Carlitos del Puerto (of Caravana Cubana). Inspired by Cuban negrista poet Nicolas Guillen, Cuban patriot Jose Marti, and the African roots of the Caribbean experience, son radical became a lyrical, politically-charged dimension of contemporary Cuban music.
"...the leaders of this movement are Carlos Varela in Cuba, Juan-Carlos Formell in exile in New York, and the groups Habana Abierta and Buena Fe..."CUBA: A Global Studies Handbook, Ted Henken, 2007
"Juan-Carlos Formell is in the vanguard if Cuban musicians who are turning exile into a premise for hope. They have proven that Cuba is a constellation in the modern imagination and that, as a culture, Cuba is now mature enough to thrive outside the island's womb." -- Ricardo Pau Llosa, art critic, curator of "OUTSIDE CUBA".
His current project, "Johnny's Dream Club" was produced by the Grammy-winning producer/engineer John Fischbach at his studio Piety Street Recording in New Orleans in April 2008, after a weekend at Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro. Inspired by the "Feeling" movement in Cuba, it features the participation of Cuban jazz pianist Elio Villafranca, Cuban percussionist Jorge Leyva, Argentinian bassist Pedro Giraudo and violinist/trombone player Lewis Kahn. The album also has a guest appearance from the celebrated New Orleans jazz clarinetist Dr. Michael White.
Named for a legendary Havana jazz venue, Johnny's Dream Club represents a place outside time –the vortex of the force field between New Orleans and Havana, where the parallel lines of Cuban music and jazz converge. It’s a new dimension of Latin jazz: intense, lyrical, dangerously dream-like. The music alternates between nightmare and reverie in a delirious sequence of juxtapositions,: “Ciudad", evoking the apocalyptic aftermath of a destroyed city, flows into a jazz ballad about an elusive love (""Siempre que te vas”); songs about being lost at sea ("Las islas son malvadas", "Cuando hable de la noche") are set against the bloody history of the Caribbean ("Yanbando”); haunting, mystical love songs (“Sotavento”, “Fuego de Amor”) flow again into the chaos of the ruined city.
" The album is a delirious whirl of ethereal tone poems and intense, almost nightmarish guitar, all meant to evoke Cuba's chaotic history." -- Alison Fensterstock, GAMBIT, New Orleans Part prophet, part poet, Juan-Carlos has forged a post-modern identity for AfroCuban music that has been hailed as “musical magic realism.” Profoundly subversive, his music defies the conventions of genres -- connected to roots, yet not nostalgic; disgorging driving rhythms yet not dance-party music; employing brilliant instrumentals, yet not Latin jazz; its poetic text too complex for Latin pop.
His five albums constitute an epic poem of Antillean mytho-history, with songs that range from paeans to the flora and fauna of his native country, to a defiant call to freedom for a runaway slave, a personal invocation to an AfroCuban deity or a celebration of the ‘divine light” that resides within each of us. "He joins the company of Garcia Lorca and Nicholas Guillen, the poet-singers, the love--death--rebirth obsessed ones, whose compressed surreal lyricism works simultaneously as literature and popular song." -- Norman Weinstein, author of "A Night in Tunisia."
Juan-Carlos Formell and his ensembles have performed in New York at Birdland, The Blue Note, Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, Jazz Standard, Irving Plaza and S.O.B.’s; in New Orleans at Snug Harbor; in Oakland at Yoshi's; in Los Angeles at The Hollywood Bowl, Temple Bar, The Knitting Factory, and at jazz festivals throughout the United States.
Juan-Carlos has performed solo concerts -- in New York at Joe's Pub, Summerstage (with Paddy Moloney),The Knitting Factory, Jazz Standard, Living Room, Makor, and The Bowery Ballroom; in Chicago at HotHouse; in New Orleans at Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro; in Seattle at The Century Ballroom; in Portland at The Blue Monk;in Berkeley at Freight & Salvage; in Los Angeles at Skirball Center and McCabe's.
Read more: http://www.myspace.com/formell#ixzz14jBprj00
In 1993, while touring Mexico as a replacement for bassist Cachaito Lopez, Juan-Carlos escaped and swam across the Rio Grande to seek political asylum in the United States. He settled in New York City, where he was eventually joined by other exceptional Cuban musicians of his generation -- but encountered a new set of obstacles. "We came to New York as pilgrims and mendicants, looking for a mecca of creative freedom – but found that we had to keep seceding from what we call ‘oficialismo’ -- the official definition of jazz , and the terrible and imbecilic idea of what Latin music is 'supposed' to be -- a loud dance party. We had to make our own rules."
"With brilliant technique and profound originality, Juan-Carlos Formell has turned the conventions of AfroCuban music inside-out." -- GLOBAL RHYTHM MAGAZINE His next release, "las calles del paraiso" (EMI Latin 2002), also produced by John Fischbach, was the critically-acclaimed concept album that Formell describes as "the soundtrack of an imaginary movie" about a day and night in the city of Havana."
"A Cuba consisting of heat, light and flesh as re-imagined by a terrific band that trafficks with fierce subtlety in the politics of rhythm, taking off where Buena Vista Social Club peaked" -- VILLAGE VOICE
Then, after several years of touring with his band and some major concerts -- with Buena Vista Social Club veteran Eliades Ochoa, and world music stars Cesaria Evora, Milton Nascimento and Susana Baca -- Juan-Carlos decided to take on the challenge of a solo guitar project. Inspired by a sojourn in New Orleans, Juan-Carlos returned to the Crescent City in May of 2005 to record "cemeteries & desire", which was released by Narada Records in August 2005. The album features powerful original ballads -- songs now haunted by the devastation of the city.
"He joins the company of Garcia Lorca and Nicholas Guillen, the poet-singers, the love--death--rebirth obsessed ones, whose compressed surreal lyricism works simultaneously as literature and popular song." -- Norman Weinstein, author of "A Night in Tunisia" His next project, "son radical", was the spontaneous combustion of rock en clave that came out of Los Angeles recording sessions with two other exceptional Cuban musicians -- drummer/producer Jimmy Branly (of NG la Banda) and bassist Carlitos del Puerto (of Caravana Cubana). Inspired by Cuban negrista poet Nicolas Guillen, Cuban patriot Jose Marti, and the African roots of the Caribbean experience, son radical became a lyrical, politically-charged dimension of contemporary Cuban music.
"...the leaders of this movement are Carlos Varela in Cuba, Juan-Carlos Formell in exile in New York, and the groups Habana Abierta and Buena Fe..."CUBA: A Global Studies Handbook, Ted Henken, 2007
"Juan-Carlos Formell is in the vanguard if Cuban musicians who are turning exile into a premise for hope. They have proven that Cuba is a constellation in the modern imagination and that, as a culture, Cuba is now mature enough to thrive outside the island's womb." -- Ricardo Pau Llosa, art critic, curator of "OUTSIDE CUBA".
His current project, "Johnny's Dream Club" was produced by the Grammy-winning producer/engineer John Fischbach at his studio Piety Street Recording in New Orleans in April 2008, after a weekend at Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro. Inspired by the "Feeling" movement in Cuba, it features the participation of Cuban jazz pianist Elio Villafranca, Cuban percussionist Jorge Leyva, Argentinian bassist Pedro Giraudo and violinist/trombone player Lewis Kahn. The album also has a guest appearance from the celebrated New Orleans jazz clarinetist Dr. Michael White.
Named for a legendary Havana jazz venue, Johnny's Dream Club represents a place outside time –the vortex of the force field between New Orleans and Havana, where the parallel lines of Cuban music and jazz converge. It’s a new dimension of Latin jazz: intense, lyrical, dangerously dream-like. The music alternates between nightmare and reverie in a delirious sequence of juxtapositions,: “Ciudad", evoking the apocalyptic aftermath of a destroyed city, flows into a jazz ballad about an elusive love (""Siempre que te vas”); songs about being lost at sea ("Las islas son malvadas", "Cuando hable de la noche") are set against the bloody history of the Caribbean ("Yanbando”); haunting, mystical love songs (“Sotavento”, “Fuego de Amor”) flow again into the chaos of the ruined city.
" The album is a delirious whirl of ethereal tone poems and intense, almost nightmarish guitar, all meant to evoke Cuba's chaotic history." -- Alison Fensterstock, GAMBIT, New Orleans Part prophet, part poet, Juan-Carlos has forged a post-modern identity for AfroCuban music that has been hailed as “musical magic realism.” Profoundly subversive, his music defies the conventions of genres -- connected to roots, yet not nostalgic; disgorging driving rhythms yet not dance-party music; employing brilliant instrumentals, yet not Latin jazz; its poetic text too complex for Latin pop.
Juan-Carlos Formell and his ensembles have performed in New York at Birdland, The Blue Note, Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, Jazz Standard, Irving Plaza and S.O.B.’s; in New Orleans at Snug Harbor; in Oakland at Yoshi's; in Los Angeles at The Hollywood Bowl, Temple Bar, The Knitting Factory, and at jazz festivals throughout the United States.
Juan-Carlos has performed solo concerts -- in New York at Joe's Pub, Summerstage (with Paddy Moloney),The Knitting Factory, Jazz Standard, Living Room, Makor, and The Bowery Ballroom; in Chicago at HotHouse; in New Orleans at Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro; in Seattle at The Century Ballroom; in Portland at The Blue Monk;in Berkeley at Freight & Salvage; in Los Angeles at Skirball Center and McCabe's.
Read more: http://www.myspace.com/formell#ixzz14jBprj00
0 Comments:
Post a Comment