@Instituto Cervantes, Manchester 6.30pm Talk plus gig FREE EVENT

Shoot You Sir?

Instituto Cervantes, Manchester

Wednesday 25 January 2012

Talk 1:

The Danzón Cinquillo Rhythm – in Cuba, Mexico, Argentina and the US

The five-beat danzón rhythm can be found not only in Cuban danzón and contradanza musical styles but also in ragtime, stride, boogie woogie and Argentinean Tango. In this talk Dr Sue Miller traces the development of this rhythm from the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century Cuban dance styles of contradanza and danzón in the orquesta típicas and charangas, to its appearance in ragtime, blues and tango forms. Also forming part of classical repertoire from George Bizet to  Ernesto Lecuona, this rhythm never truly disappears  – it just migrates!

Concert:

Charanguita del Norte: a small charanga orquesta, the baby sister of Charanga del Norte, the band perform and demonstrate the Cuban danzón, danzón-chá, mambo and chachachá styles.

@ Instituto Cervantes, Manchester 29 February 2012

Tromgangsters

In 2007 Sue Miller was invited to New York by Eddy Zervigón (the bandleader and flute player of Orquesta Broadway) to perform with him at the annual Mamoncillo Festival. Before taking to the stage Sue saw Eddy play with Manny Oquendo’s Conjunto Libre and was impressed by his soloing against a five-strong trombone section. Always a fan of Eddie Palmieri’s trombone and flute-led Salsa band ‘La Perfecta’ Sue decided to set up something similar here in the UK inspired by the two Eddys. The band features the Peace Artist’s Vicki Beere and Casa Latina veterans on trombones plus musicians from the Charanga del Norte stable such as Ana-Luisa Muñoz del Valle on vocals, Simon Siddol on piano and rising young stars of the salsa scene Jack McCarthy on timbales and Helen Curtis on congas.

Expect hard driving grooves and melodic soloing designed for dancers and Latin music lovers alike. Influenced by Eddie Palmieri’s La Perfecta, Mongo Santamaria and the legendary Cuban Descargas expect high energy riffing, high-faluting solos and songs about dancing, love, deception and revelry.

CONTACT

http://www.charangasue.com

s.miller@charangasue.com or call 07957 244 167

Thursday 10 November Trombanga performance

In 2007 Sue Miller was invited to New York by Eddy Zervigón (the bandleader and flute player of Orquesta Broadway) to perform with him at the annual Mamoncillo Festival. Before taking to the stage Sue saw Eddy play with Manny Oquendo’s Conjunto Libre and was impressed by his soloing against a five-strong trombone section. Always a fan of Eddie Palmieri’s trombone and flute-led Salsa band ‘La Perfecta’ Sue decided to set up something similar here in the UK inspired by the two Eddys. The band features Cuban bass monster Ivan Pavon Martinez,  the Peace Artist’s Vicki Beere and Casa Latina veterans on trombones plus musicians from the Charanga del Norte stable such as Ana-Luisa Muñoz del Valle on vocals, Simon Siddol on piano and rising young stars of the salsa scene Jack McCarthy on timbales and Helen Curtis on congas.

FORTHCOMING GIGS

Thursday 10 November Square Chapel, Halifax

Square Chapel Website

Wednesday 29 February Instituto Cervantes, Manchester

FOR BOOKINGS

EMAIL s.miller@charangasue.com or call 07957 244 167

This is my homage to Melquiades Fundora who died on 14 February 2009

I have played alongside him with La Sublime in Havana in 2006 and 2007 and this performance at the Cabaret Nacional in Havana  on April 6th 2009 was a tribute to him as one of the founders of Orquesta Sublime in 1955.

Melquiades Fundora played the flauta de cinco llaves and there’s an interview with him on the publications page of this site. The new CD ‘Look Back In Charanga’ will be dedicated to Melquiades and Richard Egües.

Melquiades Fundora and Sue Miller in the Cabaret Nacional in 2007

Summer School

At Yorkshire College of Music

St Marks House, 1 St Marks Avenue, Leeds LS2 9BN

DATES: FRIDAY 29 JULY, SATURDAY 30 JULY AND SUNDAY 31 JULY 2011

Cuban Popular Dance Music, Cuban Percussion and Brazilian Rhythms – A Course for Instrumentalists, Vocalists and Percussionists

COURSE TUTORS:

Cuban Music

Dr Sue Miller (B.A., PGCE., PGDM., MA., PhD)

Assisted by Jack McCarthy (Charanga del Norte) and Helen Curtis (Head of Keyboards, Yorkshire College of Music)

Cuban Percussion

Jack McCarthy (Charanga del Norte)

Brazilian Rhythms

Helen Curtis BA (Hons) LCM, (Head of Keyboards, Yorkshire College of Music)

THE COURSE

The Cuban music side of the weekend explores a variety of Cuban popular styles through a mixture of workshops, sectionals and ensemble playing with a focus on clave, groove, timbre, improvisation, and stylistic concerns. The course caters for brass (trumpets, trombones), strings (violin, viola, cello, guitar, tres), woodwind (flute, clarinet, saxes), percussion (timbales, congas, bongos, guiro, maracas), vocals, piano, and bass. Styles covered are likely to include Son, Son Montuno, Danzón, Mambo, Chachachá, Bolero and Guajira. Percussionists will also receive small group tuition from Jack McCarthy, focussing on technique, timbre, stylistic ensemble patterns, clave feel and stylistic improvisation. Jack will also run separate sessions on Cuban percussion (timbales, congas, bongos, güiro and maracas) for main study and beginner percussionists. Helen Curtis will also lead band sessions on Brazilian samba rhythms for all musicians on the course (instrumentalists, vocalists and main study percussionists alike) and this samba ‘batteria‘ part of the course is aimed at both percussionists and instrumentalists who wish to explore the feeling of groove, time keeping, syncopation and ‘locking in’ as an ensemble (especially to bell and clave patterns).

Additional workshop sessions available on:

Transcription

Brazilian choros for flute

Salsa piano

Chart reading for percussionists

Cuban flute improvisation

Fees: £200 for 3 days (11am till 5pm).

Enrolment: Enrolment by cheque payable to Charanga del Norte or by credit card via Yorkshire College of Music Tel: 0113 2431605 or via the eventbrite site

CONTACT & QUERIES :

Sue Miller

Tel 07957 244 167

Email charangasue@ntlworld.com

Website www.charangasue.com

Accommodation for those travelling from afar: nearby B&B’s:

Avalon Guest House tel 0113 2432545

Glengarth Guesthouse tel 0113 2457940

The Moorlea tel 0113 2432653

University of Leeds Clarence Dock rooms – appear to be bookable per week only :  tel 0113 343 6107

COURSE ITINERARY:

Biographical Notes:

Dr Sue Miller (B.A., PGCE., PGDM., MA., PhD)

Sue Miller completed the Postgraduate Certificate in Jazz, Contemporary and Popular Music at Leeds College of Music in 1994 and later studied Cuban flute improvisation with the legendary flautist from Orquesta Aragón, Richard Egües, in Havana. An experienced teacher, lecturer and performer (she is bandleader of Charanga del Norte) Sue has also directed Cuban Music Big Bands at Yorkshire College of Music, LCM and the University of Leeds and is also a part-time lecturer in Cuban, Popular and World Music at Leeds University. Sue received a PhD in flute improvisation in Cuban charanga performance at the University of Leeds in February 2011. For more information on her work see http://www.charangasue.com

Helen Curtis (B.A. (Hons) Music LCM)

Helen Curtis graduated with honours from Leeds College of Music in classical piano and percussion. She has since become a versatile musician with her interests ranging from Cuban and Brazilian popular music and folkloric music to Eastern European Georgian singing and Swiss yodelling! She visited Cuba in 2007 to study percussion and piano with teachers Jesus Cos (El Gigante del Timbal) and Eduardo ‘Cana’ Oliva before going on to complete the One Voice Music “Roots of Brazil” course led by Ravin Jayasuriya. In 2009 she was involved with a big samba project led by John Paul Courtney that led to a performance with Rio’s most popular carnival band Mono Bloco at Leeds university and also in Luton Carnival playing tamborim. Helen spent two years playing piano in Sue Miller’s LCM Cuban Music Big Band before going on to direct and arrange for her own project Los Altibajos. She also plays congas regularly with the Manchester-based band Son Tropicana. Helen is currently head of keyboards at Yorkshire College of Music and Drama teaching one to one piano lessons and also runs workshops in both singing and percussion.

Jack McCarthy

Originally a kit player Jack completed the One Voice Music ‘Salsa’ course before going on to study popular styles with Buena Vista Social Club’s timbalero Amadito Valdés, Jesus Cos, ‘El Gigante del Timbal’ (Orquesta Sublime) and rumba with Chaguito in Havana. One of the brightest talents to emerge onto the UK Cuban music and Salsa scene in recent years he has played congas with Charanga del Norte since April 2009 and is featured on their new CD Look Back in Charanga.

Caribbean and Latin American Music Study Day

Saturday 12 November 2011
University of Huddersfield
School of Music, Humanities and Media, Queensgate, Huddersfield HD1 3DH

Guest Speaker Dr Henry Stobart (Royal Holloway, University of London)

CALL FOR PAPERS

The study of music from the Caribbean and Latin America has tended in the past to remain the preserve of ethnomusicologists and those writing on popular music. This study day intends to extend this area of academic research by also focussing on practice-led research in this area. In addition to historiographic and ethnomusicological studies on Caribbean and Latin American music forms we hope to incorporate performance as a main element. Alongside paper presentations we encourage submissions for lecture recitals and short performances. The aim is to bring together researchers from the fields of performance, musicology and ethnomusicology to enable new ways of researching this subject.

Possible music areas in a range of national settings could include:

• Tango in Buenos Aires or elsewhere in the world
• Cuban musics
• Brazilian musics
• English-speaking Caribbean forms (such as pan, soca, reggae and calypso)
• Salsa (in all its manifestations)
• Traditional and Modern Latin American forms from Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia etc
• Jazz from the Caribbean

Although not restricted to specific themes, possible topics could include:

• Performance as research
• Exoticism in Latin American music
• Approaches to the analysis of world musics
• The influence of Latin music on popular Anglo-American styles
• A critique of participant-observer methods of ethnomusicological fieldwork
• Film music
• The spiritual in the secular
• Migration and trans-cultural exchange
• Cultural policy and how it affects musicians’ lives on the ground
• The African aesthetic in New World forms
• The relationship between Iberian and New World musical forms
• Latin American music in the global marketplace

Abstracts of no more than 200 words are invited for papers (20 minutes duration followed by 10 minutes for questions) and for lecture presentations or performances (30 minutes with 15 minutes for questions).

Abstracts need to be submitted by the 15 of September 2011 to Sue Miller s.miller@charangasue.com for consideration by the programme committee. Proposals from those pursuing practice-led research are particularly welcome.

Conference committee:
Jessica Quiñones (University of Huddersfield),  Sue Miller (University of Leeds), Rachel Hayward (City University)

See http://www.rma.ac.uk/conferences for further details

01 Sue Miller Postgraduate Recital hackensack

Sue Miller – piano

John Day – bass

Ronnie Bottomley – drums

Look Back in Charanga

Sue Miller & Charanga del Norte
Look Back in Charanga

Charanga del Norte CDN OOCD10

Accomplished flautist and Cuban music expert Sue Miller deserves an apology from me. This CD arrived last summer, and was played then, but somehow slipped down into a pile…This is someone who knows her stuff and loves nothing more than a good descarga (jam session). She feels Cuban music in her blood, and the band behind her does some sterling work. That she’s the star is beyond doubt, and her freewheeling, spiralling improvisations are joyful to hear. Bonus points for coming from Leeds and the delightful wordplay in the title, but the meat is in the performance, which is as tasty as they come – within Cuba or outside.

DJ Chris Nickson