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

CUBAN MUSIC: WEEKEND INTENSIVE COURSE
Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd October 2010

Led by
Musical Director: Sue Miller
Percussion Tutor: Jack McCarthy

At
Yorkshire College of Music and Drama, Leeds
(at the new college site St Marks House, 1 st Marks Avenue, Leeds LS2 9BN)

The Course:
This weekend intensive course in popular Cuban music aims to explore a variety of Cuban Music 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. Sue will focus on ensemble playing and frontline & melodic rhythm section workouts, stylistic improvisation and the unwritten codes used in the performance of Cuban Son and Charanga styles. There will be arrangements but also a focus on the Descarga (Cuban Jam Session).

Fees: £70 per day or £120 for 2 days (10am til 4pm)

After the course on the Sunday 3 October there will be a presentation by Sue Miller and Vicki Beere on the course in Havana in April 2011 (4pm til 5pm)

Official Enrollment and payment from 6 September at Yorkshire College of Music, cheques made payable to Charanga del Norte and sent to 25 Norman Row, Kirkstall, Leeds LS5 3JL or paid in person at Yorkshire College of Music

more details about the course structure will be posted in September…watch this space!

Contact Sue Miller to reserve a place…

CONTACT:
Sue Miller
Tel 07957 244 167
Email charangasue@ntlworld.com
Website www.charangasue.com

Biographical notes:
Sue Miller B.A., PGCE., PGDM., MA., PhD (pending)

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 and flautist with the Rumberos All Stars Palmieri tribute band), 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 is currently finishing a PhD in flute improvisation in Cuban charanga performance at the Univeristy of Leeds. For more information on her work see http://www.charangasue.com

Jack McCarthy

Jack is an active freelance percussionist and drummer. He first travelled to Havana in 2008 to study Timbales in the popular styles with Buena Vista Social Club’s timbalero Amadito Valdes, Jesus Cos, ‘el Gigante del Timbal’ (Orquesta Sublime) and Congas with Santiago Garzon Rill (Clave y Guaguanco). In March 2010 he returned to Cuba for an intensive course on Rumba, organised by ‘La Timbala’ and featuring musicians from Yoruba Andabo, Rumberos de Cuba, and Grupo Afrocuba de Matanzas. 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’.

At the end of the course there will be the opportunity to sign up for regular Cuban music courses and ensembles at Yorkshire College of Music and also a presentation on the course in Cuba in April 2011 on the Sunday.

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

In addition to offering flute, saxophone and piano tuition (classical and jazz: beginner to grade 8) I  will be running some new courses in Cuban music and improvisation – do get in touch with me if you’d like individual or group tuition. I will be setting up some small improvisation groups from beginner level upwards and a regular Cuban Music/Salsa Ensemble and also plan to run some weekend intensive courses in Cuban music there too for those wanting to take their skills and knowledge of Cuban Music  further. The first course is 2 and 3 October and has 4 places left. The new college will be up and running from September and you can call in there for a brochure or email them on ycmd@supanet.com. Do contact me to enrol on my courses and ensembles and feel free to email me if you have any questions! Details are on the Contacts page of this site.

Sue directing the Cuban music big band

My workshops in Cuban music are ‘arrangements-based’ catering for a big band line-up that also includes strings. I have written over 30 arrangements for brass, woodwind, piano, bass, percussion, strings and vocalists with the aim of teaching the Cuban styles of son, son montuno, danzón, mambo, chachachá, bolero, guajira and pachanga through practical ‘hands on’ rehearsal and performance.

My  ‘one off ‘ day intensive courses are run at Yorkshire College of music and focus on stylistic and cultural aspects of Cuban music and are tailored to the level of the students. I am assisted on these courses by Charanga del Norte percussionist Jack McCarthy

Here’s a percussion demonstration Jack did for my university students on 9 November 2009 :

My courses are tailored to suit professional musicians, university music students,  secondary school and sixth form music students and community bands, orchestras and ensembles.

BOOK REVIEW

Cultural Policy and Music Making in Revolutionary Cuba

Sue Miller

Music and Revolution: Cultural Change in Socialist Cuba, by Robin D. Moore, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. 2006, 367pages, £38.95p/£15.95,

HB ISBN 0 – 520-24710-8, PB ISBN 0 – 520-24711-6

In Music and Revolution Robin Moore,  professor of music history at the University of Texas, presents a comprehensive survey of cultural policy making in Cuba from the early years of the revolution, the ‘quinquenio gris’ (from 1969 to 1973), the more optimistic 1980s, and the special period in the 1990s through to the present day. He looks at the ideologies behind the policies, exploring how issues of race and religion, alongside cultural theories of socialism, Marxism and nationalism, have impacted on cultural policy. After a chronological overview of cultural changes from the 1950s onwards, Moore turns his attention to various case studies. Here, I shall focus on his discussion of dance and  Afro-Cuban ‘folkloric’ musics, although Moore also explores  Nueva Trova, Salsa and Timba to illustrate the effects of various policies on Cuban musicians themselves. As he states in his introduction, critiques of cultural policies in Cuba are rare due to the tendency of writers on Cuban matters to come down on one side or other of the political divide (pro or anti-Castro). His stated aim is to fairly evaluate the impact of cultural policies in Cuba post 1959 with a view to opening up an informed debate on the subject. The sense of victimhood and isolation felt by Cuba (due to the US embargo and the  collapse of the Soviet Union) has often led to a defensive stance as regards evaluating its own cultural policies and in this book Moore sets out  to discover the truths surrounding cultural life in socialist Cuba. He states at the outset that as a North American academic, this has not been an easy task as many obstacles have been put in his way. For example, he has had difficulties getting funding to study in Cuba from the US side and the Cuban Ministry of Culture has refused him access to statistical data.

Moore highlights the fact that the Afro-Cuban community was the first to benefit from the revolution in terms of better living standards, housing, health and education. Many Afro-Cuban artists also received state support, particularly in the early years of the revolution. However, such support does not always mean that musicians are free to do what they want given various attempts by the government to interfere with the development of Cuban musicianship. Moore recounts one amusing tale of Pedro Izquierdo (Pello el Afrokán) being asked by Fidel Castro in 1965 to write a song about the sugar harvest to spur on the workers. The resulting song pleased both Fidel and the musicians through the well tested Cuban art of double-entendre, with lyrics such as “Ay, how tasty the sugar cane is honey…bring your cart over here!” Other examples of state intervention had more serious consequences however, such as Nueva Trova artists in the early part of their careers being sent to ‘voluntary’ labour camps for ‘re-education’.

Moore’s exploration of dance music shows how the socialist government has struggled to reconcile the pleasure principle with its concept of music as having to ‘edify’ and ‘educate’. However, Cuban son music, emanating from the black working class, with its lyrics about daily life and its emphasis on dance and sensual pleasures, is  not an ideal medium for political messages. Charanga and Son Conjunto bands were, of course, immensely popular in the 1950s but were viewed as escapist and frivolous by the new leadership. Consequently,  many of these dance bands received little state support. Yet as Moore explains, to acknowledge the rich artistic life of the 1950s does not in any way negate the existence of prostitution, poverty, racism and other hardships suffered by ordinary Cubans. As he remarks, many musics such as Jazz and Tango have originated amidst appalling social conditions. The rise in popularity of Salsa worldwide and of Timba in Cuba in the 1980s and 1990s, however, have led to a volte-face by the state, which now  supports dance music as a means of securing much needed revenue.

The facile criticism (by Cuban commentators such as Ariana Hernández-Reguant) of the Buena Vista phenomenon, (the 1997 international hit ‘Buena Vista Social Club’ documentary film and recording by UK-based ‘World Circuit’ Records that showcased pre-Revolutionary artists such as Rubén Gonzalez and Ibrahim Ferrer), as ‘imperialist nostalgia’ is challenged by Moore (p132) as he points out that performers from the 1940s and 50s have been consistently underpromoted in post-revolutionary Cuba and that these musicians have been unfairly stigmatised by association with the Batista era. Moore points out that the state record company, EGREM, could have effected a similar success to that of World Circuit’s Buena Vista productions had it chosen to promote its high quality back catalogue of 1950s performers.

Regarding ‘Afro-Cuban’ forms of music (Rumba, religious ‘folkloric’ music such as Santería, Palo Monte and Abacuá), state support has been uneven and contradictory. This is  because the issue of racism is rarely discussed in the context of socialist Cuba, as the leadership promotes an image of a unified Cuban nation in the face of US aggression. Nevertheless, racism did not disappear in 1959 and Moore points out that Marxist  intolerance of religion has also been used as a cover for racial prejudice, with Afro-Cuban folkloric drumming often viewed as ‘atrasada’ (backward) by party officials and musicians too (composer Gonzalo Roig described the music as barbaric). All forms of religion were banned by the revolutionary government and Afro-Cuban religions in particular have been viewed as a throwback to primitive, colonial times. State support for the music and dance of Santería and other Afro-Cuban religious  forms have set out to valorise the music and dance but separate them from their religious content, turning performances of ‘Afro-Folkloric’ music and dance into ‘heritage folk-art’ for the concert stage. The first state-supported Afro-folkloric group, the Conjunto Folklórico Nacional was founded in 1962 and is perhaps the most well known both in Cuba and abroad. Criticisms of these staged performances of Afro-Cuban artforms by Cuban musicologists such as Helio Orovio and Carlos Moore include the lack of spontaneity, the diminished role of improvisation and the increased formality of these events. On the plus side these groups have played an important educative role, particularly as conservatoires up until very recently have not allowed Cuban popular music or ‘Afro-folkloric’ drumming into their curriculum.

Moore’s book gives a fascinating insight into how state intervention in the arts affects artists on the ground in Cuba. Some policies have been immensely successful (for example a ‘Casa de Cultura’ in every town, top level free music education, guaranteed salaries for performing musicians), whilst other measures have been more detrimental (such as the banning of Afro-Cuban religious ceremonies  in the late 1960s and the instigation of  education programmes in schools and youth summer camps aimed at eradicating Afro-Cuban religions).

Although the book is well researched, Moore’s inability to gain access to the Ministry of Culture’s statistics means that his work is necessarily incomplete. Let us hope that the Ministry of Culture will soften its policy of non-cooperation with US researchers sooner rather than later. As a musician who has interviewed Cuban musicians,  I appreciate the in-depth background that  Moore’s book affords researchers such as me.  The thirteen musical transcriptions included serve to illustrate some styles and rhythms, and show evidence of the use of Afro-Cuban religious music in popular dance genres, yet  knowledge of musical notation is not a prerequisite for understanding the book. In sum, Music and Revolution will be of great interest to Cubaphiles, ethnomusicologists, cultural, and political theorists in addition to anyone concerned with how the state’s involvement in cultural policy can affect the artistic life of nations.

07/05/2010

Sue Miller and her Charanga del Norte

Sue Miller and her Charanga del Norte release a new album Look Back in Charanga on 13 May.

Look Back in Charanga is the sequel to Our Mam in Havana:

Carrying on with the puns Look Back in Charanga pays homage to all the greats of Cuban popular music, in particular to the legendary Richard Egües from Orquesta Aragón.

Bandleader and charanga flute improviser Sue Miller studied flute improvisation with Richard Egües in Havana in 2000 and 2001 and has since worked with some of Cuba’s finest traditional charanga players. This recording pays homage to the great charanga flute players and musicians past and present who have developed the Danzón, Mambo, Chachachá and the Pachanga, namely: Richard Egües, Israel López ‘Cachao’, Antonio Arcaño, Belisario López, José Fajardo, Melquiades Fundora, Pancho Bravo, Johnny Pacheco, Eddy Zervigon, Eduardo Rubio, Nestor Torres and Joaquín Oliveros.

Two upcoming live dates are

Thurs May 13 Leeds Seven Arts http://www.charangasue.com/2010/04/next-leeds-gig-charanga-del-norte-13-may/
www.sevenarts.co.uk

Fri July 30 Grimsby Town Hall http://www.charangasue.com/2010/04/charanga-del-norte-gig-30-july-grimsby-town-hall/

The CD will be launched at both gigs.