Music in Costa Rica – Latin Jazz with Paquito D’Rivera

“If I wasn’t Cuban, I’d like to be one.” So says the world famous, Cuban born saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera who played his unique style of Latin jazz in San Jose’s National Theatre on Saturday night.

Paquito D’Rivera is without doubt one of the world’s best saxophonists and clarinetists. What makes his style different is his explosive mixture of jazz, classical and traditional Cuban music which first evolved when he was one of the founding members of the innovative musical group ‘Irakere’.

It’s as if he has a split personality, one half jazz and the other half classical!

Paquito D’Rivera has toured extensively throughout America and Europe and has won several Grammys. In 1997, he received a Grammy for his highly acclaimed recording, “Portraits of Cuba”. A third Grammy came in 2000 for his “Tropicana Nights”, along with a nomination in the classical category for his “Music of Two Worlds”, featuring compositions by Schubert, Brahms, Guastavino, Villa Lobos, and by Mr. D’Rivera himself. He won a fourth Grammy for his Quintet’s recording of “Live at the Blue Note”.

Altogether, he has recorded over 30 solo albums in Jazz, Bebop and Latin music, his contributions to classical music are also impressive. They include solo performances with the National Symphony Orchestra, and with Brooklyn Philharmonic, the London Royal Symphony and the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra.

He has also performed with the Bronx Arts Ensemble, the St. Luke’s Chamber Orchestra, the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, the Costa Rican National Symphony, and the Simón Bolivar Symphony Orchestra, among others.

This article was written about a concert in 2007 but you can see a short video of his September 2010 concert in San Jose below:

In San Jose, Costa Rica, Paquito and his merry band performed with 54 members of the San Jose Symphony Orchestra for two nights only. Needless to say, the theatre was packed full on Saturday night which unfortunately meant that I do not have any ‘covert’ photographs to share with you…

Believe it or not I actually studied ‘intelligence photography’ years ago and spent many hours sitting in trenches filled with freezing water, taking photographs of ‘interesting’ people in the middle of the night…

But putting camouflage cream all over me, wearing camouflage clothing with fresh branches attached, but not smelling particularly ‘fresh’ and crawling around the floors of the National Theatre with L42 sniper’s rifle was just not going to work for me on Saturday night…

Paquito travels with his own superb trumpet player – Diego Urcola, an excellent bass player – Oscar Stagnaro, the drummer – Mark Walker, with Alon Yavnai on the piano and Brenda Feliciano, a singer in a flaming red, sequined dress who’s rendition of ‘Simonet’ and ‘Contigo aprendi’ I would have preferred to have missed …

Accompanied by a very enthusiastic Costa Rica Symphony Orchestra, they played the Duke Ellington Suite, a melody of rousing George Gershwin pieces which was then followed by a soothing clarinet concierto by Argentinian/New York composer Astor Piazzolla.

One of the highlight of the evening for me was Paquito’s “Adagio” which featured elements of Mozart’s clarinet concerto. Although one might think that ‘classical’ music and ‘jazz’ might not ‘blend’ too well, I must admit that I shocked myself by loving this piece more than I thought possible. It’s Mozart like you’ve never heard it before but it was terrific!

Once again I bought the best seats that money could buy for 12,000 colones or about US$29 which is expensive for Costa Rica… The two hour show was tremendous and the only negative in the entire evening was the ‘gentleman’ in front of me with some sort of ‘snorting,’ nasal drip problem… Why do they always have to sit near me?

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If you want to learn more about Paquito D’Rivera, an accomplished musician, composer and now author you can see more on his website.

Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.