[JPL] Just got back to Denver, IAJE impressions

[Arturo]

I just got back to Denver late Tuesday night and back at the musical salt
mine today Wednesday, after IAJE I spent 9 days in Miami on personal family
matters as well as vacation time, dang am I happy not to be living in So Flo
anymore-it's way too hectic and aggressive a lifestyle for me plus way over
crowded.

it's no secret the turnout was smaller than usual not only attendees but
also on the artist side of things as well of course as the radio and
recording segment of the industry. That said, for me it was my favorite
IAJE, Toronto is a marvelous city, a true cosmopolitan metropolis. I had the
opportunity to twice leave the Downtown area and visit the neighborhoods,
ride the subway and feel like a resident-not a tourist. I was most impressed
with the hospitality of Canada, entering the customs area upon arrival the
signs had a scroll welcoming the attendees of the IAJE, I found it a bit
bizarre to see all sorts of ads for vacations to Cuba at the airport,
something not seen in the USA. All along Centre Street in Downtown there
were banners announcing the IAJE hanging from the street lamps, newspapers
had front page headlines about Oscar Peterson's passing and his free
memorial concert on Saturday afternoon. I've never seen attention to jazz by
the media like that south of the border nor at any other IAJE location. It
was a happy sensation walking into a store and seeing Cuban cigars as well
as Cuban rum in the liquor shops. There is a certain chemistry in Toronto
among the diverse ethnic groups I've seen few times in my travels, certainly
much more friendly than the US.

Although not known much in jazz circles I was surprised to learn upon my
arrival that my all time favorite artist, musician, athlete and renaissance
man was at the IAJE courtesy of the Canada-Cuba exhibit, the highlight of my
visit and a top ten all time life's greatest moment was to meet my hero,
Bobby Carcassés and then spend several hours throughout the weekend chatting
with him and his wife. Bobby's father was the Cuban ambassador to Jamaica
and Bobby was born in Kingston so as a child he learned to speak English,
when the family returned to Cuba in the late 50s, Bobby began singing with a
vocal quartet that appeared on the original Tonight Show with Steve Allen in
1958, I now have the long missing details of his appearance so I am tracking
down a kinescope copy of that show. After that Bobby was a standout in Track
& Field for Cuba in the Pan American games in the early 60s, after retiring
from sports he went back into music as a composer, trumpeter-scat singer,
dancer, percussionist, vocalist and pianist. Bobby Carcassés appears on the
RMM recording Live at the Bronx Lebanon Hospital fund raiser with Chucho
Valdés and the late Hilton Ruiz. Bobby was at the IAJE exhibit hall
displaying his sculptures and portraits as well as his musical talents and
sports prowess. It was fascinating to be part of the conversation between
Carcassés & NEA Jazz Masters Paquito D'Rivera and Cándido Camero as they
reminisced about 1950s Havana music and night club scene over lunch.

On my way back to the US, I was profiled by US Customs agents and was pulled
aside to have all my baggage scrutinized, imagine a Cuban born United
Statesian on a flight back to Miami, the lights turned on. As they ruffled
through my baggage I told the agent assigned to me, a fellow Cuban
descendant that I had nothing to declare and that I had consumed all the
Cuban rum and cigars before leaving as not to have a customs agent
confiscate them and then enjoy them privately, he smirked and kept on
looking through my luggage until he told me, okay close them up and go on
about your business. The day before declaring sanctions and breaking
relations with Cuba, JFK had his aides purchase all the Cuban cigars and
rums in all the stores in Metro Dee Cee to stockpile them, I often wonder
what happened to that inventory after November 22, 1963

Next year besides the January convention, IAJE will have the first Annual
Latin America Conference in conjunction with the Heineken Jazz Festival in
San Juan, Puerto Rico, that's mid-May 2009, jazz89KUVO has been in
negotiations with the organizers of the Heineken Jazz Festival to set up a
booth and broadcast portions back to Denver and perhaps elsewhere, now we
are more motivated than ever to have it become a reality.

Arturo Gómez