New York City: Manhattan School of Music

In recent years, I have been learning the Latin Jazz genre. Although I’ve always like that kind of music prior to joining YVCC’s Salsa Band, I have never composed that kind of music prior to that. Most of the Latin Jazz that I had in my music library had something in common: the music doesn’t have guitar in its musical arrangements. This made learning the music a challenge for me because guitar parts are what I use to get a foothold of music that is new to me, let alone the entire genre. I was finding that I was using guitar influences like Al Di Meola for inspiration because he seemed really comfortable playing with artists who had Latin Jazz backgrounds. When I learned of a trip to New York City, I was hoping to learn more about the music from the people that lived and breathed it.

While in New York City in March of 2009, I had the opportunity to visit Manhattan School of Music with my bandmates. I had the opportunity to speak with Bobby Sanabria who is just impressive all the way around. Bobby is a walking encyclopedia on music. He can weave the origin of music with anthropology in a manner that would have the listener very intrigued. The pictures below are two separate occasions: the first two at Manhattan School of Music and the third at a Kosa Clinic in the Bronx a few days earlier. Having the chance to see Bobby lead his amazing Latin Jazz band and the passion he has for musical history is just inspiring. Bobby spoke with me about how closely knit the mainstream jazz and Latin jazz community is in New York City. In fact, I never realized how small a fraternity it really is and I never realized how deep passion can run when this musical genre is your life.