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Speaker 1: Be hanged regular.

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Speaker 2: This is legendary jazz musician Pakito Ribera. I visited his

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Speaker 2: kind of incredible apartment in New Jersey. He lives in

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Speaker 2: a high right with a jaw dropping view of the

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Speaker 2: west side of Manhattan's true but on one of the

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Speaker 2: massive picture windows, the view is blocked by a blue

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Speaker 2: and white stained glass mosaic of the dark skinned hin

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Speaker 2: Regular or our Lady of Regular Beautiful.

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Speaker 1: I am not a religion pressure, but for some reason.

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Speaker 3: I became a At.

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Speaker 2: The site of the Virhino just bursts into song.

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Speaker 4: So.

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Speaker 2: Lament I didn't want to stop you. Music is everywhere

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Speaker 2: in this space. There are pictures of Bakito as a

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Speaker 2: kid with a small saxophone, playing back in his native Cuba.

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Speaker 2: There are framed letters from famous musicians written on sheet music,

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Speaker 2: along with countless photographs of Baquito with orchestras from around

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Speaker 2: the world. And then there are the instruments. There's the

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Speaker 2: grand piano, which Baquito has for when other musicians come

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Speaker 2: to visit and they all sit down for a jam session,

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Speaker 2: and of course there are his saxophones and clarinets. Bakito

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Speaker 2: suddenly picks one up and starts to improvise. This space,

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Speaker 2: with its walls covered in art, tells a story seven

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Speaker 2: decades of the life of a musician who has mixed genres.

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Speaker 2: He's played with the greats, left his home country, traveled

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Speaker 2: the globe, and accumulated award after award after award over

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Speaker 2: here on this side some not all okay two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve, fourteen, sixteen,

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Speaker 2: seventeen Grammys to.

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Speaker 1: Say three coming in the mail.

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Speaker 2: I love that from Futuro Media and PRX. It's Latino Usa.

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Speaker 2: I'm Mariao Hoosa today from Cuba to New York and

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Speaker 2: around the world with legendary jazz musician Pakika Rivera. Music

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Speaker 2: has been with Bakito Ribera all of his life, not

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Speaker 2: just because he comes from Cuba, which is a place

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Speaker 2: that has a rich musical tradition, but because his father,

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Speaker 2: Teito Ribera, taught Bakito how to play the saxophone as

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Speaker 2: soon as his son could pick up the instrument eighties.

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Speaker 1: Say that they gave me a plothic, a little.

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Speaker 3: Saxophone, and then I used to sit next to my

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Speaker 3: father in little cheer and pretend to be practicing.

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Speaker 2: At twelve years old, Bakito entered the Havana Conservatory to

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Speaker 2: study clarinet and composition. He was soon called a child prodigy.

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Speaker 2: By the time he was seventeen, he was a soloist

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Speaker 2: with the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba. In his early twenties,

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Speaker 2: Bakito was named the director of the Cuban Orchestra of

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Speaker 2: Modern Music, and soon after that he became a founding

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Speaker 2: member of Idrakere, a groundbreaking experimental band that fused Afro

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Speaker 2: Cuban music, jazz, rock, and classically. Even though he was

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Speaker 2: a star there, in nineteen eighty, Baquito leaves Cuba because

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Speaker 2: of the politics, choosing to defect from his home country

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Speaker 2: and ultimately relocating to New York City. In New York,

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Speaker 2: he thrived collaborating with all kinds of artists from trumpet virtuoso,

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Speaker 2: Dizzy Gillespie, ladies and gentlemen.

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Speaker 4: It's my great president on to introduce mister Bachito the Revere.

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Speaker 2: To internationally acclaim cellist Yoyoma. Paquito has recorded dozens of albums,

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Speaker 2: He's taught classes on improvisation, and has written a memoir.

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Speaker 2: And throughout it all, Paquito has been picking up awards

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Speaker 2: and recognitions for his work.

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Speaker 1: Amy Espara.

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Speaker 2: Today, we're looking back at the long musical career of

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Speaker 2: Pakito Ribera. We're going to get into the places that

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Speaker 2: music has taken him, talk about some of the people

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Speaker 2: he's met along the journey, and then he's going to

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Speaker 2: share how he's still challenging himself, improvising his way into

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Speaker 2: the next chapter. Here's our conversation. Oh La Pakito, welcome

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Speaker 2: to Latino US. Say, it's great to have you on

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Speaker 2: our show.

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Speaker 3: Finally, I hear you all the time on the speaker,

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Speaker 3: and now I hear you my house.

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Speaker 1: That's great.

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Speaker 2: And you know what, I've heard you forever on CD

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Speaker 2: on records back in the day LPs Live. I mean,

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Speaker 2: I don't know, Paquito. I don't even know the number

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Speaker 2: of times that I saw you play. You have really

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Speaker 2: been on stage performing for decades upon decades, and it

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Speaker 2: doesn't seem to get old for you. I mean, you

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Speaker 2: have played on stage with the greats, and I think

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Speaker 2: what you said when we first got here was that

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Speaker 2: it's actually about what's happening. When you're in front of

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Speaker 2: an audience.

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Speaker 3: It's a very exciting and you never know what is

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Speaker 3: going to happen. I came to New York because I

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Speaker 3: want to become a city and all that will. Since

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Speaker 3: I was a kid, I always dream to be a

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Speaker 3: musician in the city of New York City. I was

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Speaker 3: maybe eight nine years old. My family came home with

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Speaker 3: an LP Benny Goodman live a Carnegie Hall.

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Speaker 1: That music and pray me so much.

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Speaker 3: I said, what is that? And my father said, that

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Speaker 3: is swing. That is swing, that is Benny Goodman, that

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Speaker 3: is Carnegie Hall, and in the city of New York.

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Speaker 3: When he said Carnegie Hall, I understood Carney freehole. I said,

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Speaker 3: what what does that have to do with my mother cook?

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Speaker 2: He said, translate Carney free meat and beans. And thought

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Speaker 2: that's what he was saying. Oh my god, card free Hall, Carnegie.

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Speaker 1: That he is played to be who Benny Goodman was.

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Speaker 3: I remember that he played that jazz concert back to

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Speaker 3: back to the rendition of the Mozart Concerno for Grant

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Speaker 3: and Orchestra, So it was exposed to many different type

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Speaker 3: of music. My father was, you can't call a very

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Speaker 3: Ellingtonian person.

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Speaker 2: And we're talking about Duke Ellington.

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Speaker 3: Yes, because Ellington was the person who say there is

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Speaker 3: only two kinds of music, good music and the other stuff.

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Speaker 1: For me, music was still today. It's your music.

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Speaker 3: And the interesting thing is that I celerated my fifty

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Speaker 3: anniversary as a musician in Carnegie Hall with a group

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Speaker 3: of people that not too many other artist puts together.

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Speaker 3: We have the New York Voices, Mana Marquet, Michelle Camillo.

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Speaker 3: It was a combination of musicians doing your music, not

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Speaker 3: this type of music, on that type of music.

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Speaker 2: I think I want to actually talk a little bit

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Speaker 2: about your childhood. You start playing at a very young age.

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Speaker 1: It was five years old.

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Speaker 2: Well, what happens when you're five years old, Like you're

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Speaker 2: just kind of walking around and your dad says, here,

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Speaker 2: here's a saxophone.

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Speaker 1: Or my father was the army and he retired.

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Speaker 3: But my father was a saxophone player, a classical saxophone player.

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Speaker 3: He used to practice twenty six hours a day, practicing, practice, practicing.

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Speaker 3: When I was five years old, my father ordered a

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Speaker 3: corps soprano that's still have that instrument of beauty, and

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Speaker 3: he told me how to play.

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Speaker 1: My father was a genius teacher.

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Speaker 3: He had that grace you know that one thing is

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Speaker 3: to be a great musician and another wanted to be

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Speaker 3: a teacher. He knew how to teach people how to

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Speaker 3: do things. So I learned to play the instrument, and

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Speaker 3: nine months later represented me in public. What do you mean?

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Speaker 2: Six years old?

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Speaker 1: Was an elementary school graduation? I play?

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Speaker 2: And what do you remember about? As you say to

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Speaker 2: present and sociate that, your dad is like, here's my kid.

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Speaker 2: He's six and he's a great musician. What do you remember?

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Speaker 3: He didn't say, well, it was a great musician, but

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Speaker 3: he ordered upset of arrangement by a wonderful musician, Perucin

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Speaker 3: the pianist.

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Speaker 2: And did you get excited at that time? Were you like,

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Speaker 2: this is the best feeling ever.

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Speaker 1: Probably yet because I am still doing the same thing.

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Speaker 1: I mean the thing.

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Speaker 2: So you're growing up, you're a teenager, the revolution is happening.

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Speaker 2: What's going on around you as you're becoming a young musician?

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Speaker 1: Well, remember that I started very young before Castro from

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Speaker 1: the or Catro. Then he started putting everything pat a river.

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Speaker 2: So when Castro comes into power, how old are you twelve?

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Speaker 2: You're twelve years old, and what begins to change for

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Speaker 2: you as a musician at that point? What do you remember?

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Speaker 3: First of all, my father used to import instrument, so

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Speaker 3: no more imports of instrument. It was not making a

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Speaker 3: lot of money importing instrument, but it was something that

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Speaker 3: he loved doing that. The same company from France and

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Speaker 3: some instrument from Elkhart, Indiana. So step by a step

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Speaker 3: everything started changing. Then the military service, that was the

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Speaker 3: first really bad thing that happened.

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Speaker 1: I was terrorizing for.

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Speaker 2: Us to have to serve in the military three years.

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Speaker 3: You know, And I was working in the theater that

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Speaker 3: I loved when I was sixteen years old. So no

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Speaker 3: more out to Mosica and you had to go to

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Speaker 3: the military band for three years. And thanks to God,

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Speaker 3: I was playing in a military band. But it was

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Speaker 3: very frustrating.

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Speaker 2: So even though you were conflicted about the Cuban government

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Speaker 2: under Castro, you were still artistically finding a way to

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Speaker 2: express yourself hiding things. What do you mean?

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Speaker 3: Jet was a four letter word, not prohibited. That is

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Speaker 3: a problem. They don't prohibit nothing. But you know that

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Speaker 3: that is not good to do. You should do something else.

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Speaker 3: I was at home sitting doing nothing because I was

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Speaker 3: the conductor or the Orta Kuana, the mosical Modera, and

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Speaker 3: they took me out of my position and sent me

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Speaker 3: to my house to do nothing.

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Speaker 1: The Yama p Pi Yama.

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Speaker 3: You know why, because you already yamat home doing nothing,

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Speaker 3: so they pay you salary and you don't do nothing.

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Speaker 1: That is one of the reasons for the creation of Irakeri.

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Speaker 2: So let's talk about iraked for a little bit, if

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Speaker 2: you don't mind. I mean, I'm a kid in the seventies,

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Speaker 2: but Cuba was kind of a larger than life for

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Speaker 2: many Latinos Latin Americans. Everything that was happening in Cuba

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Speaker 2: was of great interest, especially because it wasn't easy to

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Speaker 2: come by. But I remember hearing the music of Irakere.

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Speaker 2: It was mind blowing, right because Irakere was We're gonna

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Speaker 2: play Afro Cuban. We're gonna play classical, there's gonna be jazz,

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Speaker 2: there's gonna be rock, We're gonna play electronic.

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Speaker 1: So music that other concept music.

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Speaker 2: Talk to me more about that.

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Speaker 1: Tucho, call me.

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Speaker 3: After two years me doing nothing and invite me to

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Speaker 3: be part of Irakere.

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Speaker 1: We have different interests in that group.

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Speaker 3: We want to attract a larger amount of audiences possible.

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Speaker 3: To attract that type of people, you need some type

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Speaker 3: of rhythm and a catchy montuno whatevercoro. But behind that

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Speaker 3: you can play whatever complicated thing that you can.

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Speaker 2: Essentially, you had to have something that was going to

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Speaker 2: make people want to dance, so it had to have

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Speaker 2: some serious rhythm. But behind all of that, you were

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Speaker 2: doing crazy things in terms of the artistry of the music.

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Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I remember, like today, the afternoon that I

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Speaker 3: came to a rehearsal. I came with an arrangement or

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Speaker 3: the Second Movement or the Mozart Concerto for Clarinet and orchestra,

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Speaker 3: the second Movement that to me sound like a blues

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Speaker 3: but I wanted to record it with another project. Nobody.

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Speaker 3: I didn't have the intention to put this in the

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Speaker 3: middle of the dance said for it, and then I Tojo,

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Speaker 3: I would like to to rehearse this after we finished

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Speaker 3: the rehearsal.

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Speaker 1: You just to see how it works. Oh yeah, of

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Speaker 1: course we do that. Let's rehearse it.

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Speaker 3: Then we rehearse it, and you just say, okay, let's

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Speaker 3: play this tonight at the dance party.

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Speaker 1: I said, you must be.

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Speaker 3: Crazy, how most are in a dance party. And I

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Speaker 3: was terrorized the entire afternoon.

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Speaker 2: You had never thought, No.

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Speaker 3: I didn't. I don't want this for for that. I

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Speaker 3: want this for you. Know for the recording that I

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Speaker 3: am doing it. It's very mental.

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Speaker 1: Well to make a long story, Sure we play.

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Speaker 3: That and was one of the biggest hits in irake

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Speaker 3: that today is still I play every night.

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Speaker 2: Coming up on Ino Usa, I continue my conversation with

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Speaker 2: Bakita Ribera, who talks about losing Cuba but finding new

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Speaker 2: music after moving to New York. Stay with us, Yes, hey,

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Speaker 2: we're back and today we're talking with multi Grammy Award

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Speaker 2: winning musician Bakita Ribera. Before the break, Bakito talked about

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Speaker 2: his childhood in Cuba, falling in love with jazz and

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Speaker 2: playing with the experimental Afro Cuban jazz band Iraqire. The

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Speaker 2: band was such a sensation that soon Irakere began to

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Speaker 2: tour the world. In nineteen eighty, their self titled album

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Speaker 2: won a Grammy for Best Latin Recording. Nineteen eighty was

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Speaker 2: also a year that would change the course of Bakito's future.

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Speaker 2: He was about to make one of the most important

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Speaker 2: decisions in his life. Here's the rest of our conversation. So, Pakito,

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Speaker 2: I want to ask about that year. About the year

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Speaker 2: nineteen eighty and it was such a crucial moment in

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Speaker 2: your life. So take us to that moment, what was

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Speaker 2: happening with Irakere and what was happening for you personally

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Speaker 2: as a musician living and performing in Cuba.

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Speaker 3: We have been in total in activity, like for three

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Speaker 3: or four months with Irakere, quite because the electronic equipment

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Speaker 3: were broken, very bad equipment that we have that we're broken,

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Speaker 3: that we'reting to fig those instruments. And I was planning

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Speaker 3: to catch one of those boats.

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Speaker 2: Wait, you wanted to be part of the Mariel Blah life,

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Speaker 2: which is when it was one of that big exodus

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Speaker 2: the year nineteen eighty.

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Speaker 4: It's the body Snatcher, an appropriate name for a rusted

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Speaker 4: old shrimp boat jam packed with Cuban refugees. It is

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Speaker 4: part of what is believed to be the final exodus

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Speaker 4: of boats for Mariel.

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Speaker 2: Hugely controversial. The United States actually opens its stores.

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Speaker 4: There are reports that the Cuban government has ordered an

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Speaker 4: end to the refugee c lift. All boats were to

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Speaker 4: have left Mariel by today.

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Speaker 2: Many of those Cubans are then put into detention facilities. Right,

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Speaker 2: it's not an automatic, But what's going on for you?

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Speaker 3: This friend of mine, Michael Miranda, is an actor wonderful actor,

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Speaker 3: and he came to my house.

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Speaker 1: He called me, wait for me, I talk to you.

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Speaker 3: You're not trying to get into those boats. Don't be

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Speaker 3: so naive. They're not going to let you go that easy.

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Speaker 3: After all the common say mocking that you have been

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Speaker 3: doing about this government for twenty years. Well, making a

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Speaker 3: long story short, they managed to fix the equipment and

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Speaker 3: then they planned a tour in Europe that were supposed

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Speaker 3: to do Sweden, Spain and Poland. I remember talking to

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Speaker 3: Carlisto Poeto, the base player, and Carlito, I am not

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Speaker 3: going to die in this land. I don't know, but

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Speaker 3: I cannotstand this anymore. This is too much.

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Speaker 1: It's pure repression and I don't want to live here.

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Speaker 3: I didn't tell him that I was going to do

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Speaker 3: the effect in Spain, but that is what I did.

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Speaker 2: When you boarded the plane to go on tour with

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Speaker 2: Irakeria in nineteen eighty to Spain, did you know when

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Speaker 2: you stepped on the plane that you were not coming back.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, you knew that that I knew. Let's remind the

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Speaker 3: people that I was married with a kid. I want

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Speaker 3: money to an architect and have a five year old

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Speaker 3: kid born a plane to Spain with Irakere, and I

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Speaker 3: left my wife and my son back in Cuba.

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Speaker 2: And you hadn't told anyone.

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Speaker 1: I told my wife.

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Speaker 3: I said, they are not going to let you go,

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Speaker 3: So now I go, and then later on we decide

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Speaker 3: what to do later on, but we all stay here.

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Speaker 3: None of us are going to be able to leave

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Speaker 3: the country. You know, they kept my wife and my

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Speaker 3: son for ten years there. The minister or culture call

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Speaker 3: her and said, this is a very wound. And you

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Speaker 3: used to tell you that don't even think about the

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Speaker 3: idea of going out of this country.

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Speaker 1: You will die here.

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Speaker 2: Wow. When you made that decision of just like, I'm

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Speaker 2: never going back to this place that birthed me. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: can you describe those feelings?

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Speaker 3: That was not the country that gave me birth. They

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Speaker 3: they made totally different. I miss that country as much

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Speaker 3: as I miss my grandfather. If I go to the

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Speaker 3: grave of my grandfather and I open that is that

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Speaker 3: in there, it's not my grandfather anymore. It's a totally

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Speaker 3: different thing. That is not my grandfather anymore. That is

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Speaker 3: not my country anymore.

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Speaker 2: When you get to New York in the nineteen eighties,

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Speaker 2: let's talk about the music. Now that you were hearing

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Speaker 2: on the streets of New York City. You've defected Cuba, psegelatras.

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Speaker 2: You're now in New York City at the height kind

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Speaker 2: of of Afro Cuban jazz being a moment. What do

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Speaker 2: you remember of those times?

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Speaker 3: I dream all my life to be part of the

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Speaker 3: jazz world in New York City. The jazz well is

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Speaker 3: permeated by the Latin elements or the Cuban element, and

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Speaker 3: in my case, the Brazilian element.

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Speaker 1: All my life I love.

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Speaker 3: Brazilian music, and here or I had the opportunity to

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Speaker 3: meet so many Brazilian musicians and to learn about them.

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Speaker 3: Working one night, there is a Brazilian composer. He approached

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Speaker 3: me and said, I heard that you're looking for the

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Speaker 3: trumpet player. He said, yes, probably we need a trumple

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Speaker 3: play next to me and said the trumpet player you

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Speaker 3: need to called Claudio RODITI said, who does the Brazilian

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Speaker 3: guy from Rio de Janeiro.

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Speaker 1: You have to hear him, and I went to.

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Speaker 3: Listen to Claudy, and Claudia was with me for many

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Speaker 3: years and I learned a lot from Brazilian music.

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Speaker 2: Who else were you meeting in the jazz world.

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Speaker 3: Some of the best of the bijack musician here were lacking,

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Speaker 3: people like Hilton Ruely, for example, or Avato. The eighties

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Speaker 3: was a fantastic time in jazz music and music in

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Speaker 3: general in the city of New York. I've recorded with

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Speaker 3: McCoy Tyner, David dan Ram who was a friend of this.

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Speaker 1: He also, what.

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Speaker 2: Did you learn from Dizzy Gillespie that really impacted you

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Speaker 2: as a musician?

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Speaker 1: This he helped me a lot. This was a great

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Speaker 1: heap for me.

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Speaker 3: He created not only a great career for himself, but

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Speaker 3: he helped a lot of people. And now a young

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Speaker 3: man who has become a grand master in this native

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Speaker 3: American art form.

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Speaker 2: Only he is from the island of Cuba. So you

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Speaker 2: and I, obviously Pakita, were older than the hip hop generation, right,

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Speaker 2: And I hear a lot of young people talk about

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Speaker 2: hip hop as a culture as a way of life,

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Speaker 2: and I'm like, okay, I get it. But my way

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Speaker 2: of life, if you ask me, is kind of jazz.

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Speaker 2: Like the music that I listened to almost all the

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Speaker 2: time in the mornings on the weekends, it's jazz. It

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Speaker 2: is a way of life, and improvisation in jazz is

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Speaker 2: an essential part of the jazz experience. Hardly so if

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Speaker 2: you had to explain that, pakita, what it is to

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Speaker 2: have jazz as a way of life and the fundamentals

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Speaker 2: of improvisation as a way of life, how do you

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Speaker 2: put that towards.

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Speaker 3: Some people misunderstand that concept. Why because they talk only

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Speaker 3: about the fun part, you know, the freedom part of

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Speaker 3: the improvisation and all that. But in order to improvise,

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00:24:57,920 --> 00:25:01,359
Speaker 3: you need something basic to break the rules, you have

361
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Speaker 3: to know them first. It's as simple as that. I

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Speaker 3: like to improvide, but I want to know on the

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Speaker 3: what circumstances that are going to improvise. What is the

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Speaker 3: rules of this game. Sometimes we do really free improvisation,

365
00:25:18,359 --> 00:25:22,760
Speaker 3: but it's always some knowledge about what you're going to do.

366
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Speaker 3: It's like a cook. You have to know what I've

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Speaker 3: been great that you have.

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Speaker 2: Do you feel like your life has been improvised?

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Speaker 1: Combination of both things.

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Speaker 3: It's an improvisation, but it's an improvisation or something that

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Speaker 3: I have planned before, only that sometimes what you plan

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Speaker 3: don't show up the way that you want.

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Speaker 1: It's a combination of all that. Life is full of surprises.

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Speaker 2: And honestly, Pakito, you continue to surprise a lot of people, right,

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Speaker 2: because twenty three you're still winning a words.

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Speaker 1: Right.

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Speaker 2: In the Latin Grammy is you win two awards. The

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Speaker 2: first one is for Best Latin Jazz or Jazz Album

379
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Speaker 2: for I Missed You Too, the album that reunited you

380
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Speaker 2: and the great Cuban pianist to Travaldez. But you win

381
00:26:19,760 --> 00:26:24,440
Speaker 2: another Grammy, which is Best Contemporary Classical Composition for your

382
00:26:24,480 --> 00:26:26,280
Speaker 2: piece Concerto Venezuela.

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Speaker 3: No, it's found doing different things is like eating different

384
00:26:34,800 --> 00:26:38,840
Speaker 3: things every day, you know, and writing this concerto for

385
00:26:39,000 --> 00:26:42,360
Speaker 3: batch of Flude was very encouraging, you know, when inspiring.

386
00:26:42,400 --> 00:26:47,520
Speaker 3: Because Patch is a also trumpet player from Venezuela. He

387
00:26:47,600 --> 00:26:51,360
Speaker 3: had me to write the symphonic piece for him and

388
00:26:52,040 --> 00:26:57,600
Speaker 3: I mix things. The concerto written in a very jazzy

389
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Speaker 3: way too. I can't avoid it.

390
00:27:00,320 --> 00:27:03,400
Speaker 2: So when people say, wait, you're playing two different styles,

391
00:27:03,400 --> 00:27:07,399
Speaker 2: you're actually like, no, they're much closer together than you

392
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Speaker 2: could ever imagine.

393
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Speaker 1: It's a continuation.

394
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Speaker 3: It's more late than Mimobota and.

395
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Speaker 2: Miss How do we know the same stew as a

396
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Speaker 2: whoa the same stew So let's talk about being reunited

397
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Speaker 2: with chuchos.

398
00:27:29,320 --> 00:27:34,320
Speaker 3: What was that like wonderful. Chucho is the second more

399
00:27:34,359 --> 00:27:38,680
Speaker 3: important person in my career. My father was a better

400
00:27:39,280 --> 00:27:42,240
Speaker 3: gave me my first lessons, gave me my first instrument

401
00:27:42,280 --> 00:27:45,720
Speaker 3: and all that and in my father, but Chucho was

402
00:27:45,760 --> 00:27:49,560
Speaker 3: the first musician that I admired. And I remember the

403
00:27:49,640 --> 00:27:54,240
Speaker 3: lady that that happened was in a club in Havana,

404
00:27:55,040 --> 00:27:59,400
Speaker 3: Havana Mi. I was like, you know, twelve years old,

405
00:27:59,520 --> 00:28:02,360
Speaker 3: thirty year so a friend of mine, another pianist, Kate

406
00:28:02,480 --> 00:28:05,080
Speaker 3: to ask for permission to my father to invite me

407
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Speaker 3: to a jam session in Havana.

408
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Speaker 1: Mino Cento was a Sunday afternoon.

409
00:28:11,600 --> 00:28:15,639
Speaker 3: So when we are right there, this lunky, skinny black

410
00:28:16,359 --> 00:28:20,440
Speaker 3: pianist playing the piano at the end of the club

411
00:28:20,840 --> 00:28:22,520
Speaker 3: plays so fantastically.

412
00:28:22,680 --> 00:28:26,480
Speaker 1: You know, it was a young kid.

413
00:28:26,560 --> 00:28:29,040
Speaker 3: It was a kid maybe twenty years eighteen years old,

414
00:28:29,520 --> 00:28:33,679
Speaker 3: playing like a stile very similar to Oscar Peterson. That

415
00:28:33,800 --> 00:28:38,640
Speaker 3: is impossible. I theen years old. He cannot play likes periods.

416
00:28:39,960 --> 00:28:40,600
Speaker 3: Is a monster.

417
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Speaker 1: Ever since I admired him and I wanted to.

418
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Speaker 3: Be like him.

419
00:28:51,240 --> 00:28:55,200
Speaker 2: When you win these Grammys just last year in twenty

420
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Speaker 2: twenty three, I mean, you know you've got so many Grammys.

421
00:29:00,160 --> 00:29:04,480
Speaker 2: This in particular to be recognized for these two genres

422
00:29:04,520 --> 00:29:06,360
Speaker 2: and for your work with Chucho.

423
00:29:07,160 --> 00:29:11,120
Speaker 1: This is very special. Grammy awards are not everything for me.

424
00:29:11,760 --> 00:29:13,680
Speaker 3: It's important, and it's not everything for me, but this

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00:29:13,840 --> 00:29:17,680
Speaker 3: Gammy is important because it's together with somebody that means

426
00:29:17,720 --> 00:29:21,320
Speaker 3: a lot to me, their friend and is like a mentor.

427
00:29:21,280 --> 00:29:24,520
Speaker 1: You know, and he saved my life when I was.

428
00:29:24,480 --> 00:29:28,600
Speaker 3: At home doing nothing in the days that Juchu asked

429
00:29:28,600 --> 00:29:30,080
Speaker 3: me to be part of Irakere.

430
00:29:30,720 --> 00:29:33,680
Speaker 1: It was a race because they knew, hey.

431
00:29:33,640 --> 00:29:39,200
Speaker 2: You can and let they know your tongue. They knew

432
00:29:39,200 --> 00:29:40,840
Speaker 2: that if they brought you on, you were not going

433
00:29:40,920 --> 00:29:41,440
Speaker 2: to be quiet.

434
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Speaker 4: You know.

435
00:29:42,520 --> 00:29:49,400
Speaker 3: Well for the while I behaved, then I defect. Well, finally,

436
00:29:49,600 --> 00:29:51,720
Speaker 3: it's very happy if we do together.

437
00:29:52,760 --> 00:29:56,160
Speaker 2: I want to know about your experience now as a

438
00:29:56,360 --> 00:30:00,200
Speaker 2: Latino as it were you moved to New York. This

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00:30:00,360 --> 00:30:03,800
Speaker 2: is when you become a Latino. Yes, you're Cuban, but

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00:30:03,920 --> 00:30:08,080
Speaker 2: you're also now living surrounded by Puerto Ricans, by Cubans,

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00:30:08,120 --> 00:30:12,760
Speaker 2: by Colombians, by Venezuelanos, Central Americanos, Mexicanos. What has this

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00:30:13,080 --> 00:30:16,600
Speaker 2: kind of international Latin American presence that you have in

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00:30:16,680 --> 00:30:19,120
Speaker 2: a city like New York. What does this meant for

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00:30:19,200 --> 00:30:21,600
Speaker 2: you as an artist and as a human being.

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00:30:22,280 --> 00:30:26,600
Speaker 3: It's wonderful to see how the Latino community advance, how

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00:30:26,720 --> 00:30:30,400
Speaker 3: they are part of the entire melting pot. That this

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00:30:30,560 --> 00:30:33,479
Speaker 3: is country, not only in New York. The entire country

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00:30:33,560 --> 00:30:37,360
Speaker 3: is a melting pot of different nationalities. Against the opinion

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00:30:37,480 --> 00:30:42,200
Speaker 3: of some crazy people that still insists in denying the

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00:30:42,320 --> 00:30:46,760
Speaker 3: positive contribution of Latin American people, do this culture here.

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Speaker 1: This is a country of immigrants. We cannot deny that.

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Speaker 3: And the best part of this country is the multinationality

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00:30:55,080 --> 00:30:58,600
Speaker 3: Vietnamese and Czechoso, Waguin and people do not know the place.

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Speaker 3: And Latinos are a very important party in this melting pot.

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Speaker 3: It's on deniable.

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Speaker 2: Well, you actually brought it up, Pakito, So I'm just

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00:31:06,440 --> 00:31:08,560
Speaker 2: gonna go there. What goes on for you when you

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00:31:08,760 --> 00:31:11,920
Speaker 2: hear Latinos saying, oh my god, you know what, there's

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00:31:11,960 --> 00:31:14,880
Speaker 2: too many immigrants, There's just too many.

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Speaker 3: It's very funny. That is to me, sounds very funny.

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00:31:18,800 --> 00:31:20,960
Speaker 3: How come you didn't say that when you went out.

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00:31:21,920 --> 00:31:24,840
Speaker 3: You have to have some compassion from people that are

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00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:28,240
Speaker 3: out and we have enough space here. It's really a

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00:31:28,360 --> 00:31:29,040
Speaker 3: rich country.

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Speaker 1: You know we have.

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Speaker 2: Oh I love that, I see, which means there's candy

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00:31:36,400 --> 00:31:41,360
Speaker 2: for everyone. Oh my god, I love that. Pakitoka, pakito.

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00:31:41,560 --> 00:31:44,960
Speaker 2: Finally to end, you know you have done so much.

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Speaker 2: Is there something that you're like, Oh, but I want

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00:31:47,520 --> 00:31:52,560
Speaker 2: to do this? Is there that still I would like.

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Speaker 3: Some day that I would be able to play in

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00:31:55,160 --> 00:32:01,280
Speaker 3: my homeland. But a free Cuba, a place squere I

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00:32:01,560 --> 00:32:04,880
Speaker 3: don't have to be considered a second class citizen, A

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00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:11,720
Speaker 3: play that all cubansa respected the same way. I want

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00:32:11,800 --> 00:32:14,560
Speaker 3: to go there with the pressure who have been the

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00:32:14,680 --> 00:32:17,680
Speaker 3: most important part of my life in the last forty years,

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00:32:17,720 --> 00:32:21,000
Speaker 3: which is my wife Brenda, which is Puerto rican Google,

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00:32:21,080 --> 00:32:21,640
Speaker 3: Puerto Rico.

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00:32:25,600 --> 00:32:28,640
Speaker 2: You and Puerto Rico are the two wings of the

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00:32:28,760 --> 00:32:31,960
Speaker 2: same bird, and so you want to go back the deal.

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Speaker 3: I would like to do that.

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Speaker 2: Paquitos portolitic CaCO migo. Thank you so much for having

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Speaker 2: me and your home and for this conversation.

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Speaker 1: Pleasure to be here with you.

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00:32:52,320 --> 00:32:55,880
Speaker 2: Ribera is on tour now across the US and Europe.

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00:32:56,200 --> 00:32:58,800
Speaker 2: In November, he'll be playing with the New Jersey Symphony

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00:32:59,160 --> 00:33:26,120
Speaker 2: at the James Mood Jazz Festival. This episode was produced

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00:33:26,120 --> 00:33:29,920
Speaker 2: by Victoria Estrada with production assistants from GLORIMR. Marquez. It

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00:33:30,120 --> 00:33:34,440
Speaker 2: was edited by Alexandra Salasad and mixed by Julia Caruso,

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00:33:34,920 --> 00:33:39,520
Speaker 2: with engineering support from JJ Carubin. The Latino USA team

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00:33:39,600 --> 00:33:44,840
Speaker 2: also includes Jessica Ellis, Renaldo Leanos Junior, Stephanie Lebau, Andrea

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00:33:44,920 --> 00:33:50,160
Speaker 2: Lopez Gruzado, Luis Luna Marta Martinez Morsaudi, and Nancy Drujiro.

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00:33:50,520 --> 00:33:54,240
Speaker 2: Benile Ramidz is our co executive producer I'm your host

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00:33:54,280 --> 00:33:57,120
Speaker 2: and co executive producer Maria Rosa join us again on

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00:33:57,200 --> 00:33:59,320
Speaker 2: our next episode. In the meantime, I'll see you on

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00:33:59,400 --> 00:34:02,920
Speaker 2: Instagram and be sure to be there. I'll see you later.

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Speaker 5: Latino USA is made possible in part by Drunken Miller Foundation,

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00:34:14,640 --> 00:34:21,560
Speaker 5: Agnes Gunn and the Heising Simon's Foundation. Unlocking knowledge, opportunity

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00:34:21,840 --> 00:34:25,839
Speaker 5: and possibilities more at hsfoundation dot org.

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Speaker 2: You'll know when we have to translate that. That's like

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00:34:36,880 --> 00:34:39,560
Speaker 2: using sausage as a leash for your dog.

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Speaker 1: Okay,