Escucha Jazz

Ave. La Paz, Miraflores

Every day I walk down my street lined with jewelry and antique stores and I see Escucha Jazz , a commandment, spray painted in black letters across a faded yellow piece of cement seperating a silver shop, which both buys and sells silver, from a narrow five story apartment building, and I can't help but smile. Escucha Jazz, Listen to Jazz.

Footprints & Vivencias- Ernesto Hermoza & Manuel Carranza, Vivencias 2003

While Gabriel Alegria was on tour I was focusing only on his music, but now that the tour is over I would like to introduce you to some other Saponegro Artists. Ernesto Hermoza is an incredible flamenco guitarist who plays afro-peruvian jazz. He recorded Vivencias with Flautist and long-time friend Manuel Carranza. Footprints and Vivencias are incredible examples of Ernestos use of both Spanish and Afro-peruvian styles in jazz. In His adaptation of Wayne Shorter's Footprints, Ernesto plays bulerias, a Spanish style incorporated in both his guitar playing and the use of clapping throughout the song. The best example of this style starts at 00:43 where Ernesto has an incredible solo that lasts until 2:15. The cajon, which was became common in Spanish music after Paco de Lucia's visit to Peru in 1985, adds a taste of Afro-Peruvianess to the song. (I mention the cajon all the time on this blog but I have never fully explained it. The cajon is a hollow wooden box with a hole in it. It was developed in coastal peru by the Slaves working in the Spanish Colony. The slaves would sit on top of the crates they filled with the fruit and cotton they picked, and drum. This music was not only a way of survival and story telling. It was also a clear sign of protest. The Spanish banned music in heavily African and Indigenous populated areas, but still the cajon is part of peru today.) Vivencias, the albums title track, features Ernesto and Manuel playing both the Spanish bulerias style and the Peruvian style marinera limena, while Marco Oliveros plays the Udu.