Ignacio "Nachito" Herrera
elliottd
pianist and musical director for Cubanismo). He's been appearing at the
Dakota Bar and Grill in St. Paul, MNwith a band he's formed called puro
cubano. Last friday and Saturday night he had a new CD release party.
http://www.dakotacooks.com/nachitoherrera.htm
Kostas Polyzonis
x1gM9.713$os5...@newssvr16.news.prodigy.com...
the latin jazz forum at yahoo groups:
"--- In lati...@yahoogroups.com, "Boricua Music, Inc." <boricuamusic@i...>
wrote:
Mark,
You are talking about Ignacio Herrera López aka Nachito Herrera. He is the
pianist in the great Peruchin Jr's CD Guajira Con Tumbao, EGREM, 1998, CD
0299. On this CD he plays piano in its entirety, performing great solos on
tracks # 2,7 & 8. It is a good addition to the music library of anyone who
loves good music, specially Afro-Cuban Style. Last thing I knew was that he
was Cubanismo pianist. The rumors Kevin heard, I have nothing to confirm on,
but I think he is a great pianist, so I cannot tell you why he left
Cubanismo either. I will just say that Jesús Alemañy is not really a soft
cookie to work with, specially after his newly found fame with Cubanismo. I
saw Jesús in London playing before he had the first Cubanismo album out and
before he was rich and famous. He was a very approachable person back then.
Back to Nachito now. But he is playing with a band by the name Puro Cubano
in MN. So, I assume that Puro Cubano is his band now. Puro Cubano also
stands for true Cuban cigar. He has also being involved in a Salsa band from
MN, Maya Santamaría Band, a 13-piece salsa band headed by him with this
Mexican born singer as the main attraction in the band, who seems to be a
mixed of vocal fiery between Celia Cruz, Bamboleo and India. I do not know
if he is based in MN or he is just passing by. He has done some arragements
for Steve Guarsch upcoming Latin Jazz album.
He was recently featured on Wednesday October 2nd, at Dakota Jazz in St.
Paul, MN, and the bill read: Nachito Herrera and Puro Cubano. He will be
performing at the Artists' Quarter on 10/18-19, again as Nachito Herrera &
Puro Cubano. He will be featured on Oct. 29 at the O'Shaughnessy Educational
Center Auditorium, University of St. Thomas , St. Paul Campus on the bill
The Beat Goes On, Afro -Cuban Style: Nachito Herrera - Son, clave, rumba?
Cuban pianist Nachito Herrera reminds us that "It don't mean a thing if it
ain't got that swing."
You might try calling the following numbers of the joints where he has
played and will play and I am sure they will tell you how to get in touch
with him. I am sure it will not be hard.
Twin Cities Jazz Society - (651) 633-0329 - Email tcjs@a...
Artists'Quarter - Ph: 651-292-1359 - e-mail jazz@m... - Contact Al Iverson.
Hope this helps!
Jesse M. Rivera
Boricua Music, Inc.
1.530.688.8498
----- Original Message -----
From: <zmr88@a...>
To: <lati...@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, October 05, 2002 9:25 PM
Subject: [latinjazz] re: Nacito Herrera
Anyone have an info about a Cuban pianist named Nacito Herrera?
Peace - Mark Levine"
This a great little group that anyone interested in latinn jazz can join.
And there are some illustrious members too, like Mark Levine who posted the
question in the discussion above. If anybody's interested in joining go to
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/latinjazz/
and follow the subscription procedure. It's very quick but you'll need to
get a yahoo account (it's free).
Kostas Polyzonis
att576$qu8$1...@usenet.otenet.gr...
And here's an article that somebody posted in that group during the same
discussion:
--- In lati...@yahoogroups.com, "Allan Johnston" <tumbao@t...> wrote:
http://www.startribune.com/stories/1526/3387302.html
Cuba & Minnesota are worlds apart, but music is a common bond for Nachito
Herrera
Chris Riemenschneider
Star Tribune
Published Oct 25, 2002
Nachito Herrera was 15 when he got his first important lesson in Cuban
music.
One of his mentors at the time -- Ruben Gonzalez, who would go on to
international fame with the Buena Vista Social Club many years later --
invited him on stage at a club in Havana.
Herrera was proficient in classical, American jazz and several other kinds
of music. But almost for the same reasons why a kid from Kentucky might not
study bluegrass or a farmer's son might avoid lectures on manure, the teen
piano prodigy did not know how to play the styles of his own beloved
country.
"I got on stage and Ruben said, 'OK, Nachito, this is your time, this is
your solo,' " Herrera, now 36, recalled last week.
"I started to play something fast like the American musicians, like Chick
Corea or Herbie Hancock, you know," he continued, mimicking rapid movement
over a keyboard. "Ruben was looking at me like, 'Yeah, that's very good. But
please, this is not our music. You have to calm down.' "
Nachito Herrera
Carlos Gonzalez
Star Tribune
With that humbling experience as a starting point, Herrera began his
tutelage in traditional Cuban music -- music that is rarely as aggressive or
angry as a lot of American music. Things came full circle for the pianist in
the late '90s, when he toured America and Europe with the Afro-Cuban jazz
combo Cubanismo as its music director.
Then life practically turned upside down for Herrera last year -- when he
moved to the Twin Cities. Seemingly one of the most unlikely U.S.
metropolitan areas for a Cuban musician to settle in, it's where he finally
has formed his own group, Puro Cubano, made up of local musicians who have
never set foot in Cuba. And his audiences, in large part, are people who
only just got turned onto Cuban music a couple years ago with the Buena
Vista Social Club.
Nachito Herrera & Puro Cubano perform at the Artists' Quarter
Jeff Wheeler
Star Tribune
Herrera said he wouldn't have it any other way right now. His reasons for
moving here -- and staying -- have something to do with the bug that
Gonzalez planted in him way back when.
"I am so proud to be able to bring Cuban music and Cuban culture to people
who want to learn it," he said. "I love all kinds of music, especially
American music. But I love Cuban music the most."
Not just cha-cha
In Cuba, schoolchildren are as likely to be studying music as they are the
ABCs. Not surprisingly, then, Herrera's life as a musician goes back to
grade school and continued through college years at Institò´ "uperior de
Havana.
Growing up with two siblings in a middle-class home near Havana, he said,
"We had music," in the nonchalant way an American kid might say, "We had a
TV." His father, Nachito Sr., was a professional piano player who gave him
many of his first gigs. His brother became a drummer. And his mother "had an
incredible ear for music," he said.
"She would be in the kitchen cooking while I was practicing, and she would
yell to me, 'Hey, you go back! You played the wrong note,' " he said.
Herrera's proficiency as a musician has left many of his new Minnesota
friends in awe.
"It isn't just that he can play a cha-cha song incredibly well," said Lowell
Pickett, manager of the Dakota Bar & Grill. "He can play a traditional Cuban
song, and then he can go off on some classical-music riff or play a Dizzy
Gillespie song. And it's obvious when he changes around like that, he's
having the most fun."
These varying abilities are represented on Puro Cubano's new live CD, "Live
at the Dakota," recorded and paid for by Dakota associates as part of a
series of CDs made there. Herrera and his band return to the St. Paul jazz
club tonight and Saturday to promote the album.
Among the tracks recorded at the Dakota in July were Gillespie's "Night in
Tunisia," a version of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2, Cuban standards
such as "Almendra" and new originals such as "Un Díµ en Havana." Call it
Cuban music without any embargoes.
Like all the musicians who play with Herrera locally, Puro Cubano
saxophonist LeAnn Lindgren was heavily into Latin music before he got here.
The other members of the band include bassist Jorge Bringas, who has played
with Celia Cròº¬ and Jerusalem native and local veteran Shai Hyo on drums.
"It isn't that Nachito is Cuban and therefore a more legitimate person to
play this," said Lindgren, who was in the Latin Sounds Orchestra, one of
many acts that helped make Central and South American music familiar to
Minnesotans. "I know people born here in the Twin Cities that can play Latin
music better than most Latinos.
"Nachito brings legitimacy to the local scene simply by his musical
abilities in so many different kinds of music."
Special merit
Herrera first came to Minneapolis on tour with Cubanismo and, he said, "I
liked it immediately because it seemed like one of the more calm, stable,
safe big cities in the U.S.A."
Plus, he said, "I loved it that even if there are 30 inches of snow on the
ground, people will still go out and see live music."
Soon after his time in Cubanismo ended, Herrera made some connections with
the St. Paul management company Midwest Latino Entertainment, which arranged
to bring him to the States and become the bandleader of local salsa band
Sabor Tropical. It only took a few months for Herrera's reputation to spread
around the Twin Cities, which is a good thing: he had a falling-out with
Sabor Tropical a few months after his arrival.
"I thought, 'This is it, I'm packing up and going back to Cuba,' " Herrera
said, grimacing.
Enter Pickett and the Dakota's jazz-education program. With a nonprofit
organization as a sponsor, Herrera was able to obtain a special work visa
given to "artists of special merit."
"I think the title certainly fits," Pickett said.
The visa gives Herrera at least three years to stay in Minnesota, and he
expects he will use them all up. He recently took a job teaching music at
the MacPhail Center for the Arts, and plans are being made for a Puro Cubano
tour.
The downside is that the pianist, who is single, has not found the time to
go back to Cuba, where his family still lives.
"I miss the people, and I also very much miss the music," he said. "I have
the CDs, you know, but especially with the music de Cuba, it's not the same
on a stereo. You have to hear it live and be there with the musicians."
Thanks to him, Minnesotans are learning that, too.
IF YOU GO
Nachito Herrera &
Puro Cubano
When: 9 p.m. Fri.-Sat.
Where: Dakota Bar & Grill, Bandana Square, St. Paul.
Tickets: $10. 651-642-1442.
--- End forwarded message ---
Kostas
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