Larry Vuckovich at Yoshi's with Hector Lugo 8/5

Once upon a time, i sat in with Larry Vuchovich, when John Santos and Orestes Vilato could not make it up to Napa. It was a train wreck, unfortunately. In place of the legendary section of Santos and Vilato, was me on congas and bongo and some middle eastern drummer who was all over the place. It was a nightmare situation, as this other percussionist and i could not find a groove. I had to play the most boring and straight tumbao, just to keep everything from falling apart. The whole night was awkward and unpleasent... fortunately it was in a lightly attended little club in the musicians wasteland of the Napa Valley. It was probably the last time I'll play with Larry, unfortunately.

Larry has a new project, and his is releasing a CD at Yoshi's next Tuesday night.

Good friend and master Bombero Hector Lugo will be on percussion. Should be a fun show, and the 10pm is only $10.


Larry Vuckovich Jazz/Latin Quartet
CD Release Concert

• Aug 5, 2008

• $16 8m
  $10 10 pm

• featuring
  Larry Vuckovich, piano
  Michael Zisman, bass
  Hector Lugo, Latin Percussion
  Eddie Marshall, drums

Bay Area stalwart pianist, Larry Luckovich returns to Yohsi's San Francisco. His resume includes stints with Anita O'Day, Joe Williams, Cab Calloway, Charlie Haden, Bobby Hutcherson, Larry Grenadier, and served as accompanist for vocalist/lyricist Jon Hendricks for many years.

Vuckovich comes to Yoshi's with his Jazz/Latin Quartet, featuring Eddie Marshall- drums, Hector Lugo - Latin percussion. Performs the music of the new High Wall: Real Life Film Noir CD including originals, film noir classics, swinging bebop, post-bop, contemporary jazz/modal, Latin/Brazilian, Balkan ethnojazz, flamenco, blues, & more.

"one of the premier west coast pianists." - Barry Harris

http://www.larryvuckovich.com

Hector Lugo at La Pena With Javier Navarette:



Some info on Hector:

Héctor Lugo is a versatile percussionist, singer and composer, and an experienced teacher. A native of Puerto Rico, Héctor has performed, toured and/or recorded with a variety of local and international artists, including, among others, the Familia Cepeda Folkloric Ensemble, Conjunto Céspedes, Gilberto Gutiérrez and Mono Blanco, Pete "El Conde" Rodríguez, Luis Romero y Orquesta Mazacote, Mission Project, and Jackeline Rago and the Venezuelan Music Project. He leads Son Borikua, an eight piece ensemble that performs original music inspired in the Puerto Rican musical folklore, in particular the "Bomba" and the "Plena". The group's sound balances the color and range of string instruments such as the "cuatro" with the percussive drive of the barrel shaped bomba drums, the hand held "panderos" of the plena, and the "güiro" and "bongó" of "jíbaro" music. Some of the group's pieces turn into spontaneous dance performances while others feature more choreographed presentations of bomba dancing, a traditional Afro-Puerto Rican dance form.

"I started here at La Peña studying, I started playing and getting involved in music late in my life. And it was through La Peña I think that I started participating in some Afro-Cuban drumming workshops. I did that for a few years. After that I started performing and playing with different groups. Recently in the last couple of years since I put together my band, Son Borikua, we've had the opportunity to play [all over the Bay Area]. I've been playing in different folkloric ensembles, Venezuela and Afro-Cuban, Puerto Rican. I also like popular music but I guess it's more difficult to find places where you can present that other, more folk form."

"I always kind of try to make people aware, both people that play with me in my band, and people that study here in the workshops, and the people that come to the shows, first that you know, we play music that owes a great debt to the people that came before us. A lot of the music that we're playing is rooted in traditions that represent the experiences of previous generations. You know, the struggle of people coming together, and people that came from many different continents throughout the process of colonization of Puerto Rico. So I like people to understand that we owe something to those previous generations that created some of the sounds, and some of the songs, and some of these traditions and some of these dances. We're now taking them, and we're moving with them to a new place. And that's the other thing that I like people to understand. That we've got to respect those traditions and learn from them, but that our role, at least I see, my role in Son Borikua, in this band, is then taking that tradition further and putting our own contribution."

Photo by Hugh Lovell