Festival of World Music opens with jazz group
By Daily Bruin Staff
May 7, 2001 9:00 p.m.
 MICHAEL JENNINGS Bobby Rodriguez,
director of the Latin Jazz Ensemble at UCLA, leads students during
a rehearsal for the World Jazz Ensemble.
By Kate Bristow
Daily Bruin Contributor
Pulsing Brazilian rhythms, mystical Eastern flutes and icy
Caribbean steel drums are only a few of the musical phenomena that
the ethnomusicology department’s World Jazz Ensemble creates.
Incorporating music from all corners of the earth, the group earns
its worldly title by blending Brazilian, North Indian and Middle
Eastern sounds with American jazz.
UCLA’s World Jazz Ensemble takes the stage today in
Schoenberg Hall’s Jan Popper Theater at 7 p.m. It is the
first installment in the ethnomusicology department’s Spring
2001 Festival of World Music. The concert features special guest
professor, director, percussionist and celebrated Brazilian jazz
musician Airto Moreira.
“I joined the group this year because it was the first
year that Airto Moreira was going to be involved,” said
ethnomusicology graduate student and vocalist Nakisha Nesmith.
“I’m really interested in Brazilian music and when I
heard that he was the percussionist, I was like, “˜I have to
be there.'”
Born to play the drums, Moreira was banging on the floor and
swaying in time to music before he could walk. His professional
career began in Brazil at age 13 and during the years that he has
lived in the United States, Moreira has played, recorded and toured
with jazz greats such as Miles Davis, Cannonball Adderley, Paul
Desmond and Joe Zawinul.
“It’s great working with him. Airto’s
enthusiasm for the music invigorated the ensemble,” said
baritone saxophonist and ethnomusicology graduate student Charles
Sharp. “He adds a real different element to it.”
The ensemble will be performing one of Moreira’s original
compositions, titled “Misturada,” which means
“mixing” in Portuguese.
“It has a Brazilian kind of beat but is unusual because it
is in 7/4 time signature,” Moreira said. “I call it
“˜Misturada’ because when I first wrote this song a long
time ago in Brazil, the musicians would always get mixed up. But it
gets easier as you go along.”
Including “Misturada,” half of the ensemble’s
set is Brazilian jazz, highlighting Latin percussion and powerful
horn lines.
“We are trying to work with all different areas of the
world,” said ethnomusicology professor and trumpet player
Steven Loza. “In the past we have focused on Chinese, Korean
and Arabic music and this year we are doing Brazilian songs because
of Airto.”
Five years ago, Loza proposed the idea for a World Jazz Ensemble
to the ethnomusicology department. Then after spending time across
the world in Japan, he became even more excited about the idea of
starting a world music jazz band here at UCLA.
“I’m pretty sure that UCLA’s World Jazz
Ensemble is one of the first,” Loza said. “I just
thought that a new world jazz studies program would be a good idea
and this would be the place to do it ““ we have one of the
largest ethnomusicology programs.”
Several years ago, the ethnomusicology department hosted a
Brazilian jazz workshop facilitated by Moreira. In fall 2000,
Moreira began teaching at UCLA and co-directing the World Jazz
Ensemble.
“I started only a year ago,” Moreira said.
“Even though I am one of the directors, I get more involved
in the music aspects of it and play the drums the whole
time.”
Moreira’s statement runs true for the whole ensemble. The
rehearsals resemble jam sessions and many people make suggestions,
take turns cuing entrances and act as directors. A number of the
pieces performed by the ensemble were either written, arranged or
transcribed by someone involved in the class. Bassist and
ethnomusicology graduate student Roberto Moranda wrote a piece
titled “Creator’s Musicians,” Nesmith wrote a
reggae tune called “Freedom Song,” Loza composed a
Brazilian tune titled “L.A. River,” and co-director and
Professor Ali Jihad Racy transcribed “Shish Kabob,”
which features him on a number of Middle Eastern flutes.
“The flutes are from Egypt,” Jihad Racy said.
“One is called Nay and the other is called Kawala. The Nay is
a classical Middle Eastern instrument and is widely played. The
Kawala has a folkish sound and people love that sound because of
its sensuous and mystical qualities. They have great potential for
jazz mainly because on these flutes you can bend the tone and play
micro-tones.”
With Egyptian flutes, trumpets, South American drums,
saxophones, Caribbean steel drums, tubas and a famous Brazilian
percussionist, the World Jazz Ensemble’s sound is a global
one.
“Jazz is one of the most globalized and free forms,”
Loza said. “It’s about experimentation. We take jazz
and make it global because it has such a free
philosophy.”
MUSIC: UCLA’s World Jazz Ensemble
performs today in the Jan Popper Theater at 7 p.m. For more
information contact the ethnomusicology department at (310)
206-3033.
