Latin Jazz: Dominican Republic

Following the explanation about what is Latin Jazz, here is a "more traditional" example about what people usually think Latin Jazz it is. This is my transcription of "From within" composed by Michel Camilo who is a pianist from Dominican Republic. 

Latin Jazz: Spain

What is the difference between Afro-Cuban Jazz and Latin Jazz? Latin Jazz is a category of Jazz which includes the Afro-Cuban Jazz among many others. For Example, here is one of my transcriptions of Chano Dominguez who is a Latin Jazz pianist from Spain.

Ragtime in Rock

Here are three Ragtime in Rock examples transcribed by me:

Rick Wakeman, YES

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Jordan Rudess, Dream Theater

Keith Emerson, Emerson, Lake and Palmer

Free Style Performance

This is one of the free style performances played by us in the Expand Music class. It happened last year. I hope you enjoy it!

"Far from the Shores we know"

Hi,

Here is a video of our final performance of Expanded Music; this concert was based mainly on improvisation, combining both music (with our instruments) and dancing. The idea was to join together two different Steinhardt classes and on top of that, to be able to connect with the University of Tromso in Norway and Queen's University Belfast in UK and all together create a whole performance of live improvisation from every location.

The result was great, it was quite amazing that we were able not only to be in contact but to make music all together, even if we where miles apart. Also, the dance improvisations gave each performance a different and special meaning making the concert something very special and never seen before.

Here is an edition made by my wife, who was recorded the performance.

I hope you enjoy it! :)

"From within"

Hi,

This is the piece that I played for you on the third week of Expanded Music class with professor J. Gilbert. Its called "From within" and it was composed by Michel Camilo, one of the greatest exponents of Latin jazz in the world. He studied here in New York City, where he became a renowned pianist.

A while ago I made my personal transcription of this piece, which I'll like to share with you; here is the video of my interpretation of the song. I did this back at home in Chile, I hope you enjoy it! :)

If you are interested in the transcription, just contact me!

Merengue Styles and Songs

The Merengue is a musical and dancing style originated in Republica Dominicana. 

One of the projects I'm developing related to Braille music is the creation of a music book with excersises of Piano Merengue written in Braille music. The idea behind this is to connect the music accademic studies with Popular music, a repertoir that needs to be expanded and available for everyone.

The use of the piano in Merengue music consists basically in the use of complementary rhythms alternating your both hands, These complementary rhythms are played on conventional chords without many tensions above the seventh. While these grooves consist mostly on rhythmic figuration on a given chord, you can also find grooves with melodic deployments in them, in which case the gradual movements are privileged. The most important thing about this is that when you play Merengue  you have to think about the piano almost as one more percussion instrument of the band.

I made this video to show you all the basic Merengue styles played in Piano.

Did you like the  (Merengue)?