Havana Fairfax Connection 0076

A carnival of music, joy and danceable tunes with host Toni Basanta. www.cubanbridge.wordpress.com Featuring Vermont's Robin Gottfried Band in the LCATV studio.

The opportunity to record our new episode in a Live performance in March 2020 with this caliber of musicians was the fulfillment of a dream since the foundation of our Havana Fairfax Connection TV show @ LCATV in June 2017.
So now I hope you enjoy the spontaneous moments within it.
The selection of Songs by guitarist band leader Robin Gottfried from his 10 self-produced albums under his belt, chosen with care, love and joy; are expressed in every single note. Many thanks and much love to all the present and former members of the Robin Gottfried Band, and also to their families !.
Robin, John and Ian you all have a solid pocket men !
In sum, I highly recommend this wonderful work from Robin Gottfried Band. It's a joyous musical journey and will find its way also into many playlists and rotations, without a doubt. - Toni

Havana Fairfax Connection 0075

Shellhouse: A True Vermont Original Pop Rock Band in the LCATV studio.
Notes from Host Toni Basanta:
Shellhouse became official in 2003, taking the name of a stone in Ferrisburgh, Vermont. The band was started by Bob Teer and Jim Fox, veteran musicians and long time friends, who have been getting together to jam for many years. In 2001, their sessions turned more serious and more regular and they began working on arrangements for some of Bob's original songs.
The vibe was good and the music even better, and the pair fast quickly realized they were creating a special and unique sound.
Soon after they began recording Bob's tunes, as one was completed, Bob had another one ready to go! At first, they played all the instruments themselves, using their multi-talents on electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin, bass and flutes to create their original sound. In time, they added the backgrounds vocals of Andrea Teer, who along with Bob performed for many years as a Folk Duo.
Before long, the Trio had enough songs for an album, and even before the band had officially formed, the first CD titled Boomerang was released to wide local and national critical acclaim.
With the success of Boomerang, and the demand for their sound to jump from the CD to the stage, the Trio decided to expand their reach by adding a bass player and a drummer, and in 2003, Shellhouse was officially created. While the first members of the band was enough to put Shellhouse on the map, it was not to last. Reason why Bob and Jim continued auditioning a host of drummers, some quite good. But it was Bob DeFeo, with his winning personality and professional drumming chops who ultimately fit the Shellhouse profile, and in 2004, he officially joined the band.
Finding the right bassist proved to be an odyssey. They tried out several, played with a few and ultimately lucked out when bassist Marshall Breakstone answered their add. A bassist for a number of popular Burlington bands, they knew instantly that Marshall was a kindred spirit with the experience, the chops and the right style both vocally and on bass, to complete the Shellhouse sound. Shellhouse has had gigs throughout the greater Vermont area playing their original songs and cover tunes by Van Morrison, The Box Tops, Tom Petty, John Hiatt, Bob Dylan, The Band, Eagle Eye Cherry, Warren Zevon, Dire Straits, Bruce Springsteen and more. In January 2012, Shellhouse released their second CD of original music titled Indian Summer.
Shellhouse can be heard on local radio and at Clubs and venues around the greater Burlington area, the Lang Farm Concert Series, at On Tap Bar & Grill and Double E in Essex Junction, Jericho Tavern and Café, Festival on the Green in Middlebury, Harvest Fest at Shelburne farms, and countless others in Richmond and Hinesburg. Shellhouse has a new album A Road Between Two Souls with 13 original songs penned by band leader Bob Teer with his lifetime soulmate and legendary guitarist Jim Fox.
Jim Fox has ties to the 1960s and 1970s Rock lead guitarists, and his nicely playing stimulates Shellhouse's leading voices.Now, Shellhouse has a new drummer, his name is Steve Wanderlich. I found him giving the hour in Dennis Willmott's Left Eye Jump Blues Jams on Saturdays at Red Square in Burlington. Steve is also featured in our Havana Fairfax Connection episode 64 with All That, a band led by pianist Mike Maslack. He came to substitute Shellhouse's longtime drummer and never forgotten Bob DeFeo. Bob is featured in one of our first episodes, #14, with Heartless, a high caliber Vermont Rock Band that plays the music of Heart and Led Zeppelin. Making music is about relating. When a special connection occurs between musicians, that kinship allows the Songs they play together to take on a life of their own, never to be repeated quite the same way again. Hosting Shellhouse was a magical experience for me. I hope you will share in a little bit of this magic when you watch and listen to them once again.
Check them also on their own website: http://www.shellhousemusic.com Their own Record Label name is Dark Before Dawn Essex Junction and Ferrisburg, Vermont. Band leader Bob Teer is also related to some of the Most Prolific Poets in the Green Mountain State http://www.vtpoet.com

Havana Fairfax Connection 0074

A tribute to pianist Emiliano Salvador.
From Host Toni Basanta:
By the time I was 14 years old, EL GESI - the Cuban Institute for Music Making, Arts and Industry Group, had become one of my biggest musical influences. By 16, I owned some of their albums and had listened to most of their live performances at La Cinemateca de Cuba, and other venues.
The pianist on all these albums was Emiliano Salvador, who left this world in 1992, leaving his magic within his writing. Alexis Bosch is among the closer disciples of Emiliano, that I can think of, his playing is unbridled and fiery, not unlike Salvador's own playing. The music of this episode was filmed at the Fine Arts Museum in Havana, Cuba, in 2008 in A Grand Encounter led by Bosch. Twelve years after, EL GESI (Grupo de Experimentación Sonora del ICAIC) received all the honors at the Jazz Plaza International Festival, and I thought it was the best time to bring it to light.
Who is Alexis Bosch ?
Pianist Alexis Bosch is a multi talented wonder, a musician-composer-arranger, steeped in Jazz and its unique and eclectic vocabulary, but whose range of musical touchstones also extend to all the genres of his native Island, plus Rock, Blues, Funk, R & B, Nueva Trova, dancing, Flamenco, Hip-Hop and Children Songs creations. You can hear traces of his extra-jazz instincts in the course of a gig or a solo, in the way he sculps or phrases an improvisation, or in the way he turns the emotive dial from tough to tender.
Like Emiliano, one of his idols, Alexis Bosch studied percussion, and belongs to a Generation of Percussionists who have turned into world-known pianists; Omar Sosa, Javier Masó "Caramelo", Emilio Vega, Miguel Angel de Armas Sr, and Gonzalito Rubalcaba, whose resumes spill over with connections and affiliations. Since 1989, he eventually began to develop the ideas and identity of his band Pasaje Abierto (Open Passage).
Open Passage, on this episode, features longtime collaborators José Ernesto Ermida (electric bass), Emilito del Monte Jr., (percussion), Orlando Sánchez (tenor sax) and Ramsés Rodríguez (drums). As you can all figure out, the subject on this episode is the Cuban piano tradition. It's all about the fluency of music between 10 well-travelled and sympathetic players.
God Bless this Village
A native of the Village of Guanabacoa, Bosch grew up listening to Ernesto Lecuona, Teddy Wilson, Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, Joe Zawinul, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, ... plus countless soft-spoken masters, and established himself as a sturdy and forward thinking player on the scene after graduating from the Amadeo Roldán Conservatory of Music in 1985.
Emiliano's Second Quintet: Four sidemen were invited, Robertico García (trumpet and flugel-horn), José Carlos Acosta (tenor sax), Emilito del Monte Sr., (timbales) and Rodolfo Valdés Terry (congas), four remarkable stalwarts who resonated to the treasury of tunes that Emiliano Salvador composed.
The audience at the Fine Arts Museum in Havana, as well as the LCATV viewers, expect dialogue between the players, inventive original material written by Bosch, Salvador and saxophonist José Carlos Acosta, while each player will turn solos into explosive dynamite.
Chinchorrero, Pilón and Aquellas Gaviotas (Those Seagulls), are fiery showcases for what happened in this live show, where the free-ranging of the outgoing vamp enhanced the dignity of the original material. Angélica, Emiliano Salvador's classic relaxed cha cha cha-bossa nova, is reborn here, and dedicated to the composer's daughter, who was at the audience. In short, Alexis Bosch's Open Passage plus Four former members of Emiliano's band, are a Tentet with a mission, to speak the language of Cuban Jazz with honesty and energy.
This millenium marks the 5th decade in which the infectious, carefully crafted music of the Puerto Padre Idol, looms large into the Jazz world's consciousness. Of course, at the heart of it, is Bosch's own generous voice, fulfilling a dream which encompasses a hunger for forward motion and emotions.
Emiliano's tunes, and his piano solos, which have scrawled his funky signature across the Jazz landscape, are responsible for this encounter. Check Alexis Bosch, Robertico García, José Ernesto Ermida and Orlando Sánchez also on episode 44 with another GESI founder, guitarist Pablo Menéndez with his Mezcla Group and the Cuban Jazz All Stars.
We always have a Good Song to end our show, and this time I selected another gem of Emiliano's crop; En Una Volanta Actual - a Cuban jazz country-dance, arranged by reedman Juan Manuel Ceruto with La Puerto Padre Big Band and Strings.
This sterling composition serves as a background to present a whole bunch of his followers. Please have mercy and dig them all!
Peace Is All We Need

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