Tino Derado - Kumbaya

Topic: Jazz - Title
Cool jazz musicians in the 1950s minimized the role of rhythm. [1] The next generation rebelled by incorporating Latin meters, usually Cuban or Brazilian. [2] Tino Derado’s six-and-a-half-minute version of "Kumbaya," mentioned in the post for 18 March 2018, opened with a minute long drum solo. When he recorded it with his own group in 2000 he labeled the album "Latin Jazz." [3]

The album’s notes listed two drummers, but did not indicate if they played together or on separate tracks. Neither fit the mold of someone inspired by Gene Krupa. Jamey Haddad wanted a drum after he heard Arabic ones at Lebanese gatherings in Cleveland. [4] Satoshi Takeishi played in a brass band when he was in junior high in Japan. [5]

Derado didn’t use a vocalist like Rigmor Gustafsson. By 2016, when he was playing "Kumbaya" in a Berlin jazz club, he had dispensed with the saxophone as well. Instead, Robby Geerken played the opening drum solo on congas. After forty-five seconds, the string bass joined him. Derado begin playing a few notes on the piano thirty seconds later, but did not start the saxophone theme until another thirty seconds had passed. During the remainder of the performance, the congas took over the role of the piano as the sustaining instrument for the piano, bass and drum set.

Some might take Derado’s use of drums as the reason he called the piece "Kumbaya." However, that would assume all drums were the same, when in fact congas were not African. They developed in the poor settlements that grew around the cities of western Cuba after the abolition of slavery in 1886. Olavo Alén Rodriguez argued the shapes on some early ones suggested African models, but also said congas served the same function as indigenous wooden sound boxes called cajones. [6] The tall barrel-shaped drums appeared in clubs in this country during Prohibition when Havana casinos were defining the taste of American tourists. [7] Dizzy Gillespie introduced congas into jazz in 1947 as Latin instruments. [8]

Performers
2000
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Soloist: Billy Drewes, saxophone

Instrumental Accompaniment: Tino Derado, piano; Ben Street, acoustic bass

Rhythm Accompaniment: Satoshi Takeishi, Jamey Haddad, drums

2016
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Soloist: Robby Geerken, congas

Instrumental Accompaniment: Tino Derado piano; Andreas Lang, string bass

Rhythm Accompaniment: Diego Pinera, drums

Credits
Composer: Tino Derado

Notes on Lyrics
There were none

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: Tino Derado
Tempo: fast

Basic Structure: homophony with solo congas accompanied by rhythm instruments

Notes on Performance
2016
Occasion: 2 September 2016
Location: A-Trane club, Berlin

Microphones: floor mikes for the congas; the video camera did not pick up the other instruments as well

Clothing: the men wore black for dark gray long-sleeved shirts or jackets

Notes on Movement
2016
The conga player moved his head when he was playing, often rotating it, and sometimes throwing it back. The bass player also moved his head as he played, especially when his right hand was particularly active. Derado and the drummer’s heads move up and down toward the end. Derado stood a couple times to adjust his position, while the drummer remained still while he played.

Notes on Performers
The conga player, Robby Geerken, was born in Berlin where he started to play the instrument when he was eleven-years-old. He apprenticed with José Luis Quintana Fuerte, then entered the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin. [9]

Derado’s father was a particle physicist from the Croatian city of Split. [10] His mother was a biochemist. [11] They married in the United States in 1965, and returned to Munich in western Germany [12] where Derado was born in 1970. [13] Although he studied classical piano as a child, he believed his family’s mixed cultures made him open to other forms of music. [14]

After his years at Berkee College and the New School, mention in the post for 18 March 2018, he worked as a sideman in New York. [15] He returned to Germay in 2009 to lecture at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. In 2014 he became a professor at the Musikhochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien in Hanover. [16] He called his 2016 band Somnambulist.

Availability
Album: Aguacero. Perun Records. 2000.

YouTube: uploaded by Ralasan o123 on 15 February 2016.

End Notes
1. Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Style Sheet. "Cool." Jazz in America website.

2. Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Style Sheet. "The Breakthrough Year into the Contemporary Period: 1959." Jazz in America website.

3. "Aguacero by Tino Derado." CD Baby website.

4. Joanna Connors. "Acclaimed Percussionist Jamey Haddad Shows Us His Basement Studio in Oberlin, Full of 1,000 Drums and Other Instruments." The [Cleveland] Plain Dealer website. 9 December 2012.

5. Nuno Loureiro. "Satoshi Takeishi Interview." Clean Feed website. 10 December 2008.
6. Olavo Alén Rodriguez. "History of the Congas." AfroCuba website. November 2002.
7. Wikipedia. "Havana."
8. Alén.
9. "Stephan Geerken." Global Music Academy website.
10. German Wikipedia. "Ivan Derado."
11. German Wikipedia. "Thea Derado."
12. Wikipedia, Ivan Derado.
13. German Wikipedia. "Tino Derado."
14. "Bio." Tino Derado website.
15. Tino Derado website.
16. Wikipedia, Tino Derado.

Rigmor Gustafsson Quintet - Kumbaya

Topic: Jazz - Title
Tino Derado created a version of "Kumbaya" that made no reference to the original song when he was working with the Rigmor Gustafsson Quintet in 1998. Instead, he used the relentlessly fast pace and instrumentation of Bebop with a piano, string bass, and drums. Gustafsson vocalized with the saxophone.

His version had more thematic unity than most jazz compositions that allowed each instrumentalist to improvise in his or her own style. [1] Derado created two recurring motifs. One was the rhythmic one he played on the piano to signal the beginning of each of the solos. The other was the melodic one, which, because it required Gustafsson and Gabriel Coburger to move in unison, imposed a discipline on both.

Derado’s work entered the jazz repertoire as a virtuoso piece for young vocalists. Karolina Zibkute posted a short segment that featured only the vocal duet with the saxophone in 2015. Her Lithuanian group used an electric keyboard and bass, and supplemented the regular drummer with two small snare drums played with sticks.

Manon Pellicorio performed her own version in a Dublin club in 2016. Her pace was slower, and she did less unison work with the saxophone player. Instead, she treated parts of Gustafsson’s duets as solos. Both women had just completed conservatory training programs.

Performers
Gustafsson [2]
Vocal Soloist: Rigmor Gustafsson
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Soloist: Gabriel Coburger, saxophone

Instrumental Accompaniment: Tino Derado, piano; Hans Glawischnig, bass

Rhythm Accompaniment: Roland Schneider, drums

Zibkute
Vocal Soloist: Karolina Zibkute
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Soloist: saxophone
Instrumental Accompaniment: keyboard, electric bass
Rhythm Accompaniment: drum set plus two small snare drums

Pellicorio [3]
Vocal Soloist: Manon Pellicorio
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Soloist: Nick Roth, tenor saxophone

Instrumental Accompaniment: Cormac Kenny, piano; Barry Rycraft, string bass

Rhythm Accompaniment: Brendan Doherty, drums

Credits
Gustafsson
"Composer: Tino Derado." [4]

Zibkute
None given

Pellicorio
"written by Tino Derado (Rigmor Gustafsson)" [5]

Notes on Lyrics
There were none

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: Tino Derado
Tempo: fast

Basic Structure: recurring motifs

Singing Style: Gustafsson, Zibkute, and Pellicorio scatted alone or in unison with the saxophones

Notes on Performance
Gustafsson [6]
Occasion: recording session, September 1998.
Location: Systems Two, New York

Zibkute
Location: theater stage
Microphones: Zibkute had a hand-held mike

Clothing: Zibkute had straight blond hair cut in the style of Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary. She wore a yellow dress and matching coat. The men were in the shadows in the video.

Pellicorio [7]
Occasion: 10 June 2016
Location: Dublin, Ireland, club

Microphones: Pellicorio had a hand-held mike; the rest had floor mikes.

Clothing: Pellicorio wore a dress with black tights; the men wore dark long-sleeved shirts and slacks.

Notes on Movement
Zibkute
When she was not singing she stepped from one diagonal to another and let the arm that was not holding the microphone swing freely. When she sang, she bent her knees to keep time and bent her left arm at the elbow. During the staccato section she used that hand to mark the beats.

Pellicorio
The grand piano was between the pianist and Pellicorio, creating a barrier between it and the other musicians who were widely spaced. She kept time with her hands.

Notes on Performers
Gustafsson was raised in Grums, Sweden, where she learned to play guitar in public school when she was eight-years-old. [8] After she moved to New York in 1993 to study at the New School for Jazz, she formed a quintet that played local clubs. [9] The group toured for several years after she graduated in 1995. [10]

Two of the musicians on the "Kumbaya" recording, Derado and Coburger, also had been at the New School in those years. Coburger’s post-school quartet included Gustaffson’s drummer, Roland Schneider. [11] The bass player, Hans Glawischnig, was at the Berkee School when they were at the New School, but moved to New York where he studied at the Manhattan School of Music. [12]

Zibkute’s vocal talent was discovered early, and she was sent to schools that specialized in the arts. While a student at the conservatory in Klaipedos, [13] she placed fourth in the Baltic voice contest. [14] After graduation she moved to Vilnius to continue study at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. In 2017, her Facebook page indicated she had used the name Carolyn Lu when she was in Chicago. [15] Her musicians in 2015 were Leonardas Beksa, Augustas Genutis, Kasparas Petkus, Vilhelmas Rudys, and Paulius Stonkus. [16]

Pellicorio was raised in Zürich, Switzerland, where her father "encouraged me very early to sing songs with him, which he then accompanied on the guitar." [17] She studied at the Musikschule Konservatorium Zürich and the Hochschule für Kunst, Design und Populäre Musik in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, before going to Dublin where she earned a degree in jazz performance from the Newpark Music Centre in 2016. [18]

Availability
Rigmor Gustafsson Quintet
Album: Plan #46. Prophone Records PCD 044. 1998.

YouTube: uploaded by NAXOS of America on 13 February 2015.

Karolina Zibkute
YouTube: uploaded by infokarolina on 6 June 2015.

Manon Debora (Pellicorio)
YouTube: uploaded by Manon Debora on 30 November 2016.

End Notes
1. John Wesley Work described this jazz style in the post for 26 February 2018.
2. Gustafsson personnel list from "Rigmor Gustafsson Quintet - Plan #46." Discogs website.
3. Pellicorio personnel list from YouTube.
4. Gustafsson credit from YouTube.
5. Pellicorio credit from YouTube.
6. Gustafsson recording information from Discogs.
7. Pellicorio performance information from YouTube.
8. Wikipedia. "Rigmor Gustafsson."
9. Rigmor Gustafsson website.
10. Wikipedia, Gustafsson.
11. German Wikipedia. "Gabriel Coburger."
12. German Wikipedia. "Hans Glawischnig."
13. "Carolina Lu (Karolina Zibkute)." Facebook.

14. "Baltic Voice 2014 4-th Place/ Karolina Zibkute." Uploaded to YouTube by infokarolina on 14 July 2014.

15. Facebook, Zibkute.
16. Zibkute personnel list from YouTube.
17. Manon Pellicorio. Quoted by Instrumentor website.
18. "Manon Pellicorio." Take Jazz website.