Roland Vazquez performing at the Falcon club in New York
Background information
Born
(1951-07-04) July 4, 1951 (age74)
Pasadena, California, U.S.
Genres
Jazz, Afro-Latin jazz, Latin jazz
Occupation(s)
Composer, drummer, educator
Instrument
Drums
Years active
1970s–present
Labels
Arista/GRP, independent
Musical artist
Roland Vazquez (born July 4, 1951) is a mixed-heritage Chicano/Native American composer, drummer, band leader, producer, and educator. His music combines Afro and Indigenous rhythms with American Jazz and Western classical music elements in his works for quintet, nonet, percussion ensemble, and big band.[1][2][3]
Vazquez has been commissioned to compose for chamber and orchestral ensembles, including Ghost in the Mountain (2000) and chamber percussion pieces for Christopher Lamb .[3] Vazquez arranged the horns on Peter Cetera's self-titled 1981 debut album; and Whitren & Cartwright’s Rhythm Hymn (1981) for producer Phil Ramone.
Teaching career
Vazquez taught at the Manhattan School of Music from 1988 to 1999, where he directed Jazz Combos and founded the Latin Jazz Big Band. From 2000 to 2005, he was a faculty member at the University of Michigan, taught the Jazz Composition class sequence, Music of the Afro Latin Diaspora (American Culture/Ethnic studies), while directing jazz combos, the 40 piece avant garde improviser’s ensemble (ICE) and an Afro-Latin Jazz ensemble. He is currently teaching as a Visiting Artist at Bard College (since 2019) he has developed a two semester lecture course Music of the Black Atlantic, the Afro Caribbean Percussion Ensemble, and the Afro Caribbean Jazz Ensemble. In 2024, he presented as a Guest Lecturer "The Drum: Universal Mirror, Universal Body-clock" at the Bard Prison Initiative /Fishkill Facility.
He was a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome (2005-06),[2][6][7] where he composed new works and performed with various Italian and touring U.S. jazz artists.
Vazquez has presented many performance/lecture clinics while in residency at colleges, universities, and conservatories around the world, perhaps most notably: Eastman School of Music,[8] Berklee School of Music, University of Cincinnati College Conservatory, University of Wisconsin, Hartt School of Music, Ohio University, University of Michigan, William Patterson, Georgetown University,[9] Montclair State University, Queens College (NY), PASIC (2003), Espoo Jazz Festival (Finland), Canadian Jazz Festival (Vancouver & Victoria).
Reception
Vazquez’s recordings have been covered by jazz publications such as DownBeat and JazzTimes.
Roland Vazquez: Further Dance, by Hilarie Grey, JazzTimes (April 1, 1997). Years after breaking ground in large-ensemble Latin rhythmic jazz with his L.A. Jazz Ensemble, visionary percussionist Roland Vazquez continues to re-define the way we experience music on the engaging release Further Dance (RVD 7005; 76:59). Utilizing tight quintet arrangements, Vazquez here records live to two-track, for an uncommonly energetic, "real-time" feel in emotion-spanning mini epics like "No Place to Hide this Heart." The dynamics and spaces speak as intently as the notes on salsafied originals like the pulsating piano-based "Tu Sabes?," with the two-track recording lending the immediacy of musicians playing in the same room - not just with each other, but with the listener. ... [10]
Further Dance, Roland Vazquez, RVCD RVD7005 76:59, Sound: A+, Performance: A, by Bill Milkowski, Audio (magazine) (July 1997) Page 88. Every few years, New York drummer/percussionist/composer Roland Vazquez releases a self-produced CD that fuses Latin rhythms and jazz improvisation. And Further Dance on his own RVCD label, is his most satisfying album to date. ... Vazquez's original compositions put a contemporary spin on old-school montunos and songos, a fresh-sounding funk/salsa/be-bop hybrid. ... Further Dance is a brilliant document of how much Latin Jazz has evolved since the 1940s, ... [11]
Roland Vazquez conducting the recording session for The Visitor in 2010
Roland Vazquez, The Visitor, RVD7007, 4.5 Stars, by Ned Sublette, DownBeat (Dec. 2010) Page 66. In the seven compositions that make up this ambitious project, composer-drummer Roland Vazquez applies an orchestral colorist’s ear to a big band's 13-horn palette, moving in Afro-Cuban time with a foundation of clave, tumbao and montuno. The result stands up to repeated listening. The star of The Visitor is Vazquez's luminous, precise writing, with an intriguing rhythm section of first-class New York-based players that effectively functions as an orchestra within the orchestra, playing from written-out parts. ... [12]
Roland Vazquez Band: The Visitor, by Michael J. West, JazzTimes (December 10, 2010). With The Visitor, drummer Roland Vazquez joins the ranks of Maria Schneider and Darcy James Argue as a visionary composer of contemporary big-band jazz. This, it's no surprise, is the Latin version. It's that flavoring that is Vazquez's greatest advantage on the disc; the hand percussion and salsa-fied piano licks guarantee its sumptuous beauty. ... gently rolling groove with hope tinting every phrase. Hope, in fact, is the album's preeminent mood, and the musicians articulate it well — via restraint from both ensemble and soloists. With 22 musicians (not including Vazquez, who only conducts here), there’s a lot of detail to listen to ... Yet The Visitor is ultimately Vazquez's music...and his triumph.[13]
Mood Music, by Mark Holston, "Latino Magazine", Winter 2011. ... Drummer Roland Vazquez's The Visitor (Roland Music) is yet another variation on the classic Latin big band. Vazquez is a true pioneer - a musician who learned the ropes of traditional Latin jazz and salsa early in his career and quickly moved beyond those traditional forms to become one of the Latin music's true avant-gardists. The elemental Afro-Cuban rhythms that others remained steadfastly loyal to over time became only one of many points of reference this ever-searching instrumentalist, composer and arranger. On The Visitor, Vazquez revisits some of the songs he created decades ago with his combo and transforms them into orchestral masterpieces, replete with complex nuances that make the seven suite-like tracks truly transcendental. ... [14]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
