Tag: musician

Legend rock guitarist, Javier Bátiz, on teaching Carlos Santana

Legendary rock guitarist Javier Bátiz (Photo/Carlos Alvar)

Javier Bátiz, known as the “Father of Mexican Rock and Roll,” has also been given the Spanish nickname, “Brujo del rock” – “meaning ‘warlock,’” he explains, from as long as he can remember.

“I don’t know why…Maybe they think I’m a brujo, but I like it – it’s better than being called, ‘cockroach!,’” he says in his playful manner.

The name makes sense, considering the definition of a “warlock” is “a male practitioner of magic,” and Bátiz says he’s had an inexplicable talent for playing music on the guitar, piano, saxophone and drums, ever since a young age.

I asked him if he went to school for music.

“There are no music schools in Tijuana,” he says, laughing deeply and with an energy that is contagious.

Bátiz, now 72, and with more than 25 albums under his belt, has lived all his life south of the border in Tijuana, Mexico.

“I still live in the house where I was born in,” says the award-winning musician. Just last year, the city of Tijuana had the street his house is on named after him.

He was 12 when he first started playing the guitar.

“I haven’t stopped since then,” says Bátiz. “My guitar playing is a gift from God. I take it very seriously that God gave me this blessing and to be able to share it. I like to teach people who want to learn. And some that I’ve taught, know more than me now.”

He remembers fondly how he would tell his various friends in high school, “You’ll play the guitar, you’ll play the piano,” until he formed his own band called the TJ’s.

“We’d cross the border to San Diego for Battle of the Bands,” says Batiz.

He then mentions Grammy-winning musician, Carlos Santana, and how they met when they were both young boys.

The young Javier Bátiz in the 1950’s. (Courtesy Javier Bátiz)

“Santana’s mom saw me playing in a bar in Tijuana, and she brought him over,” says Bátiz, who was around 15 at the time. “She knew Santana wanted to play like me. I shared everything I know from my guitar to him.”

Bátiz says Santana started playing with him when he was 12, and he stayed playing with him for about six years.

“He left to San Francisco in ’65,” continues Bátiz. “I went to Mexico City…We are still really good buddies, and we try to get together when we can.”

Bátiz continues to say it was when he moved to Mexico City that his music career really took off. He was heavily inspired by music by the blues sounds of B.B. King, Elmore James and Little Richard, which was pretty much unheard of in Mexico at the time.

“I used to sing ‘Sweet 16,’ and they loved it…I worked with the big, famous musicians, and then I got married, and it all went to hell,” says Bátiz, laughing whole-heartedly again.

“I’ve been married four more times,” says Bátiz. “But this time – Claudia and I – we’ve been together 25 years.”

Although, they’ve been together for the past quarter decade, as Claudia Madrid plays the drums accompanying Bátiz, they just officially tied the knot last year.

“We’re grandparents. It’s beautiful – it’s really great,” says Bátiz about what makes their relationship solid. “We travel, we work, we go to the movies, we go to the Sizzler and Popeye’s [he laughs again]. The music will keep us together. We play good music, and we have a lot of fun.”

The 8-member Bátiz Band just played in Chicago, after having been in Los Angeles – where Bátiz was honored by the city on October 7 — and then they’ll go to Mexico City, and New York next month.

“I’m very thankful, because I can still play,” says the musician. “I write the songs and play them – I play the piano, sax, all the instruments…It’s very natural. It’s a blessing.”

October 24, 2016
The King of Latin Soul, Joe Bataan, on what matters in life

(Courtesy Joe Bataan)

Born Bataan Nitollano to an African American mother and Filipino father, Joe Bataan grew up in Manhattan’s East Harlem in the 1950’s and 60’s – otherwise known as “Spanish Harlem,” or “El Barrio.”

During that time, “El Barrio,” was a mainly Puerto Rican neighborhood where many Latin sounds started to boom. Bataan, who ultimately became a leading figure in Latin soul music, as a self-taught pianist and vocalist, was specifically influenced by Latin boogaloo and African American doo-wop. Fania Records spotted his talent, and signed him in 1966 – through which Bataan released his famous “Gypsy Woman” in 1967. He was also a main subject of the 2014 documentary on Latin boogaloo in New York City, “We Like It Like That.”

“My first ambition was to become an athlete,” recalls Bataan, now 73. “I wanted to follow in the steps of Jackie Robinson. That didn’t realize, so at around 9, I decided I wanted to become a singer. I used to buy hit parade books and imitate the artists every Saturday morning – from Frank Sinatra to Tito Rodriguez.”

Watching movies, he says, were also an inspiration to him.

“It was like a romantic period – what you couldn’t see, you could sing about,” says Bataan. “Music gave you a good feeling and gave you a different outlook on the world. It was like an injection of happiness. It was motivating. That’s when my dream started.”

However, his dream took a little detour. At 15, Bataan found himself as the leader of a gang called the Dragons and with a pregnant 13-year-old girlfriend. He was also sent to a correctional facility for stealing a car. It wasn’t until he was freed five years later, that he was able to resume his dream of becoming a musician.

“I started a band and learned the piano,” says Bataan. “It took me like six months to put that band together [Joe Bataan and the Latin Swingers]…I found a group of young kids, around eight musicians that stuck with me – ages 11, 12 and 13 – I was 19. I taught myself the piano, and then I helped teach them. It was all trial and error.”

He says it took a lot of hustling to become successful.

“You just don’t pick up and say, ‘I’m a star,’ says Bataan. “You had to find out what was available, seek out executives to listen to you, and get a following from the public. I started out with a dream, and then I was able to fulfill it little by little. No one ever gave us anything. We had to go out and get it.”

After a breakup with Fania, Bataan founded Salsoul Records in 1973. “Salsoul” was the term he gave the sound which blended salsa and soul. In the late 70’s, he ended up recording a rap hit under that label called, “Rap-O Clap-O.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcA4-HinQpQ

In the 1980’s, Bataan’s music career plummeted due to a gambling habit, and he took another detour back to Bridges Juvenile Center in the Bronx. However, this time it was for 25 years, but not behind bars.

“At 40, I found a job as a youth counselor exactly where I had been locked up [years ago],” says Bataan, who by then was raising a family. “I needed a job to pay my rent, but it turned my life around. I got to mentor troubled kids, just as I had wished someone had done for me. It makes me feel good that I had a meaningful part of my life besides music.”

He says he used techniques inspired by karate to create the discipline the 10- to 17-year-olds so craved and needed.

“Their role models were silly,” says Bataan. “They believed in somebody who had gold chains. A lot of them didn’t have parents, and they’d been on their own from a very young age. They needed motivation to change their life. If they don’t hear this from somebody, they’re lost.”

Now that he’s retired from the juvenile center, he says that he is currently writing a book called, “Streetology.” It gives youth tips on how to survive in life, including how to speak on a job interview, and how to be respected.

“Playing music for people is my pastime, but I also like to think I’m bringing a message,” says Bataan. “God has come into my life…He’s what allowed me to be here today. My faith in God has protected me all of my life.”

Bataan explains that he grew up in Catholic school, but he wasn’t ready for God as a young boy. It wasn’t until he was in his late 50’s that he had his encounter with who he calls “The Big Boss.”

“I went to see ‘Star Wars’ one day after work,” he recalls clearly. “I was borderline diabetic, eating all this popcorn at the movie. I came out, and I started to bleed out of my mouth. I started to lose consciousness, and I went into a coma. When I was in a coma, I felt God say, ‘Joe, why do you keep running away from me? I’m going to give you one more chance.’ I know he brought me back to life. The doctor had told my wife I wasn’t going to make it.”

Coincidentally, he always sang his song, “The Prayer,” to himself for many years before that incident, but it took him 30 years to finally sing it in public.

“I wasn’t ashamed anymore,” says Bataan about now one of his most popular songs. “I’m not just chasing women anymore – or a new house, or a new car. Joe Bataan is never going to be rich. God has me on a mission now. Everyday I wake up, and I thank God for another day.”

And each day is busy. He enjoys taking care of his grandchildren daily, and he’s also back in the music business and very active touring.

“Every month I’m performing somewhere around the world,” says Bataan who will be in Philadelphia on March 25 and on April 9 at Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts in New York.

He leaves us with this advice for life he wishes he had when he was younger:

“Don’t get involved in something unless you have a passion for it. Never give up, and never accept the word ‘no.’ If you’re weak with your drive, you should pick another profession. You might not become wealthy, but that’s not the only thing that matters in life – it’s living, teaching and sharing…You also have to believe in something – a higher being to guide you in life. You must take care of your body to enable to do what you need to do in life, and knowledge – it’s criminal to let a day go by without learning something new. Spirit, health and knowledge.”

March 24, 2016
Jazz piano legend advises to talk less and listen more

Bertha Hope (Photo/Richard Somerville)

Bertha Hope has been surrounded by music all her life. Her father Clinton (Henry) Rosemond was a dramatic baritone singer who traveled all over Europe to perform, she married two legendary jazz musicians – pianist, Elmo Hope and bassist, Walter Booker, and she herself became an award-winning jazz pianist.

In late 2014, after a full career touring Europe and Japan and playing with a diverse group of artists, Hope was named a Living Legend by the Bronx Music Heritage Center at age 78.

Originally from Los Angeles, she has lived in New York City since she moved there with her husband Elmo in 1961. She says her first husband was one of her biggest musical influences, and they met while he was touring in LA.

“I was trying to learn his music, as I was beginning to be interested in the Be Bop era – listening to Billy Holiday and modern jazz quartets,” remembers Hope. “I had a good ear. That’s what I was doing with Elmo’s music, and I was trying to impress him without seeming too school girlish.”

Sadly, Elmo died from heart failure when he was 43 and Bertha was 31. They had three children, and their daughter, Monica, became a singer.

“Being able to talk the same language was wonderful,” says Hope about her marriage. “I was in awe of Elmo. For a long time, I didn’t let him hear me play. I would practice when he wasn’t home. Eventually, we did play together and did an LP. We sometimes went to practice together, but I was always nervous and a wreck.”

She says Bud Powell’s style was also a big influence on her in the beginning, as well as Duke Ellington, and later, Mary Lou Williams. Hope says there have always been women musicians, as long as she can remember, because of the “church influence.”

“Blues and church music have very similar elements,” says Hope, explaining it was most common for women to play the piano. “When I was growing up, I met one woman who played the saxophone in LA…I wanted to play the trumpet, but my mom said it was too masculine.”

So she ended up dabbling with the violin, cello and clarinet, but sticking to the piano, because she says those instruments were acceptable at the time for girls. She sometimes regrets not pursuing the trumpet, however.

“I wasn’t aggressive enough to pursue another instrument,” says Hope. “I wasn’t brave enough to persist.”

She says she was around 12 or 13, however, when she was certain she wanted to be a musician for her life’s career.

“I come from a musical family. I took lessons starting at 3, and in a great public school in Los Angeles, I was exposed to instruments at a very early age,” says Hope. “The first time I realized it was what I wanted to do was when my father asked to help vocalize him. He hired me at age 12. That was my first salary – $7 for the concert. I hardly make that much now.” (laughing)

She says one of her all-time favorite accomplishments in her career was putting the band Jazzberry Jam! together in the late 1970’s. The four-woman band has played at New York City’s Gracie Mansion, The Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Renaissance Jazz Festival in Indianapolis, and was featured in a 1999 award-winning documentary, “Les Femmes du Jazz.”

“[Forming the band] helped us turn the corner of being a band that worked occasionally to a band that played a lot,” says Hope. “We performed at The West End for eight weeks straight. The people that came to support was mostly musician’s wives, and we still perform today. “

Bertha playing at Minton’s in Jan. 2015 (Photo/Kristina Puga)

Hope is currently in residency at NYC jazz club, Minton’s, where she plays with the Minton Players every other weekend.

If she could tell her younger self one piece of advice about life, with the wisdom she has now, what would it be?

“Stay in school, and stay open. Stay focused. Listen more than you talk. Take in a wide amount of musical experiences, and stay true to yourself. Find people that do the best of what it is you want to do, and try to learn from their experiences.”

January 28, 2015