- Next to our KUVO Jazz segment where we take you
to the annual Live at the Vineyards event.
KUVO General Manager Carlos Lando met up with
Oscar Hernandez, leader of the Spanish Harlem Orchestra.
- They talk salsa, they talk Latin jazz and they
talk about the power of improvising while recording live.
For this band, it's a Grammy award-winning combination.
Let's listen.
(jazzy trumpet music)
- [Carlos] Oscar, so nice to have you back in Denver for
KUVO's signature fundraising event at Balistreri Vineyards.
- Well I'm happy to be here and we're delighted
to be able to be part of this event.
- Let's talk a little bit about the Spanish
Harlem Orchestra, the Anniversary Album.
You guys have been out there 15 years.
Got a couple Grammys that you've won.
What makes the Spanish Harlem Orchestra
so unique and different today based on
what we mostly hear when people talk about salsa?
- For me it's just a matter of representing
an incredible legacy and history that went before me,
of which I'm a part of because I started playing
this music when I was a young buck in New York City.
Early on I got to play with Tito Puente,
I got to play with Machito, I got to play with Celia Cruz,
I got to play with Ray Barretto.
I think that we represent what that
legacy is with Spanish Harlem Orchestra.
So we brought that back to the forefront
in the year 2002 when we recorded the new CD.
It got nominated for a Grammy.
(jazzy ensemble music)
- This last album is completely just amazing.
I mean you've had so many great jazz musicians
also join you because of that spirit of improvisation,
because of the aspect that the music is honest.
- And that's the difference between
commercial salsa which is very bland.
Spanish Harlem Orchestra is one of the few orchestras
that still records live in the studio, 13 musicians.
(jazzy trumpet music)
Making my personal statement now of 15 years
and making a world statement because you know,
Spanish Harlem Orchestra has traveled all over the world.
People have become aware of the excellence
of the band and I couldn't be prouder.
- Tell me a little bit about the team
concept when it comes to making an album.
How does that come together?
- It all starts with the songs and for instance in
the new CD, we have 13 tracks and nine of those 13 songs are
original songs composed by myself or the guys in the band.
You know, Carlos writes a song and I say
"That's it, I love it, let's do it."
Then we get it arranged and we rehearse it.
I arrange some of the stuff, most of the stuff
but we have a few other guys who are great
arrangers who understand the concept and boom.
Putting the thing on the essence of the swing
of this music because it's all about the swing.
The swing the body or the swing of our community,
of what we're about as a people.
Done Spanish Harlem Orchestra style.
I'm so proud of representing my culture through my music.
- Now this music has gone around the world.
Your band has done it and when you look out there
and you see people in that audience and you see
that most of them are not Latinos and they are
just enjoying the music, that's gotta be so rewarding,
regardless of ethnicity.
- Well I'll give you a story.
About five years ago, we went to Russia.
St. Petersburg and I'm saying
"Who are we gonna perform to in Russia?"
And it was a club of about 1200 people who were
there for us because they knew who we were and they
were totally immersed in the music and totally immersed
in the whole atmosphere of what our music is about.
- Well congratulations man.
Great band, I'm so happy you're here.
- Thank you, again thank you on behalf of myself
and the guys and all our people who play our music.
To stations such as KUVO, I will say
those stations are the lifeblood of what we do.
Spanish Harlem Orchestra has won two Grammys
and we don't get played on commercial radio.
I think that people need to go beyond just
the dollars and cents of what you know,
things are and look for quality
and that's where you'll find us.
Thank you, brother. - Thank you.
- God bless you. - God bless you.