Michel Camilo
This Brazilian cultural matrix positions Michel Camilo globally...
Curation
CURATION
-
from this page:
by Matrix
The Integrated Global Creative Economy
-
Name:
Michel Camilo
-
City/Place:
Katonah, NY
-
Country:
United States
-
Hometown:
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Life & Work
-
Bio:
Michel Camilo was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He studied for 13 years at the National Conservatory earning a degree of Professorship in Music and at the age of 16 became the youngest member of the National Symphony Orchestra of the DR. He moved to New York in 1979 to continue his studies at Mannes and Juilliard School of Music. Since his 1985 Carnegie Hall debut he has become a prominent figure performing regularly at festivals and concert venues throughout the United States, Europe, Japan, Asia, Middle East, South America and the Caribbean.
His extensive discography has been recognized with a Grammy award, an Emmy award, three Latin Grammy awards, JazzWeek’s Artist of The Year award, four Grammy award nominations and two Premios de la Música (Spain), plus several Premios Casandra and El Soberano awards (Dominican Republic). He has recorded in Solo Piano, Duo, Trio, Sextet, Big Band and with Symphony Orchestras; as well as film soundtracks. He moves with ease between the worlds of Jazz, Latin and Classical music.
Highlights include his two-year appointment as Jazz Creative Director Chair for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, his participation at the 55th Anniversary Celebration of the Newport Jazz Festival, a five year tenure as Musical Director of the Heineken Jazz Festival (Dominican Republic), Jury President at the Montreux Jazz Solo Piano competition, as well as Jury Member at the Jacksonville Great American Jazz Piano competition, featured performances in two award winning documentary films: Calle 54 (2001) and Playing Lecuona (2015); JazzWeek Artist of the Year, Artist in Residence at the Klavier Piano Festival Ruhr, voted among Top 10 Jazz Pianists of the Year at the 69th Annual DownBeat Magazine Readers Poll, a three-year Herb Alpert Visiting Professorship at Berklee College of Music, awarded composition grants from Meet the Composer foundation and the New York State Council for the Arts (NYSCA).
He has performed with Dizzy Gillespie, Paquito D’Rivera, George Benson, Tito Puente, Herbie Hancock, Tomatito, Mongo Santamaria, Joe Lovano, Arturo Sandoval, Juan Luis Guerra, Chucho Valdés, Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, Cachao, Hiromi, David Sánchez, Jon Faddis, George Wein, Jaco Pastorius, Gloria Estefan, Dr. Billy Taylor, Celia Cruz, Tania Maria, Enrique Morente, Katia & Marielle Labèque, Conrad Herwig, Dave Valentin, Airto & Flora Purim, Anthony Jackson, Dave Weckl, Michel Petrucciani, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Stanley Turrentine, Giovanni Hidalgo, Toots Thielemans, Patato, Michael Brecker. Randy Brecker, Ketama, Eddie Palmieri, Roby Lakatos, Eliel Lazo, Damian Draghici, Danilo Pérez, Roman Janoska and Esperanza Spalding, among many others.
In 1998, Mr. Camilo served as Co-Artistic Director of the 1st Latin-Caribbean Music Festival at the Kennedy Center, performing the world premiere of his Concerto for Piano & Orchestra No. 1 with the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin (commissioned by the NSO). His work Rhapsody for Two Pianos and Orchestra (commissioned by the Philharmonia Orchestra) was performed by Katia & Marielle Labèque at Royal Festival Hall. In 2001, Mr. Camilo recorded his Piano Concerto No. 1 with the BBC Symphony conducted by Leonard Slatkin for DECCA and also played his work, as well as Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue, at the Royal Albert Hall BBC Proms in London.
In 2009, Mr. Camilo performed the world premiere of his Concerto for Piano & Orchestra No. 2 - Tenerife (commissioned by the Tenerife Auditorium) as guest soloist with the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra conducted by Lü Jiá.
Guest soloist engagements with prestigious Symphony Orchestras worldwide include the National (NSO), Detroit, Cleveland, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Gulbenkian, BBC, Nacional (Spain), Grant Park Festival Orchestra of Chicago, Orchestre National d’Lyon, Japan’s New World Symphony, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Arhus, Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Madrid, RTVE, Barcelona, Euskadi Orkestra, Navarra, Cadaqués, Seville, Bilbao, Málaga, Galicia, Norrlands Operan, Antalya State, Magna Grecia, Royal Liverpool, Zagreb Philharmonic, Borusan Philharmonic, Evergreen, Kristiansand, Puerto Rico, Queens, Long Island, Florida, Nacional (Dom. Rep.), Andrés Segovia Chamber Orchestra, Musikkollegium Wintherthur, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, Gran Canaria, Ecuador, and Indiana University Philharmonic.
Mr. Camilo has performed with conductors Leonard Slatkin, Philippe Entremont, Jesus Lopez Cobos, Gianandrea Noseda, Ernest Martinez Izquierdo, Grant Llewellyn, Adrian Leaper, Giordano Bellincampi, Lu Jia, Clark Rundell, Andres Orozco Estrada, Kevin Griffiths, Pedro Halffter, Odon Alonso, Kristjan Jaarvi, Piero Romano, Carlos Piantini, Gürer Aykal. Jose Antonio Molina and Ruben Gimeno, among many others. Besides his own Piano Concertos No. 1 & No. 2, his repertoire includes his Suite for Piano, Strings & Harp, Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G, VillaLobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras No. 3 and Gershwin’s Concerto in F, Rhapsody In Blue and I Got Rhythm Variations.
Special collaborations include the successful Piano & Flamenco guitar Duo Michel Camilo & Tomatito, jazz piano duets with Chucho Valdés and Hiromi, and special concerts with his own Big Band, the Danish Radio (DRBB) and WDR Big Bands, Luxembourg Jazz Orchestra and the Bulgarian Brass Association; as well as the award-winning documentary film Playing Lecuona with pianist Chucho Valdés and Gonzalo Rubalcaba.
For the 2016-2017 season the Vienna Konzerthaus appointed Michel Camilo as Artist in Residency starting with a jazz concert by his Trio with the VolksOper Big Band, then in February 2017 as guest soloist with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra conducted by Wayne Marshall performing his Concerto for Piano & Orchestra No. 2 - Tenerife and Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue; and in May 2017 with a Michel Camilo & Tomatito concert celebrating their album Spain Forever.
In 2017, Mr. Camilo finished his new Concerto for Jazz Trio & Orchestra, a commissioned work by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Leonard Slatkin which was premiered on April 21 & 22, 2017 at Orchestra Hall in Detroit. Mr. Camilo performed at the Mannes Centennial celebration at Carnegie Hall. His Spring tour included Duo concerts with Tomatito in Finland, Turkey, Switzerland, Austria, Germany and Italy; as well as a Tribute to Ernesto Lecuona with Chucho Valdés & Gonzalo Rubalcaba at SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco. In June, the Michel Camilo Trio performed at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York as part of the Blue Note Jazz Festival, and in July Michel Camilo & Tomatito toured the music festivals in Spain & France. Michel Camilo also performed in Solo Piano at Festival da Jazz 2017 in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
His first Live solo piano recording Live in London was recorded at The Queen Elizabeth Hall and will be released worldwide in November 2017.
Mr. Camilo’s honors include Honorary Doctorates from Berklee College of Music (Boston), Universidad Nacional Pedro Henriquez Ureña, UTESA University of Santiago, as well as an Honorary Professorship and Honorary Doctorate from his Alma Mater, Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (UASD), Dominican Republic. He is a recipient of the Crystal Apple from the Mayor of the City of New York. The Dominican Government has awarded him its highest civilian honors: Silver Great Cross of the Order of Duarte, Sánchez & Mella, Cultural Personality award, and Knight of the Heraldic Order of Christopher Columbus.
Clips (more may be added)
There are certain countries, the names of which fire the popular imagination. Brazil is one of them; an amalgam of primitive and sophisticated, jungle and elegance, luscious jazz harmonics — there’s no other place like it in the world. And while Rio de Janeiro, or its fame anyway, tends toward the sophisticated end of the spectrum, Bahia bends toward the atavistic…
It’s like a trick of the mind’s light (I suppose), but standing on beach or escarpment in Salvador and looking out across the Baía de Todos os Santos to the great Recôncavo, and mindful of what happened there (and here; the Bahian Recôncavo was final port-of-call for more enslaved human beings than any other place throughout the entirety of mankind’s existence on this planet, and in the past it extended into what is now urban Salvador), one must be led to the inevitable conclusion that one is in a place unique to history, and to the present:
Brazil absorbed over ten times the number of enslaved Africans taken to the United States of America, and is a repository of African deities (and their music) now largely forgotten in their lands of origin.
Brazil was a refuge (of sorts) for Sephardim fleeing an Inquisition which followed them across the Atlantic (that unofficial symbol of Brazil’s national music — the pandeiro — was almost certainly brought to Brazil by these people).
Across the parched savannas of the interior of Brazil’s culturally fecund nordeste/northeast (where wizard Hermeto Pascoal was born in Lagoa da Canoa — Lagoon of the Canoe — and raised in Olho d’Águia — Eye of the Eagle), much of Brazil’s aboriginal population was absorbed into a caboclo/quilombola culture punctuated by the Star of David.
Three cultures — from three continents — running for their lives, their confluence forming an unprecedented fourth. Pandeirista on the roof.
That's where this Matrix begins:
Wolfram MathWorld
The idea is simple, powerful, and egalitarian: To propagate for them, the Matrix must propagate for all. Most in the world are within six degrees of us. The concept of a "small world" network (see Wolfram above) applies here, placing artists from the Recôncavo and the sertão, from Salvador... from Brooklyn, Berlin and Mombassa... musicians, writers, filmmakers... clicks (recommendations) away from their peers all over the planet.
This Integrated Global Creative Economy (we invented the concept) uncoils from Brazil's sprawling Indigenous, African, Sephardic and then Ashkenazic, Arabic, European, Asian cultural matrix... expanding like the canopy of a rainforest tree rooted in Bahia, branches spreading to embrace the entire world...
Recent Visitors Map
Great culture is great power.
And in a small world great things are possible.
Alicia Svigals
"Thanks, this is a brilliant idea!!"
—Alicia Svigals (NEW YORK CITY): Apotheosis of klezmer violinists
"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
—Susan Rogers (BOSTON): Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory ... Former personal recording engineer for Prince; "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"
"Dear Sparrow, Many thanks for this – I am touched!"
—Julian Lloyd Webber (LONDON): Premier cellist in UK; brother of Andrew (Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats, Phantom of the Opera...)
"This is super impressive work ! Congratulations ! Thanks for including me :)))"
—Clarice Assad (RIO DE JANEIRO/CHICAGO): Pianist and composer with works performed by Yo Yo Ma and orchestras around the world
"We appreciate you including Kamasi in the matrix, Sparrow."
—Banch Abegaze (LOS ANGELES): manager, Kamasi Washington
"Thanks! It looks great!....I didn't write 'Cantaloupe Island' though...Herbie Hancock did! Great Page though, well done! best, Randy"
"Very nice! Thank you for this. Warmest regards and wishing much success for the project! Matt"
—Son of Jimmy Garrison (bass for John Coltrane, Bill Evans...); plays with Herbie Hancock and other greats...
I opened the shop in Salvador, Bahia in 2005 in order to create an outlet to the wider world for magnificent Brazilian musicians.
David Dye & Kim Junod for NPR found us (above), and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (he's a huge jazz fan), David Byrne, Oscar Castro-Neves... Spike Lee walked past the place while I was sitting on the stoop across the street drinking beer and listening to samba from the speaker in the window...
But we weren't exactly easy for the world-at-large to get to. So in order to extend the place's ethos I transformed the site associated with it into a network wherein Brazilian musicians I knew would recommend other Brazilian musicians, who would recommend others...
And as I anticipated, the chalky hand of God-as-mathematician intervened: In human society — per the small-world phenomenon — most of the billions of us on earth are within some 6 or fewer degrees of each other. Likewise, within a network of interlinked artists as I've described above, most of these artists will in the same manner be at most a handful of steps away from each other.
So then, all that's necessary to put the Brazilians within possible purview of the wide wide world is to include them among a wide wide range of artists around that world.
If, for example, Quincy Jones is inside the matrix, then anybody on his page — whether they be accessing from a campus in L.A., a pub in Dublin, a shebeen in Cape Town, a tent in Mongolia — will be close, transitable steps away from Raymundo Sodré, even if they know nothing of Brazil and are unaware that Sodré sings/dances upon this planet. Sodré, having been knocked from the perch of fame and ground into anonymity by Brazil's dictatorship, has now the alternative of access to the world-at-large via recourse to the vast potential of network theory.
...to the degree that other artists et al — writers, researchers, filmmakers, painters, choreographers...everywhere — do also. Artificial intelligence not required. Real intelligence, yes.
Years ago in NYC (I've lived here in Brazil for 32 years now) I "rescued" unpaid royalties (performance & mechanical) for artists/composers including Barbra Streisand, Aretha Franklin, Mongo Santamaria, Jim Hall, Clement "Coxsone" Dodd (for his rights in Bob Marley compositions; Clement was Bob's first producer), Led Zeppelin, Ray Barretto, Philip Glass and many others. Aretha called me out of the blue vis-à-vis money owed by Atlantic Records. Allen Klein (managed The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Ray Charles) called about money due the estate of Sam Cooke. Jerry Ragovoy (Time Is On My Side, Piece of My Heart) called just to see if he had any unpaid money floating around out there (the royalty world was a shark-filled jungle, to mangle metaphors, and I doubt it's changed).
But the pertinent client (and friend) in the present context is Earl "Speedo" Carroll, of The Cadillacs. Earl went from doo-wopping on Harlem streetcorners to chart-topping success to working as a custodian at PS 87 elementary school on the west side of Manhattan. Through all of this he never lost what made him great.
Greatness and fame are too often conflated. The former should be accessible independently of the latter.
Yeah this is Bob's first record contract, made with Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd of Studio One and co-signed by his aunt because he was under 21. I took it to Black Rock to argue with CBS' lawyers about the royalties they didn't want to pay (they paid).
Matrix founding creators are behind "one of 10 of the best (radios) around the world", per The Guardian.
Across the creative universe... For another list, reload page.
This list is random, and incomplete. Reload the page for another list.
For a complete list of everybody inside, tap TOTAL below:
TOTAL
Ex Terra Brasilis
Susan Rogers
Julian Lloyd Webber
Clarice Assad
Kamasi Washington
Randy Brecker
Matt Garrison
RÁDIO MATRIX