Eugenio Toussaint, Arturo Sandoval, and Paquito D'Rivera each have a musical personality of their own, yet there are similarities. For instance, each of these three musicians possess diverse skills which makes it risky to declare any of them strictly classical, or only jazz, only a composer, or only a performer. There are plenty of other musicians with such arrays of talents, but these three all hail from Latin America. Mexico, in the case of Eugenio Toussaint, Cuba in the case of Sandoval, and D'Rivera. The latter two defected from Cuba, while Toussaint was born, raised and died in Mexico.
First up is Paquito D'Rivera, a multi-instrumentalist – he plays alto, tenor, and soprano saxophone, also flute. He's also been known to play percussion. His first instrument was soprano sax and he subsequently studied each of the others with his father, who was also a saxophonist. Paquito is also known widely as a composer, with “Wapango” being one of his most covered compositions.
Paquito's output as a composer borders on prolific, upping the odds of finding something which plays to the theme of this current season of Momentos Musicales, that theme being Pan America or, in the case of Paquito's composition, it's his “Panamericana Suite.”
Arturo Sandoval is a Cuban-American trumpeter, pianist, composer, and arranger, best known for combining Afro-Cuban music, jazz, and classical music. Not only did Sandoval have all of the above characteristics in common with D'Rivera, they were both members of the highly regarded ensemble, Irakere, founded in Havana in 1973 by pianist and composer Chucho Valdés. This groundbreaking Cuban ensemble fused Afro-Cuban percussion and rhythms with jazz improvisation, Cuban popular music, and classical techniques. Irakere was soon known outside of Cuba, attracting fans and Grammy notices as well.
Both D'Rivera and Sandoval defected to the US, albeit separated by 10 years. Paquito was the first to take the dive, in 1980, Sandoval in 1990.
Arturo Sandoval is a powerful trumpet player, and also a quite proficient composer.
The passing of Eugenio Toussaint in 2011 is still regarded with disbelief. He was only 57 years old with high expectations of continuing on a constantly upward trajectory. He was a masterful jazz pianist who went on to form the jazz group, Sacbe, modeled after Weather Report. He spent a substantial amount of time in the United States early in his career, working with Herb Alpert and serving as Paul Anka's musical director.
This might have been plenty of success for many, but when he was approached to write concert music for classical ensembles and reluctantly accepted the commissions, he set himself on a still higher path. Seemingly, each score he produced was better than the last. He was a true triple threat as a pianist, a jazz composer and leader, and then a composer in a classical mold, yet always original. By all rights he should still be among the living. RIP, Eugenio Toussaint.
