Santo Domingo.– Grammy-winning merengue superstar
Juan Luis Guerra is planning to teach at his Boston alma mater.
Guerra says he called the Berklee College of Music and asked to start
teaching classes next summer. He also hopes to enroll in courses as a
student.
During the national tribute Dominican radio dedicated to him yesterday, the 51-year-old Guerra said that he often looks for
online music courses because "a musician is always a work in progress."
Guerra has won nine Latin Grammys, along with Grammys in 1991 and 2007 for
Best Tropical Latin Album. He graduated from Berklee in 1982 with a degree in jazz composition.
Written by: jacirez, 4 Oct 2008 5:45 PM
From: Canada, Northern Alberta
May this be a lesson in humility to all so-called "Merengueros"..."a musician is always a work in progress."
Well said Juan-Luis
Written by: Belial, 4 Oct 2008 6:34 PM
From: United States, Texas
That's super.
Jazz composition.
Hmm.
Deep stuff.
I believe jazz is ill because it has largely lost its swing or swapped swing for time. Swing is a kind of time but time is too wide a thing to be swing.
I also believe swing is the essence of jazz.
Music now substitutes timekeepers for swingers.
Some musicians don't swing because they can't; but others don't swing because they don't want to.
Swingless jazz isn't jazz to me, it's musac or less.
Some musicians do the math and try to make their computers swing, but the computer always sounds and feels like it doesn't mean a thing.
Unlike some, I'm not hung-up on one kind of swing. There are thousands of swings. It's a joy to hear somebody can swing everything anyway he wants.
Bird and Miles (pre-1968) are great swingers for me. Bird swung with a lot of notes. Miles swung empty space, something that's extremely hard.
After swing, jazz is about blues, a lost art.
Then improvisation.
From: Malta, Malta Goya, La marca del momento esta pa ti
i like his old music better theen the new
Written by: Belial, 4 Oct 2008 7:15 PM
From: United States, Texas
He has multiple roots -- which appear to chiefly be the art of Dominican folks and jazz.
Some of his old music, he did both ... the jazz thing, too.
Written by: Belial, 4 Oct 2008 7:31 PM
From: United States, Texas
Written by: anthonyC, 4 Oct 2008 7:43 PM
From: United States
Belial,
Shut up....Just Shut up.
You know nothing. Stop trying to pretend you are cultured.
From: Colombia, new york
is he qualified for this? dont you have to have a ph.d to be a profesor?
idk anything about him so whateva if anything he should be teaching the students how to play a guira
lol
Written by: Belial, 5 Oct 2008 8:56 AM
From: United States, Texas
The Berklee College of Music is known for building chops.
It's image is a kind of hang-out for the virtuosi. There's nothing wrong with that.
Composition and arranging are not what it's known for.
Maybe Guerra can do something about this perceived shortcoming.
Technical stuff permeates improvisation and composition, but to me composing seem real hard because composing presuposes powers of criticism -- what was done right and what was wrong or what worked and what didn't and what's likable and what ain't.
A lot of so-called "criticism" is just whether something copies something else ... well or poorly.
That's not gonna cut it.
A lot of guys with great chops completely lack aesthetical judgment or the power of cricitism.
Kant calls its taste.
Written by: Belial, 5 Oct 2008 9:25 AM
From: United States, Texas
Guerro is kind of guy who can play or sing in the melody, around the melody and over it.
But he seems more at home around the melody or over it than in it.
Part of it is an imperative of his genre.
Now Marc is definitively an in-the-melody kind of guy who goes outside when he wants to.
Both like to be busy when they work.
Neither cares much about Miles use of space and silence in an in-the-melody context.
Of course, Miles was a genius at over the melody, too, sometimes composing a supplemental or counter melody out of the blue effortlessly. But when Miles was over, he still used space a lot.
Written by: Belial, 5 Oct 2008 9:36 AM
From: United States, Texas
Belial, Shut up....Just Shut up. You know nothing. Stop trying to pretend you are cultured" anthonyC explodes.
0000
"Shut up....Just Shut up," the rude C commands.
That's hard.
"You know nothing," C judges intellectually.
That's harder.
"Stop trying to pretend you are cultured," C speculates about my motive.
Cultured? Don't you mean hip?
Hey C, is all discourse about jazz over your head?
If so, what, if anything, is in your head?
Written by: Belial, 5 Oct 2008 9:37 AM
From: United States, Texas
C is a philistine, forever locked out of art.
From: Venezuela, Puerto la Cruz, Sector Agua Potable, Pozuelos
Juan Luis Guerra is quite an accomplished artist. Besides his merengue and take on bachata he is also a reconized christian music artist as well. He rocks
Written by: JEM237, 6 Oct 2008 4:29 PM
From: United States, Newark, NJ/NYC
"is he qualified for this? dont you have to have a ph.d to be a profesor?
idk anything about him so whateva if anything he should be teaching the students how to play a guira
lol"
Kokomordan, yes JLG is qualified for what he wants to teach at Berkelee because he is a very cultured musician, he's not at the same level as these wannabe merengueros that get played on the radio right now. And no you don't need a ph.D to be a professor, you can teach at a college level with a Master's degree. Just some FYI...
From: Colombia, new york
thanx there for clarifying i dont know much about the guy except the that song whats it called the biliruina crap jees
(thanx alot yumnuk what did you get me into)
{inside joke}
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Well said Juan-Luis
Jazz composition.
Hmm.
Deep stuff.
I believe jazz is ill because it has largely lost its swing or swapped swing for time. Swing is a kind of time but time is too wide a thing to be swing.
I also believe swing is the essence of jazz.
Music now substitutes timekeepers for swingers.
Some musicians don't swing because they can't; but others don't swing because they don't want to.
Swingless jazz isn't jazz to me, it's musac or less.
Some musicians do the math and try to make their computers swing, but the computer always sounds and feels like it doesn't mean a thing.
Unlike some, I'm not hung-up on one kind of swing. There are thousands of swings. It's a joy to hear somebody can swing everything anyway he wants.
Bird and Miles (pre-1968) are great swingers for me. Bird swung with a lot of notes. Miles swung empty space, something that's extremely hard.
After swing, jazz is about blues, a lost art.
Then improvisation.
Some of his old music, he did both ... the jazz thing, too.
oooo
What I mean by "a lost art" is that most of the "blues" we hear to today is horribly conventional and standardized garbage, bereft of the freshness and originality of the real blues inside the musician in whom the blues surely resides.
The only jazz artist who can do still do blues on the level of a master is Cesaria Evora of Cape Verde.
Blues is about phrasing , who cares about the langauge in which it is sung, and Cesaria rivals Billie Holliday in phrasing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ces%C3%A1ria_%C3%89vora
To listen to her ... here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJKF21vy6lY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TSjLf-n3r0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH1UG6V7iiY&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkUUaxjQCfI&NR=1
Shut up....Just Shut up.
You know nothing. Stop trying to pretend you are cultured.
idk anything about him so whateva if anything he should be teaching the students how to play a guira
lol
It's image is a kind of hang-out for the virtuosi. There's nothing wrong with that.
Composition and arranging are not what it's known for.
Maybe Guerra can do something about this perceived shortcoming.
Technical stuff permeates improvisation and composition, but to me composing seem real hard because composing presuposes powers of criticism -- what was done right and what was wrong or what worked and what didn't and what's likable and what ain't.
A lot of so-called "criticism" is just whether something copies something else ... well or poorly.
That's not gonna cut it.
A lot of guys with great chops completely lack aesthetical judgment or the power of cricitism.
Kant calls its taste.
But he seems more at home around the melody or over it than in it.
Part of it is an imperative of his genre.
Now Marc is definitively an in-the-melody kind of guy who goes outside when he wants to.
Both like to be busy when they work.
Neither cares much about Miles use of space and silence in an in-the-melody context.
Of course, Miles was a genius at over the melody, too, sometimes composing a supplemental or counter melody out of the blue effortlessly. But when Miles was over, he still used space a lot.
0000
"Shut up....Just Shut up," the rude C commands.
That's hard.
"You know nothing," C judges intellectually.
That's harder.
"Stop trying to pretend you are cultured," C speculates about my motive.
Cultured? Don't you mean hip?
Hey C, is all discourse about jazz over your head?
If so, what, if anything, is in your head?
idk anything about him so whateva if anything he should be teaching the students how to play a guira
lol"
Kokomordan, yes JLG is qualified for what he wants to teach at Berkelee because he is a very cultured musician, he's not at the same level as these wannabe merengueros that get played on the radio right now. And no you don't need a ph.D to be a professor, you can teach at a college level with a Master's degree. Just some FYI...
(thanx alot yumnuk what did you get me into)
{inside joke}