D'Rivera heads lineup for SOPAC inaugural
Friday, November 10, 2006
BY MARK MOBLEY
For the Star-Ledger
CLASSICAL
FOR THE STAR-LEDGERSince it opened Nov. 1, the new South Orange Performing Arts Center has hosted comedian Paula Poundstone and folk singer Richie Havens, among others. Friday night's star is actor/musician Jeff Daniels.
But the big-ticket inaugural gala on Thursday captures in one show the richness of what SOPAC hopes to offer. Cuban-born clarinetist, composer and genre-straddler Paquito D'Rivera headlines a program called "Music of Two Worlds."
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Which two worlds could be open to debate. Jazz and classical? High art and folk music? North and South America? Eastern and Western hemispheres?
"Usually classical musicians are too square, and it happens also with jazz players," D'Rivera says. "They're too submerged in traditional styles. Since I was a kid, I didn't feel a difference between jazz music or classical music."
In this gala -- which has a top ticket price of $750 -- D'Rivera and his wife, soprano Brenda Feliciano, will appear with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, the Imani Winds and pianist Alon Yavnai. The music ranges from a Brahms trio featuring D'Rivera, Ma and Yavnai to D'Rivera's own music and perhaps some Dizzy Gillespie.
Among the pieces is "Merengue," a D'Rivera composition that won him a Grammy after it was included on Ma's album "Obrigado Brasil."
"Yo-Yo is a very special person," D'Rivera says. "He is a fantastic musician, but the best part of his personality is he is always trying to learn something. I like him because he's very open-minded. You can feel the free air through the strings of the instrument he is playing. It is glorious. He can play with you. Many famous soloists, they are too much of a soloist."
The Imani Winds, a quintet of African-American musicians, has a similarly broad and collaborative approach. "The arrangements and the music they play are so refreshing," D'Rivera says. "I love working with them."
The Imanis will play a piece by D'Rivera called "Kites."
"I love kites," the composer says. As a child, he explains, he "was crazy about kites. Still today, when I see them, I have to stop and watch. The kite is flying freely but it is tied down to Earth. Freedom with control."
D'Rivera lives in North Bergen, and says of SOPAC that it's "important to have spaces like this on this side of the border" -- meaning the border with New York. And he knows the inspirational value of great venues for developing performers.
"My first album -- I almost said CD -- that my father brought home was Benny Goodman at Carnegie Hall. I said to my father, 'carne y frijol'?" D'Rivera laughs. "'But that means rice and beans!' He said, 'No! Carnegie Hall!' Then he would play it back to back with Benny Goodman playing the Mozart clarinet concerto."
This year marks the 25th anniversary of D'Rivera's decision to flee Cuba after he had built a reputation as one of his country's finest performers.
"My goal was to be a musician in the United States, which is being a musician in the world," he says. Now, he said, he eagerly awaits the end of the Castro regime.
"It's been 48 years," D'Rivera says. "Russia had the cancer for 70 years. I hope we don't have to wait for another 22 years. I would love to go there with Yo-Yo and play a concert with the symphony."
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