"It was Latin jazz - think salsa and American jazz and Afro-Caribbean rhythms all woven together, like in this piece by Eddie Palmieri. ALCALA: I was thinking to myself, man, I think the kids would really like playing this stuff. KLEIN: But there was a problem. He couldn't find the sheet music that would help his kids learn. ALCALA: That's their textbook. It's just like math. You have to have a textbook."
"Pioneers who were performing Latin jazz typically weren't sharing their sheet music beyond their bands. That left students and musicians outside of major jazz scenes without an easy way to learn the music. So Alcala set out on a painstaking task. ALCALA: I had to do all the transcribing myself from records I used to listen to. He'd literally write down the musical arrangements he heard note by note, sometimes for 10 or 15 different instruments."
Steve Alcala is a music teacher and trumpet player who discovered Latin jazz and wanted his students to play it but found little sheet music available. Pioneering Latin jazz performers rarely shared arrangements beyond their bands, leaving learners without materials. Alcala transcribed recordings himself, writing parts note by note for ensembles of 10 to 15 instruments. Students responded enthusiastically and band leaders sought the arrangements. Alcala founded a sheet music publishing company in rural Madeira, California, making Latin jazz scores, including works by Eddie Palmieri, accessible worldwide. Eddie Palmieri died last month.
Read at www.npr.org
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