By April Isaacs
Flushing Town Hall, which has hosted concerts by big Latin Jazz acts such as Chico O'Farrill and Eddie Palimeri in the past, celebrates the month with the inaugural Hispanic Heritage Festival. It will feature five concerts and a family dance workshop with recital.
The festival is produced by Jazz Director Clyde Bullard, who has been with Flushing Town Hall for going on 11 years and has performed with several notable jazz artists throughout his music career. While he had always lined up Latin jazz musicians to perform at Flushing Town Hall around this time of year, this is the first year that the organization has received enough funding to produce an official music festival in observance of the National Hispanic Heritage Month.
Hispanic Heritage Month begins Sept. 15 and lasts through Oct. 15, and coincides with seven Latin American countries' independence anniversaries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua (Sept. 15), Mexico and Chile (Sept. 16). However, the month-long observance honors all people of Hispanic descent and the influence they've had on American culture and history.
The Hispanic Heritage Festival at Flushing Town Hall includes some well-known names in the genre, such as Papo Vasquez, Steve Kroon, Aurora Flores, the John Benitez Latin Jazz Explosion and Cuartetango String Quartet. It is the first time any of the artists are appearing at Flushing Town Hall.
“I knew these artists, knew that they had a lot of credibility in the Latin world, that they'd played with some of the most respected names in Latin music.” Bullard said. “The idea is to grow [the Hispanic Heritage Festival] and to make these artists part of our family. We try to keep the programs fresh, but almost all of the artists who have performed here do return performances.”
There's a widely representative sampling of Latin music at the festival. Apart from the classic salsa and Latin jazz performances, the Cuartetango String Orchestra, led by Leonardo Suarez Paz, presents an intimate and traditional interpretation of tango music, for example.
For festival-goers who can't bear to sit still in their seats, the Ballet Hispanico School Ensemble will lead a salsa and meringue dance class on Saturday, Oct. 25, and will give class members a chance to shine on the floor in an all-afternoon participatory recital.
Percussionist Steve Kroon, a resident of Queens and native of Spanish Harlem, brings a local flavor to the festival. Though Kroon, who was profiled in the TimesLedger in July, spent 20 years as a percussionist with R&B singer Luther Vandross, it's his Latin roots that have infused his solo projects, including his latest CD, “El Mas Alla”, which will be on sale at his performance Oct. 3.
Having grown up around the big band salsa explosion of the 1960s, Kroon saw several legendary performers such as Tito Puente in the Palladium and puts a twist on their rich traditions.
“I'm very proud of it”, Kroon said of the musical heritage of Queens, particularly the St. Albans neighborhood where he moved with his family in 1956. “It's what made me want to be a musician. I got to meet a lot of these artists firsthand,” among them Count Basie. “They were older than me and I had a huge respect for them.”
If you go
Hispanic Heritage Festival
When: Sept. 20 – Nov. 2
Where: Flushing Town Hall, 137-35 Northern Blvd., Flushing
Cost: $25/$20 members/$10 students
For More: To purchase tickets call 718-463-7700 x 222 or visit www.flushingtownhall.org
