There’s no silver lining to the devastation that Venezuela’s authoritarian government has inflicted on the South American nation over the past two decades, but the impact of the economic implosion is reverberating on the New York jazz scene.
In the coming days and weeks, three of Venezuela’s most promising young musicians are bringing their music to the Bay Area, starting June 15-18 at the Tenderloin nightspot Black Cat with the Gabriel Chakarji Quartet featuring Venezuelan vocalist Nathasha Bravo. He’s followed at Black Cat June 29-July 2 by vibraphonist Juan Diego Villalobos (who also plays the Fillmore Jazz Festival July 1). And cuatro maestro Jorge Glem performs with San Francisco accordionist Sam Reider at the Mendocino Music Festival July 24 and the SFJAZZ Center’s Joe Henderson Lab July 28.
Deeply versed in European classical music, jazz, and an array of Venezuelan folkloric traditions, they’re close friends and collaborators at the center of a rising generation of Venezuelan musicians who’ve connected in New York. While they likely would have made their way to the jazz center of the universe whatever the political situation at home, the mass exodus “goes way back to the heavy years of diaspora 2010-16 when most people left,” says Chakarji, 29, whose become a Black Cat regular since the club reopened in August, 2021.
“A lot of young musicians interested in jazz ended up in New York. We’ve developed this relationship and community that centers on these Saturday sessions at the Jazz Gallery with the Caracas Trio, which is me, Juan Diego, and percussionist Daniel Prim.”
They’re often joined at the performance space by the great alto saxophonist and composer Miguel Zenón (a founding member of the SFJAZZ Collective), whose synthesis of Puerto Rican roots music and jazz has served a conceptual road map for Chakarji. He premiered a major commission from the Jazz Gallery last year, “Immigrant Tales,” with a chamber jazz ensemble featuring some of the same musicians joining him at Black Cat.
In many ways Chakarji’s band represents the New York melting pot, with upstate-raised bassist Ben Tiberio, who hails from a prominent musical family, and two Israeli-born players, drummer Eviatar Slivnik and
Tal Yahalom on acoustic and electric guitar. Nathasha Bravo, who often works in a duo with Jorge Glem, has been gaining attention with her crystalline soprano.
“We wanted to add vocals, and I wanted to have traces of my background, and Nathasha was perfect,” Chakarji said. “I have a lot of different bands, and in this case it’s presenting more of my jazz side, but we can bring in some Venezuelan standards and folk too. And Tal knows a lot of South American repertoire, from Argentine and Brazil. I always like to think of shows on a global spectrum.”
Born and raised in Caracas, Chakarji grew up in vibrant cultural scene, absorbing Afro-Venezuelan idioms, popular Caribbean and Brazilian music, jazz, gospel and classical. In his teens, he took part in the Simon Bolívar Jazz Big Band, touring and performing with the orchestra in New York and Boston in 2011. By his late teens he was one of Venezuela’s most sought-after pianists. A scholarship to study at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in 2016 brought him to New York, where he thrived under the tutelage of masters such as Reggie Workman, George Cables, Billy Harper and Jane Ira Bloom.
These days, his band is a launching pad for some of jazz’s most exciting young players, like Juan Diego Villalobos, who last performed at Black Cat in December in Chakarji’s group. He’s returning to San Francisco to make his debut as a bandleader outside of New York City.
As if often the case at Black Cat, the sideplayers are names to watch out for. Villalobos’s group includes Nicola Caminiti on alto and soprano saxophones, Sam Towse on piano and keyboards, drummer Domo Branch, and Cuban-born special guest vocalist Gina D’Soto (who studied classical piano in Havana before moving to Montreal to immerse herself in jazz singing).
After meeting in the same class at Manhattan School of Music, Villalobos and Branch worked together with Cuban reed legend Paquito D’Rivera and Grammy Award-winning pianist/composers Arturo O’Farrill and John Beasley.
“We have the same musical taste,” said Villalobos, 28. “He’s one of the most musical drummers out there. But all the people I’m bringing are really special. Nicola is one of my best friends and one of my favorite saxophone players right now.”
Without a bassist, he’ll be sharing low-end duties on keyboard with Sam Towse. They bonded while performing weekly with Miguel Zenón, a professor at MSM, though Villalobos credits vibraphone star Stefon Harris with bringing the all of together. “He’s my biggest mentor,” Villalobos said. “He made it happen.”
Growing up in a highly creative family, Villalobos learned Afro-Venezuelan percussion from his father, while drawing inspiration from his mother, a ballet dancer. He spent his early years in the northwestern city of
Maracaibo, where his family hails from, until his family moved to the eastern coastal city of Barcelona in his adolescence, when he joined El Sistema, Venezuela’s famously effective musical education program.
Focusing on classical timpani, he eventually moved to Caracas and toured internationally with the national youth orchestra. After mastering mallet instruments like marimba, xylophone and glockenspiel he found his way to the vibes, which become his primary focus. As his interest in jazz grew Villalobos planned on applying to Berklee College of Music in Boston. At least until the first night of his first trip to New York.
“The first New York gig I caught was at Birdland, Dave Holland with Kenny Barron,” he recalled. “By the time they finished the first song I thought ‘I don’t think I want to go to Boston.’ Gabriel, Jorge, we all had the same the same drive. We all wanted to see what was here.”
The Bay Area has long boasted a deep reservoir of Venezuelan culture, courtesy of vocalist (and now KCSM-FM host) Maria Marquez, cuatro and percussion maestra Jackeline Rago, and pianist Edward Simon (the SFJAZZ Collective’s longest-serving member). But the outflow of musicians in recent years has raised the visibility of a rich musical heritage long overshadowed by kindred Latin American currents.
“The culture and folklore is the people,” Villalobos said. “Once you start noticing the people, the door opens up. Now is the moment. It’s Venezuela’s time. I’m not happy people had to flee. You don’t leave your country when you’re having a good time. It’s crazy that it works that way, but it works.”
thanks so much for covering these amazing musicians !