LARRY HARLOW 4 VERY DIFFERENT MUSICAL SHOWS

These past 3 weeks I have been involved in four very different musical adventures. I will try to explain and review these musical endeavors. On Nov 15 2001 the Latin Legends band flew to Amsterdam for a show scheduled on Sunday the 18th. Ralph Irrazarry replaced Bobby Sanabria , who was in Miami with his jazz group and we added , Mitchell Frohman on baritone sax as well as adding Junior Gonzalez and Andy Montanez and his 2 sons. We left NYC on Delta Air, Friday at 8pm and arrived at 9am Sat morning to be met by our promoter Salsamania's Jorge Acevedo and his crew and our bus. We drove into Amsterdam a really beautiful city with a huge Hispanic population , mostly South American with a few island people . We checked into our hotels called the Golden Tulips in Rembrandt Square but our rooms were not ready, so we walked across the street to the nearest Coffee House called "Smokee's.

By noon we were all feeling pretty good and our rooms were finally ready. We did some shopping and went to a reception dinner at the home of DR Salsa (DR Ira Goldwasser and his family ) who I have known for some years. They served a great spread of food and Mojitos for the entire band and our invited musicians and friends from Holland. Everyone jammed in his basement including Leslie Lopez, Lewis Kahn, Neil Axelrod and Louie Bauzo and Gerado Rosales . At 9pm we all went to the Convention Center which is a huge, but wonderful venue , Capacity appx 12,000 to see and hear the local Dutch groups and Groupo Niche.. It was packed with Great dancers and fans.. After an hour or so I retired as the jet lag was catching up with me.

The next day was spent rehearsing and sound checking. With Andy Montanez, Jimmy Sabater, Jose Mangual Jr. ,Yomo and the Legends Band.. We went back had a great Indonesian dinner and presented a 3 hour show that will remain in the minds of all that were there. Everyone played and sounded wonderful. There were 10,000 fans dancing, singing and having a great time. The promoters did extremely well and presented an truly danceable and swinging weekend of professional Salsa Dance music and show. Everyone made money and were treated with all due respect. We all returned Monday to NYC and PR where we left from.

Now the following weekend was just the opposite. Billed as a memorial for Tito Puente , at the Bill Graham Civic Center in San Francisco, this show was suppose to feature the TP orq and many invited guest soloists including myself and Yomo Toro from the Legends band. We flew Friday Nov 23rd to California from JFK on American Air with the NY soloists , Chocolate, Patato, Yomo, Jimmy Bosch, Papo Vasquez , myself and agent Richie Bonilla, The Puente band coming Sat afternoon. . Cachao, TP Jr , Dave Valentin and the rest coming from Miami. We were split into 2 different hotels , The Marriot and the St Francis . I had my friends in town for the SF International Auto Show and spent Friday eve at the show and having a great meal with Rudy Morel and Family and Allan Schein and some friends. Thank you Allen for that great restaurant...I returned to the hotel at midnight and slept well.

Our press party was held in a drug rehab house in the mission district.. Very few press attended. I left after a 1/2 hour, Sound check from 1-4 at the Civic Center turned into Puente band rehearsal with all the soloists sitting around for 4 hours doing NOTHING.. The sound company was the usual teamsters sound men who had NO idea of how the mike and/or stage a Latin show. The room (where I have played before) is notorious for having bad acoustics. We were joined by the Bay area soloists, Orestes Vilato, Francisco Aguabella, John Santos, Karl Perazzo and Rebecca Mauleon (who I was meeting for the first time, Por Fin) John Calloway etc etc. etc. and about 20 dancers. I NEVER played one note in the 4 hours I waited. Again Back to the hotel to shower and change into stageclothes for the 7pm VIP reception .. The reception was really a snack table with water for the musicians ... I should have stayed in the hotel. ...at 8pm the people started to trickle in . the show began with a big band and 20 dancers dancing in front of them .. Julia Sewell from SFSalsa.com and I watched and listened as the sound crew destroyed some young big band 's Latin Music. We all were waiting our turn to play .. I was scheduled for 9;15 with Cachao, Patato, Yomo, Orestes, John Santos, Karl and had planned to take a long solo. We finally played at 11;30 Cachao took out his big bass , plugged in and nothing came out.. The stage crew changed amp tops, then bottoms still NOTHING...The crowd, about 1000 out of a possible 8,000 was growing restless and I went to the mike to calm them down,, After 20 min of NO MUSIC it was decided that Cachao would play acoustic , with a mike pointed to the f- hole on the bass,, So we played VERY softly. I was in front of Yomo who was plugged in and very loud and could only hear him and I .. Then we were joined by 6 horn players who were miked so I had NO chance to hear Cachao or any of the drummers... I was depressed and disappointed that I could not take a solo or even play well... But Rebecca Mauleon had already played a "Harlow solo" as well as I could have, two songs earlier. There was supposed to be an intermission and then return to the program ,but when the break came, it was so late the crowd went home and the rest of the program canceled... We left for the airport on 2 hours sleep.. I flew 4000 miles to play 10 minuets of UN rewarding music for my mentor Tito Puente,,, A Very unorganized and financial flop of a show...

Now Thursday eve, Nov.29th, I went to Birdland , here in NYC to see the 2nd Django Reinhardt NY Festival. I went last year and had a rewarding musical evening. I am a fan of Grapelli's music and had a chance several years ago to see him perform at the Monterey Jazz fest. before he passed away. Thursday was an acoustic heaven, Under the musical direction of Frank Vignola an American swing genius Wendy and my guests were treated to hear Angelo Debarre one of Django's disciples , Boulou and Elios Ferre two French brothers, Violinist Ola Kvernberg along with Jon Burr and Alain Jean Marie a French Pianist to an evening of pure gypsy swing.. All of these musicians were exceptional soloists and I wopuld like to thank Birdland as well as producers Pat Phillips and Ettore Stratta for making this wonderful evening happen again this year and I hope it continues every year. Kudos to all..........

Last night Friday Nov 30th, Niel Axelrod , Andy Kaufman, Ira Herschel and mark Weinstein, all Jewish Mambonicks for the 50's got together to see Orquesta Aragon play at Montclair State College Auditorium. Of course we got lost getting there but managed to get there just as the first not of the ARAGON theme was starting. The best $20 ticket of the year. The theater was full of hard core Union City and NYC fans of Orq. Aragon, who shouted songs out that they wanted to hear. Orq. Aragon played marvelous, even though they had lost their timbalero two days before in Miami, as he defected and took political asylum in the USA. The timbales were played by the 3rd violinist who did a more than average job on the drums as well as take an incredible violin solo that brought down the house, The show was only 1[15 and everyone wanted more but when the audience was asked to dance on stage to pare Cochero, I knew it was over.. I had a wonderful evening

So 4 quite different musical evenings..........

Hasta la Proxima........