5. FIRST AMERICAN MUSIC IMPRESSIONS

Tania León: When I first came here, a clarinetist from the Conservatory gave me an LP of Art Tatum. And I flipped out. I said, what is this? What kind of a pianist is this? I mean, where is this man? I just flipped out. And I didn't know anything about jazz, I didn't know anything about American music, you know, and the most I had heard of American music was Rhapsody in Blue, and some clips of West Side Story.

Frank J. Oteri: Wow.

Tania León: So I didn't know anything, you know?

Frank J. Oteri: And West Side Story was an attempt to incorporate Latin musical rhythms.

	"...the piano is in my head..."   [93 seconds] RealAudio sound clip Sound sample - TANIA LEÓN: from Rituál Performed by Clemens Leske - piano (from the CD Tania León: Indígena, CRI 662) Order from Amazon.com

Tania León: Well, there were clips of that on Cuban television, you know, showing what Bernstein had done, and the most I knew and the most I remembered was the song Maria. You know? So that's how I arrived here. So for me to hear Art Tatum for the first time, it was like, my God, I don't know anything about music, you see? So therefore, I mean, that's how I actually immersed myself not only in rhythm and blues, you know, and blues, and jazz, from classic jazz to progressive jazz, and growing up in a way in Harlem with the Dance Theater of Harlem hearing all different kinds of music. That's how I started to understand the diaspora possibilities, the cultural movement that we're all alive and kicking, you know, in one nation. And, you know, even country music, rap, I mean, anything, for me has been amazing.

Frank J. Oteri: Now, you came here in the late '60's...

Tania León: 1967.

Frank J. Oteri: ...which was a great time in rock music as well in America. This was a time when rock n' roll became rock and became more experimental. . .the whole psychedelic movement. There were rock groups that were doing extended improvisation.

Tania León: Everything. Yes.

Frank J. Oteri: In San Francisco, groups like the Grateful Dead were playing for half an hour, and groups like the Velvet Underground in New York were experimenting with feedback and different sonorities, having a viola in a rock group. It was...

Tania León: It was tremendous! I remember the Moody Blues, I remember, you know, I mean, for example, going downtown to learn Agon you know. We'd been coached by Balanchine...

Frank J. Oteri: Oh, the Stravinsky ballet.

Tania León: For me it was not so much the Stravinsky ballet, it was Agon. [laughs] You know what I mean? And Stravinsky was alive, you know, I mean, this whole thing was happening, and then you go uptown and you work with Coleridge Taylor Perkinson, you know, Marcos Nobre was coming into the country to stage a new percussion score with Dance Theater of Harlem, I mean, Marcos Nobre is from Brazil. You know, so therefore, I mean, it was a coalition of information that was amazing. I just didn't know whether to look right or left, you know, because it was just a lot at the same time.

Continue

Tania León Interview

1.	Being an American Composer
2.	Cuba
3.	Nationalism in Music Vs. Culture in a Pluralistic Society
4.	Latin Music
5.	First American Music Impressions
6.	Improvisation and Musical Analysis
7.	Conducting
8.	Gender
9.	Organizing Composers
10.	Sonidos de las Americas
11.	Reaching Out
12.	Recent Compositions

Supporting Materials
Biography
Webliography

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