World Poetry Celebrates Canto America with Michael Spiro!

Ariadne’s Notes: An exciting and wonderful show on April 7th, 2016 ,welcomed Michael Spiro talking about their new CD Canto America  with a perfect mix of Latin American Jazz, Afro-Cuban music and North American jazz with as host and producer Ariadne Sawyer, Jazz co-host Neall Ryon and sound engineer Victor Schwartzman  on CFRO 100.5 FM  Featured e-poem by Monsif Beroual

To hear this special show: http://www.coopradio.org/content/world-poetry-caf%C3%A9-el-mundo-de-la-poesia-277

Michael Spiro has performed on each of those nominated albums – a mere fraction of the literally hundreds of wide-ranging albums on which he has worked, which include GRAMMY-nominated albums by John Santos, pianist Mark Levine, and vocalist Karrin Allyson. (He has also performed with Ella Fitzgerald, Carlos Santana, and McCoy Tyner.) Internationally recognized for his expertise and his …exploration of African and Latin rhythms, he has authored three books on Afro-Caribbean percussion. The first album under his own name, BataKetu (with Mark Lamson), released in 1996, was named by DRUM! Magazine as one of the “Top 50 Drum Records” of all time.

Wallace and Spiro met more than 30 years ago in San Francisco, forging a personal and professional relationship tempered by their shared interest in the music of Cuba. In 2008, Spiro joined the faculty of the Jacobs School of Music at IU, and under his direction the percussion department grew from its emphasis on orchestral work to include the world’s rhythms. He soon began leading a Latin Jazz big band at the school, which used many of Wallace’s acclaimed arrangements, which led to a guest appearance with the band — and eventually to the school hiring Wallace as a professor in 2013.Wayne Wallace:In his four-decade career, San Francisco native Wayne Wallace has collaborated with artists ranging from Count Basie to Stevie Wonder, Sonny Rollins to Carlos Santana, Tito Puente to Lena Horne and Aretha Franklin – as sideman, composer, arranger, and producer. His debut album as a leader, 2000’s Three In One (Spirit Nectar), showcased his writing skills and his encyclopedic knowledge of Afro-Cuban rhythms, the result of years of music-making in the close-knit Bay Area jazz community, where Wallace has played an oversized role. He has earned particular notice for his approach to Latin Jazz, a vision shaped by his work with Latin Jazz percussion giants Pete Escovedo and John Santos, in whose Machete Ensemble he served as music director for more than 20 years. As leader of the Wayne Wallace Latin Jazz Quintet, he has received seven GRAMMY nominations to date, most recently for 2015’s Intercambio.  www.patoisrecords.com