For Matos, Latin/Jazz Soars From the Beat of African Rhythms and 1940s Be-Bop

Timbales player-bandleader Bobby Matos is rapidly becoming one of the town’s more popular purveyors of the fervent melodic and rhythmic brew called Latin/jazz. But Matos, whose Heritage Ensemble appears Saturday at the Blue Note Cafe in Studio City, says the term Latin/jazz is a misnomer.

Matos, a 30-year-veteran musician who has played and recorded with such diverse figures as Bette Midler, Bobby Hutcherson and Barry Manilow, says Latin implies Pan American influences--including Argentinian, Puerto Rican, Panamanian and Cuban--but leaves out African elements.

Jazz and Salsa

He calls the music he plays Afro-Cuban jazz. This style was created in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s when Cubans such as conga drummer Chano Pozo and bandleader Machito combined their particularly flamboyant sounds--mixtures of traditional Cuban and other Latin elements fused with African rhythms and some jazz--with the searing be-bop of trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and saxophonist Charlie Parker.

This blend of Afro-Cuban rhythms with jazz melodies and harmonies is “probably the most rhythmically fascinating music in this hemisphere,” said Matos, 46, in a conversation in his Hollywood apartment.

Matos points out the differences between Afro-Cuban/jazz and salsa, which also is of Cuban origin. “Salsa is a dance-oriented music, based on the traditional rumba, mambo, cha-cha-cha and son rhythms, but without the concept of improvising,” he said. “It’s all singers and arrangements, except in the best bands, like Eddie Palmieri and Tito Puente.”

Matos thinks that the term Latin/jazz has come into widespread use through the recordings of people like vibes player Cal Tjader, one of this music’s best known artists, and through the feeling among players that Afro-Cuban denotes a music of the past. He frequently interchanges the two in conversation.

Jazz mixed with Latin rhythms has become increasingly popular in the last two years, Matos says, because of some excellent recordings by such artists as local conga drummer Poncho Sanchez, flutist Dave Valentin, saxophonist Pacquito D’Rivera and percussionist Puente. “These people are keeping Latin/jazz alive,” he said.

Matos may soon join that select list. He has just released “Bobby Matos Heritage Ensemble” (Enclave), his group’s debut LP, which features an expanded band--Matos usually appears with a quintet or sextet--and such guest soloists as Sanchez and Miguel Cruz. Promoting the LP is hard work, he said, but well worth the effort.

“It seems like I’m putting in 26 hours a day, but having the album out is wonderful and we’re getting a lot of positive response,” Matos said. “Everybody from KKGO-FM to ‘Alma del Barrio’ on KXLU-FM is playing it.”

One factor in the Heritage Ensemble’s growing appeal is its instrumentation. “We use vibes and flute in the front line, which is a real change from the usual brass and saxophones you hear,” Matos said. “It’s a very melodic sound. We mix melody, jazz sounds and an authentic rhythmic core.”

Matos, who augments his live dates with a steady teaching schedule, likes his audiences to become involved in his shows by “rocking in their chairs, moving their hips, or dancing if they want,” he said. “Music is capable of uplifting the spirit, and, when it does, it’s truly special.”

The native New Yorker grew up hearing a wide range of popular music, from Louis Armstrong and Frank Sinatra to Billie Holiday and Machito. But it was a recording by Pozo and Gillespie of Gillespie and Gil Fuller’s “Manteca,” played on radio by famed jazz disk jockey “Symphony Sid” Torin, that converted the youth to Afro-Cuban jazz. “When I heard Chano’s long conga solo, along with vocal chanting and this big band come in with that ‘Manteca’ melody line, I freaked out,” Matos recalled with typical enthusiasm.

Cafe Wha?

At 16, Matos bought a conga drum, took a few informal lessons from Patato Valdez--a conguero who recorded with many jazz greats--and began playing in bands. He appeared regularly at the Cafe Wha?, working with Latin-based ensembles as well as with Fred Neil, who wrote “Everybody’s Talkin’ ” (theme from the film, “Midnight Cowboy”) and Louis Gossett Jr., who then was singing as well as acting. “Lou had a tremendous love for drumming,” Matos said. “He had studied with Olatunji.”

Matos, who had his first recording session in 1958 and had, by then, added timbales to his arsenal, began making inroads into the New York musical scene. He played demo sessions with guitarists Eric Gale and Cornell Dupree, worked with the La Mama Experimental Theatre Club and played occasional jobs with the likes of Bette Midler, Jim Croce and the Rascals. But these jobs weren’t steady enough, and Matos always kept a part-time day job.

Playing with Midler came about through a lucky happenstance. In 1971, Matos, toting a conga in a duffel bag, was on his way to an audition when he was approached by a stranger who asked if he was available for a session in a few days. Matos said yes, got a call, and one afternoon arrived at Carnegie Hall to rehearse with Midler.

“I’d never heard of her, she’d only been singing in gay baths, but that night in concert, she was magic,” he remembered of Midler’s Carnegie Hall debut. “The man I had met on the street, well, he was Barry Manilow,” then Midler’s musical director. Matos went on to appear with both artists now and then, and to make each of their debut LPs.

When Matos grew tired of the intensity of life in New York in the late ‘70s and moved to Los Angeles, he hoped he would be able to work his way into the studio scene here, as he had in Manhattan. And, although that hasn’t happened, Matos is still more than glad to be making his living with music, whether teaching or playing.

“There’s nothing that gives me the satisfaction that music does,” he said, “and there’s nothing that I’d rather be doing.”