Latest / Jersey Arts Podcast / Legendary Arturo Sandoval Brings His Talent to Rutgers University to Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month

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Legendary Arturo Sandoval Brings His Talent to Rutgers University to Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month · Jersey Arts Podcast

• 0:03
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: This is Gina Marie Rodriguez and you're listening to the Jersey Arts Podcast.
• 0:07
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Today I'm speaking with trumpeter Arturo Sandoval.
• 0:11
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: His accolades are numerous.
• 0:14
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: He is a 10-time Grammy Award winner, an Emmy Award recipient and a six-time Billboard Award winner.
• 0:20
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: He also holds a Hispanic Heritage Award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama, a doctorate in fine arts from the prestigious Notre Dame University, and was recently honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
• 0:34
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: In 2023, and most recently in 2024, he was one of the honorees of the Kennedy Center.
• 0:40
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: His career is a testament to his versatility and virtuosity.
• 0:43
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Born in Artemisa, cuba, he was a protege of the legendary Dizzy Gillespie and has evolved into one of the most dynamic live performers of our time, with a background so interesting that HBO turned it into the award-winning film starring Andy Garcia for Love or Country the Arturo Sandoval story.
• 1:02
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: He's a treat to listen to, whether he's blowing the horn or telling you his history and, lucky for us in New Jersey, sandoval will be bringing his talent and charm to Rutgers University in Camden on September 27th at 7pm.
• 1:15
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: But stay tuned to learn more about one of the world's most respected and admired musicians.
• 1:20
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: First, let me start by saying I'm very excited to talk to you.
• 1:26
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I ask every musician that I interview for advice what would you advise the younger generation to do as they're breaking into the business?
• 1:35
  Arturo Sandoval: Practice, be dedicated with strong discipline and be passionate with what you love, you know, because that's the only way the consistency in your practicing.
• 1:50
  Arturo Sandoval: Because it's three different ways to approach the music.
• 1:54
  Arturo Sandoval: You could do it as a hobby, as an aficionado, you know which is good.
• 2:02
  Arturo Sandoval: We love everyone who really approaches the music in any form or any way.
• 2:07
  Arturo Sandoval: And then if you decide that you want to be a professional musician, it's also two different ways to play music.
• 2:17
  Arturo Sandoval: Or you play what you want and how you want, or you play what you can and only what you can.
• 2:27
  Arturo Sandoval: You're gonna in this, in this case, you're gonna be struggling with frustration and limitation and all those things and that's not fun, you know.
• 2:34
  Arturo Sandoval: That's not not good.
• 2:36
  Arturo Sandoval: But if you decide to play how and what you want, and then you need that strong discipline, because the music demands that and also respect, not only for your passion and dedication, but it's respect for the music and respect for the audience especially.
• 3:00
  Arturo Sandoval: That's the most important thing.
• 3:01
  Arturo Sandoval: You have to respect the audience.
• 3:03
  Arturo Sandoval: When you jump to the stage, you have to give them your 100%, because if you play the day before in somewhere and the people who is coming tonight to your gig, they don't care how you sound last night.
• 3:19
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: That's true.
• 3:22
  Arturo Sandoval: They want to hear your best, you know, and this is what we have prepared to give to them our best.
• 3:30
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I love that, and I'm not sure I've heard it phrased that way before.
• 3:32
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Respect for the audience.
• 3:34
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I've heard a lot of musicians tell me that they don't want to embarrass themselves by not practicing, but respect for the audience is a nice way to look at it.
• 3:43
  Arturo Sandoval: We survive because of them.
• 3:44
  Arturo Sandoval: Without the audience, what do we have?
• 3:47
  Arturo Sandoval: We have nothing.
• 3:48
  Arturo Sandoval: We have nothing.
• 3:49
  Arturo Sandoval: You're going to play for you.
• 3:51
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: That's very true, very true.
• 3:53
  Arturo Sandoval: We play for them and you have to give them your best.
• 3:58
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: That's a good point.
• 4:00
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So we're creeping up on Hispanic Heritage Month now and I'd love to talk to you about that a little bit.
• 4:06
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: You were born and raised in Cuba, Right, but you defected to the US in 1990, if I got the year right while you were on tour with Dizzy Gillespie.
• 4:14
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yes, but I'm sure that you've talked about that plenty.
• 4:18
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: But I wonder if this celebratory month has a special meaning for you or if you relate to Hispanic heritage perhaps differently than those who were born here might.
• 4:27
  Arturo Sandoval: To be absolutely honest, I never thought about.
• 4:30
  Arturo Sandoval: I never thought about because you know, I've never human and we are citizens of this country that's called Earth.
• 4:48
  Arturo Sandoval: And then what about the rest of the year?
• 4:53
  Arturo Sandoval: We don't care about our race or our ethnic or something, or our tradition.
• 4:59
  Arturo Sandoval: I think we have to care all year long and we have to be proud all year long.
• 5:05
  Arturo Sandoval: For that reason, for me, I never thought about it.
• 5:09
  Arturo Sandoval: I don't know, your question took me by surprise, but I have no proper answer to that.
• 5:20
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I think that was a wonderful answer.
• 5:21
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: It's something that I wonder all the time.
• 5:24
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I think that was a wonderful answer.
• 5:25
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: It's something that I wonder all the time.
• 5:26
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Why are we dedicating just one month to Hispanic heritage, when people who are of Hispanic descent are going to honor that every day?
• 5:32
  Arturo Sandoval: We work every single day of the year, you know.
• 5:35
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Exactly.
• 5:41
  Arturo Sandoval: Not only we work one month, you know, we work 12 months, absolutely.
• 5:42
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I think you gave a brilliant answer, because we really shouldn't be dividing people by race or by culture, so thank you for that.
• 5:49
  Arturo Sandoval: Thank you, thank you.
• 5:50
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Can you tell me a little bit about your work with Dizzy Gillespie?
• 5:54
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And I know that it started with a chance meeting in Havana, right?
• 5:58
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So how did that kickstart your career?
• 6:05
  Arturo Sandoval: I always considered that meeting him how did that kickstart your career?
• 6:07
  Arturo Sandoval: I always considered that meeting him it was a gift from God to me, Because when you get an opportunity to meet your hero, your musical hero, and then you discover that also your musical hero is an incredible human being, and after that, right after you became a close friend and he became your mentor oh my goodness that's the only way I can put that in words Meeting him and became close friend and play with him for so many years, it was a gift from God to me.
• 6:48
  Arturo Sandoval: I think I was doing something good to deserve it.
• 6:53
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah, and I mean, it was thanks to Dizzy Wright that you were able to come to the well.
• 6:59
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: To come to the United States, right, it was through his United Nation band, was that the name?
• 7:06
  Arturo Sandoval: No, it was way before, because I'm going to tell you this story.
• 7:11
  Arturo Sandoval: When we met in May 77 in Havana for a couple of days, we connected so well, you know.
• 7:18
  Arturo Sandoval: But he was very impressed with those musicians that he heard because he wasn't prepared for that.
• 7:25
  Arturo Sandoval: I'm gonna tell you why.
• 7:26
  Arturo Sandoval: The reputation in general of Cuban musicians is more related to percussion and all those kind of things, you know, and the traditional Cuban music.
• 7:38
  Arturo Sandoval: But he wasn't expecting to hear the trumpet player, the saxophone and the pianist and the guitar player and bass and drums and all the things at such a level.
• 7:49
  Arturo Sandoval: You know, that was with Irakere when we played for them that day and then we played together afterwards.
• 7:58
  Arturo Sandoval: And when he come back to New York he start talking to everybody, everybody, about those musicians that he heard in Cuba.
• 8:06
  Arturo Sandoval: And one day we were doing the rehearsal in Cuba with Zira Kere and a gentleman came, a very tall guy, blonde, blue eyes, and sit down there in the rehearsal for the whole time.
• 8:22
  Arturo Sandoval: And we were very intrigued, you know, because we said who's that guy, why he's here watching the rehearsal, paying so much attention to everything.
• 8:32
  Arturo Sandoval: Okay, when we finished he got another gentleman who was with him it was like a translator and he said hello guys, my name is Bruce Lundgren, I am the president of CBS Record and I'm here because DC Gillespie Don't stop talking about this man.
• 8:52
  Arturo Sandoval: And I'm here to corroborate, to be sure, what he said.
• 8:56
  Arturo Sandoval: And I got a meeting already with the Minister of Culture of Cuba and I signed your ban already for three years of CVS.
• 9:08
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Oh wow, that's amazing.
• 9:10
  Arturo Sandoval: A few months later.
• 9:11
  Arturo Sandoval: He put us on the plane from Havana because this is almost unbelievable from Havana to New York.
• 9:20
  Arturo Sandoval: We landed there in New York mid-afternoon and they drove us straight to the sound check at Carnegie Hall, which means the very first day we came to the US.
• 9:33
  Arturo Sandoval: We played at Carnegie Hall the second half of the concert, and the first half was two piano trio, bill Evans and Mary Lou Williams, two incredible jazz pianists and we played the second half and then, at the end, for the last tune, stan Getz and Maynard Ferguson jumped to the stage and played the last tune with us.
• 9:56
  Arturo Sandoval: Cbs made a recording of that performance and that was our first gram.
• 10:04
  Arturo Sandoval: Everything happened the very first day in the US because of DC Live Speaks.
• 10:09
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: That's so wonderful.
• 10:11
  Arturo Sandoval: That was amazing, that was unbelievable.
• 10:14
  Arturo Sandoval: That experience, and when we looked to the audience, in the first row there was Tito Puente, dizzy Gillespie, mena Freguz, stan Getz, two Stillman, bill Evans, mario Balsa oh my goodness, we were like what is this?
• 10:32
  Arturo Sandoval: It's beyond a dream come true.
• 10:35
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Wow, I can't imagine the nerves that you must have felt seeing all those people in the front row.
• 10:41
  Arturo Sandoval: No, you know what it was a nerve.
• 10:44
  Arturo Sandoval: It was a nerve.
• 10:45
  Arturo Sandoval: I think it was more than a satisfaction or more than a surprise, but also the happiness to have this opportunity, you know, to play the very first day ever in the US in probably the main concert hall in the US.
• 11:02
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Sure, yeah, I mean, I can't even imagine.
• 11:04
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: That's what a story.
• 11:06
  Arturo Sandoval: It was beyond imagination, beyond dreams.
• 11:11
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Can you actually tell me a little bit about how Irakere was formed?
• 11:15
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Because from my understanding go ahead.
• 11:18
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Sorry.
• 11:18
  Arturo Sandoval: Can you actually tell me a little bit about how Irakere was formed?
• 11:20
  Arturo Sandoval: Because from my understanding, go ahead.
• 11:21
  Arturo Sandoval: Sorry, no, we started with a big band in 1967.
• 11:26
  Arturo Sandoval: And it was a big big band because it was like six trumpets, five trombones, six saxophones, three percussionists, two drummers, two basses, two guitars, keyboard, you know, and in that band was a group of the main people that we put together in Aquereda Chucho Valdez, paquito Rivera, carlos Puerto Carlos, emilio Morales, myself.
• 11:56
  Arturo Sandoval: We left that band in the end of 73 and in the beginning of 74 we started playing with Irakere.
• 12:05
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: that was the whole process now was Irakere a means to hide jazz in plain sight under Afro-Cuban rhythms?
• 12:17
  Arturo Sandoval: No, the thing is we weren't allowed to play American music in any form rock and roll or funk or jazz or any of those things because they called that the music of the junkie imperialists.
• 12:33
  Arturo Sandoval: That's such a stupidity.
• 12:36
  Arturo Sandoval: You know to relate that with politics or whatever, okay, but the thing is we're not even allowed to use the symbols of the drums because they said that sounds like American music or whatever.
• 12:50
  Arturo Sandoval: And then we trade the symbols to cowbells and then we start to symbols, to cowbells, and then we start to use all those Afro-Cubans drums like batas and all those kind of drums and things and all those lines and things, with some, even with some Afro-Cuban tradition of a language.
• 13:15
  Arturo Sandoval: You know that they call Abacua.
• 13:17
  Arturo Sandoval: It came from the religion of, came from Africa, but on the needs of that we were playing jazz, you know, a phrasing improvisation or something was strictly bebop or jazz in general, but we didn't call that, we called it Afro-Cuban music, you know.
• 13:38
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Of course.
• 13:40
  Arturo Sandoval: Yeah, and then the government led us to do it, but we, in other words, we masquerade the jazz we were playing with other rhythm and other things you know, and then we survived, but God is so things you know.
• 13:55
  Arturo Sandoval: And then we survived, and but God is so good.
• 13:57
  Arturo Sandoval: You know, in certain way that was probably the key point that Iroquois have good acceptance, you know, in general, for the public all over the world, because it was a kind of new combination, you know, even if it came from the pure tradition of Afro-Cuban jazz.
• 14:21
  Arturo Sandoval: We started to include different instruments and different things, different approach, with a guitar like a funk sound, which wasn't part of the original Afro-Cuban jazz, and the drums and all those things you know, the bass guitar all those instruments weren't part of the original Afro-Cuban jazz.
• 14:49
  Arturo Sandoval: I'm talking about the late 40s, when Dizzy Lespiebians, mario Bowsa and Chano Pozo stopped and they create that thing that they call Afro-Cuban jazz.
• 15:01
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I'm fascinated by that approach and the way that you were able to I mean, I guess, technically stand up to your government in that way.
• 15:08
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: But I was bringing up that you might be the first person I've met who's actually gone to jail for his dedication to his music.
• 15:18
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And, like you were saying, the Cuban regime at the time did not approve of jazz or American music and, if I'm correct, it was because you were caught listening to the Voice of America Jazz Hour while you were serving in the military.
• 15:36
  Arturo Sandoval: That's correct From 71 to 74, they called me when I was in that big band before Irakere Right.
• 15:42
  Arturo Sandoval: They called me for three years to the obligatory military service and that was the worst three years of my life, you know.
• 15:54
  Arturo Sandoval: They destroyed my career.
• 15:55
  Arturo Sandoval: I couldn't play it in three years barely and it was difficult, very difficult for me.
• 16:04
  Arturo Sandoval: But I don't want to lose that connection of learning, especially about jazz.
• 16:10
  Arturo Sandoval: And I used to listen to that program Monday to Friday at 3.15 pm.
• 16:16
  Arturo Sandoval: It was from the Voice of America, from Washington DC, and the name of the program was the Jazz Hour, the Jazz Hour.
• 16:23
  Arturo Sandoval: And I was listening to that with a small little radio and shortwave, because not an AM or FM, it was shortwave only.
• 16:33
  Arturo Sandoval: And in that specific moment when the sergeant catch me listening to that the emcee of the radio station, he was talking.
• 16:42
  Arturo Sandoval: I not even understood what he said because I couldn't speak any English at all, zero, but he was talking.
• 16:48
  Arturo Sandoval: That was why he listened.
• 16:49
  Arturo Sandoval: He listened to the guy talking in English and I was paying attention.
• 16:53
  Arturo Sandoval: I say you're a traitor, you're listening to the voice of enemy.
• 16:58
  Arturo Sandoval: And then he brought me to the office of a captain or something and they put me in jail for three and a half months oh my gosh, yeah, that's awful, and you didn't even know what was being said.
• 17:10
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: That's unfair.
• 17:12
  Arturo Sandoval: But that was good for me because that reconfirmed you know that I have to escape from Cuba.
• 17:19
  Arturo Sandoval: That really corroborated that I have no choice.
• 17:25
  Arturo Sandoval: I have to leave the country and do my career somewhere else where the people respect whatever you want In general, because I always said that the most important word in any dictionary, any language, is the word freedom.
• 17:41
  Arturo Sandoval: I always say no freedom, no life, because I can talk about, because I experience both things.
• 17:50
  Arturo Sandoval: You know, without freedom I'm with freedom.
• 17:53
  Arturo Sandoval: Since I came to this country, our life changed 100%, 100%.
• 17:59
  Arturo Sandoval: We cannot even compare.
• 18:03
  Arturo Sandoval: And I'm grateful that I live in the United States because in 35 years I never have any problem at all.
• 18:10
  Arturo Sandoval: I say what I want, I play what I want, I do whatever I want.
• 18:14
  Arturo Sandoval: If you respect the law and do the right things, you're never going to have problems.
• 18:20
  Arturo Sandoval: People respect your freedom over here and that's the most important thing for me.
• 18:25
  Arturo Sandoval: And then I've been extremely blessed and lucky because since I got here I got so many opportunities and recognition.
• 18:35
  Arturo Sandoval: I got 30 nominations, 11 Grammys, I got a Presidential Medal of Freedom.
• 18:42
  Arturo Sandoval: I got a Kennedy Center Honor, which is two of the most prestigious awards of recognition from the US.
• 18:50
  Arturo Sandoval: You know, to a civilian, and then I shouldn't complain.
• 18:55
  Arturo Sandoval: The only thing I feel in my heart, in my brain, is gratefulness.
• 18:59
  Arturo Sandoval: I I extremely grateful for everything that happened to us in this 35 years I can only imagine.
• 19:07
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I mean you've.
• 19:08
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: You've been through a lot, for sure, but you've also paid your dues and you've done excellent work here, so you deserved it.
• 19:16
  Arturo Sandoval: Every award that you've received has been well earned but to be honest, I think I deserve everything I got in life because of my attitude, my, my passion, my dedication, my discipline.
• 19:31
  Arturo Sandoval: I never touch any drugs at all zero.
• 19:35
  Arturo Sandoval: I don't even drink alcohol.
• 19:37
  Arturo Sandoval: I don't drink anything.
• 19:39
  Arturo Sandoval: I drink espresso, coffee.
• 19:41
  Arturo Sandoval: I've had more cigars since I was 14 years old.
• 19:44
  Arturo Sandoval: Never affect me.
• 19:45
  Arturo Sandoval: I never have any problem.
• 19:50
  Arturo Sandoval: Health problem at all zero.
• 19:52
  Arturo Sandoval: But I've been serious about my career.
• 19:55
  Arturo Sandoval: But I've been serious about my career and as a human.
• 19:57
  Arturo Sandoval: Next month we're going to celebrate, my wife and me, a 50th wedding anniversary.
• 20:05
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Oh, congratulations.
• 20:07
  Arturo Sandoval: Yeah, we got married in 75.
• 20:09
  Arturo Sandoval: Our son was born in 76.
• 20:11
  Arturo Sandoval: He's 49 years old.
• 20:13
  Arturo Sandoval: He's doing a wonderful career.
• 20:19
  Arturo Sandoval: He's graphic artist.
• 20:20
  Arturo Sandoval: He got a company uh, pharrell william, the famous pharrell william 16 years ago, but the 33 percent of his company.
• 20:27
  Arturo Sandoval: They've been partnered for 16 years.
• 20:29
  Arturo Sandoval: He got 60 movies in netflix, wow, and produced and made from him.
• 20:35
  Arturo Sandoval: From him, yeah, everything it's animation movies for kids.
• 20:42
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: That's great.
• 20:43
  Arturo Sandoval: You know his wife, my daughter-in-law, is my manager for many, many years.
• 20:49
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Oh wow, I love that so much.
• 20:52
  Arturo Sandoval: And by the way, my son and his wife.
• 20:56
  Arturo Sandoval: They just finished producing my new album.
• 21:01
  Arturo Sandoval: It's going to be out in November.
• 21:04
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Wonderful, and what's that album called?
• 21:07
  Arturo Sandoval: Got a special name.
• 21:08
  Arturo Sandoval: I got to tell you we were listening to one of the tunes after we recorded and I said wow, that sound good.
• 21:15
  Arturo Sandoval: And then they look each other, they laugh and they wrote it down S-A-N-G-U with the accent and they was laughing and said what's the matter?
• 21:31
  Arturo Sandoval: I said no, what you say.
• 21:32
  Arturo Sandoval: He said what I say.
• 21:33
  Arturo Sandoval: I said that track sounds good.
• 21:36
  Arturo Sandoval: I said no, you say Sangu, and that's the name of the album.
• 21:43
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I am obsessed with that name.
• 21:45
  Arturo Sandoval: And the album is great.
• 21:47
  Arturo Sandoval: I cannot give you more details, but we just finished the mixing and mastering and everything and and it's they're working in the cover now, because we're going to be on vinyl only oh, wow going to be in all the in, in all those platforms they play music, but also we don't.
• 22:10
  Arturo Sandoval: They don't want to do CDs, going to do only vinyl.
• 22:14
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Very cool, very cool.
• 22:16
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah, you had said before, earlier in this interview, that the best word in the dictionary is freedom.
• 22:26
  Arturo Sandoval: Right, but I think you've also said that music is synonymous with freedom.
• 22:28
  Arturo Sandoval: It is.
• 22:28
  Arturo Sandoval: It is Especially when you jump to the stage and you feel absolutely free to play what you want and how you want.
• 22:36
  Arturo Sandoval: That's the only thing I ask.
• 22:39
  Arturo Sandoval: You know, Let me play and let me share what I really feel deep in my heart with the audience.
• 22:46
  Arturo Sandoval: That's what I want and that pleases my heart all the way through.
• 22:53
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And I think jazz itself, because of the improvisational nature, offers a freedom as well.
• 23:00
  Arturo Sandoval: Yeah, improvisation is the most important thing within jazz music because it's your creation in the moment.
• 23:11
  Arturo Sandoval: You know, it's very spontaneous and it's true, it's sincere, and it's your way to communicate and say what you want to say or what you want to share with the audience, you know, but when you feel the freedom of doing that, it's beautiful, beautiful.
• 23:29
  Arturo Sandoval: You feel the freedom of doing that, it's beautiful, beautiful.
• 23:34
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Absolutely.
• 23:35
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I wanted to ask, having been on the other side of oppression and having lived in Cuba and not been able to perform the music that you wanted to perform, do you have any concerns for artists today who might be facing that kind of oppression, or any advice that you might give to someone who's trying to fight against that?
• 23:57
  Arturo Sandoval: Of course, of course I'm sorry about whoever is suffering the same situation, of course, and Cuba is in my heart, you know, because I was born and raised and I left the island when I could, but I was 40 years old.
• 24:14
  Arturo Sandoval: I could, but I was 40 years old, which means I spent 40 years of my life in my country, you know.
• 24:21
  Arturo Sandoval: But I think I shouldn't go to the point to give advice to those people what to do, because I don't want to encourage anything that they don't feel within their soul.
• 24:39
  Arturo Sandoval: You know, it has to be your necessity.
• 24:41
  Arturo Sandoval: It's a very personal decision that nobody could influence in your way of thinking, you know, and I don't want to go to that point.
• 24:53
  Arturo Sandoval: But I did, what I never regret, of course, I'm glad that I did it.
• 24:59
  Arturo Sandoval: The only thing I'm sorry I couldn't do before because, as I told you, my son is 49 years old, I've been married and then I refused to leave the island and left my wife and son back.
• 25:14
  Arturo Sandoval: I never thought about it.
• 25:17
  Arturo Sandoval: I said no way, I have to wait until the conditions and everything.
• 25:21
  Arturo Sandoval: And then the thing is that the Cuban dictatorship made a mistake, a terrible mistake, that they gave us special, very, very special permission to my wife and son to come to Europe and spend a couple of weeks with me.
• 25:39
  Arturo Sandoval: That was the opportunity we was looking for years, and then, of course, we took it.
• 25:46
  Arturo Sandoval: Absolutely oh yeah, it's nothing funny, nothing comfortable when you have to leave your own country.
• 25:52
  Arturo Sandoval: You know it's nothing comfortable when you have to leave your own country.
• 25:55
  Arturo Sandoval: You know it's something terrible.
• 25:57
  Arturo Sandoval: There's nothing nice about that, but for us it was a necessity.
• 26:03
  Arturo Sandoval: We didn't have another choice.
• 26:06
  Arturo Sandoval: You know, if we stay here, our life is going to be completely frustrated and all our ambition and ideas and passion and things we don't want to be able to accomplish any of those things.
• 26:19
  Arturo Sandoval: And then it was like a real necessity.
• 26:24
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: You know, of course, and sometimes we're faced with those tough decisions in life.
• 26:28
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: It doesn't mean that you don't love your homeland, of course you do, and sometimes you have to do what's best for you and your family, and for you that was to come to the US yeah, but I have to be sincere in the way this country treat me and appreciate what I do and all the things you cannot compare, because my experience in Cuba was horrible, horrible.
• 26:50
  Arturo Sandoval: I never got, I never felt appreciation of my effort at all.
• 26:54
  Arturo Sandoval: For example, I never was invited to teach or give a master class or a clinic or anything.
• 27:02
  Arturo Sandoval: And since I get out of Cuba I have been doing that all over the world and mainly in the most important conservatories of music, you know, like Berkeley, and even in the most important conservatories of music, you know, like Berkeley, and even in Moscow, the Tchaikovsky, moscow England Conservatory, paris Conservatory of Music, all the major conservatories of music.
• 27:24
  Arturo Sandoval: I did master classes and in Cuba they never invite me or never gave me the opportunity to do those things amongst all things you know.
• 27:36
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Well, personally I'm so grateful that the US and the rest of the world has embraced you in a way that, unfortunately, cuba hadn't, but I do think that in there you did give some really wonderful advice, which is just to follow your own heart, whatever that may be.
• 27:53
  Arturo Sandoval: Absolutely.
• 27:53
  Arturo Sandoval: And you also are going to tell you something Even this year I didn't have opportunity in Cuba.
• 27:58
  Arturo Sandoval: I never stopped practicing and when I came to New York in June 78 for the first time, the only thing I can guarantee you is I was prepared for that.
• 28:09
  Arturo Sandoval: I was ready for that because I was practicing like crazy.
• 28:13
  Arturo Sandoval: Prepare for that, I was ready for that because I was practicing like crazy.
• 28:17
  Arturo Sandoval: You know, I was 26 years old, of course, 27 years old and no, I'm sorry, 78.
• 28:22
  Arturo Sandoval: Yeah, I was 27 years old and now I'm 76.
• 28:29
  Arturo Sandoval: You know, it's a big transformation.
• 28:31
  Arturo Sandoval: I don't even look alike you don't look a day over 40.
• 28:36
  Arturo Sandoval: Oh, my goodness, yeah, 76.
• 28:38
  Arturo Sandoval: I was born in 49.
• 28:39
  Arturo Sandoval: And the thing is, god sometimes gives you the privilege and honor to get some special opportunity.
• 28:52
  Arturo Sandoval: But my advice is you have to be ready for that when that opportunity arises, be ready to do your best and really take that opportunity very seriously and do your best and maybe the result is's gonna be good after that because you did the effort, you know you did the job, the work to get prepared.
• 29:23
  Arturo Sandoval: Don't let a good opportunity surprise you and you're not in good shape.
• 29:30
  Arturo Sandoval: That's something you're gonna regret for the rest of your life.
• 29:35
  Arturo Sandoval: If you're ready, maybe that opportunity is going to change your life.
• 29:40
  Arturo Sandoval: And I remember when we played at Coney Hall, the review on the New York Times the day after was unbelievable, unbelievable.
• 29:51
  Arturo Sandoval: And that's good.
• 29:54
  Arturo Sandoval: When you play in a country for the very first time and the day after one of the major newspapers make a wonderful review, that's a good beginning.
• 30:04
  Arturo Sandoval: You know that's a good beginning for later opportunities.
• 30:10
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Discipline and consistency, like you said before, is so important.
• 30:14
  Arturo Sandoval: Absolutely In any career, not only in music, in any career.
• 30:18
  Arturo Sandoval: You know, when God gives you an opportunity, for example, to have a job, you don't have a main profession or something and you are cleaning a place and the owner or a manager or something sees your attitude in the way you're doing so well, you know, with dedication and things, maybe they're gonna offer you a grade.
• 30:44
  Arturo Sandoval: You know they're gonna offer you a different position and maybe you became the next manager of the place and then you save a little money and maybe in the future you buy that place that you start cleaning.
• 30:59
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yes.
• 31:00
  Arturo Sandoval: It's up to you, you know.
• 31:01
  Arturo Sandoval: It's up to you, your attitude and your you know.
• 31:06
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: For sure, for sure.
• 31:08
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I have a selfish question to ask you, just because I'm curious what was it like to have Andy Garcia play you in a movie?
• 31:14
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I have a selfish question to ask you just because I'm curious what was it?
• 31:17
  Arturo Sandoval: like to have Andy Garcia play you in a movie.
• 31:20
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I think it was a good choice.
• 31:21
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: You ended up liking the movie the way it came out.
• 31:24
  Arturo Sandoval: Absolutely, of course.
• 31:25
  Arturo Sandoval: You know they hired me in the beginning to write the score.
• 31:29
  Arturo Sandoval: By the way, I won the Emmy with the score.
• 31:33
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yes.
• 31:34
  Arturo Sandoval: Yeah, but they also hired me as a consultant to be sure that the script and the whole thing was according to a real life, you know.
• 31:47
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I'm glad.
• 31:48
  Arturo Sandoval: Yeah, yeah, and Andy did.
• 31:51
  Arturo Sandoval: Everybody who worked in the movie, even the staff, the director, the producers and the actors.
• 31:59
  Arturo Sandoval: Everybody did an incredible job and this is the only project in my life I got 48 albums and that's the only project in my life that every single critic or review or something has been to the top Unbelievable.
• 32:20
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: That's the only one really.
• 32:22
  Arturo Sandoval: I swear to God, because sometimes you do an album and you got a bunch of people like it, some people that are a little so-so, and some people are apathetic or they don't like it as much.
• 32:35
  Arturo Sandoval: You know, in every, every project, because to please everyone is impossible yeah that's true in in any profession or anything, please, everyone.
• 32:46
  Arturo Sandoval: It's impossible.
• 32:47
  Arturo Sandoval: The people, some people, always complain about this or they're not agree or they don't like some things, and you know you have to be prepared for that.
• 32:58
  Arturo Sandoval: But in case of the movie, oh my goodness, everything I read about or something, everybody loved and respected the movie and that was a beautiful thing, because everybody has a story to tell.
• 33:12
  Arturo Sandoval: You know, hbo decided to tell our story and the people embrace and appreciate it and like it.
• 33:20
  Arturo Sandoval: It's good because that's going to be a kind of testimony that's going to be there for generations in our family to come.
• 33:29
  Arturo Sandoval: You know it's nice.
• 33:31
  Arturo Sandoval: They got that testimony of how we came to the country, how much we were struggling before the whole process.
• 33:40
  Arturo Sandoval: You know it's good to have that kind of testimony, you know absolutely.
• 33:46
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I mean I had to ask that question because I guess it's always been a fantasy of mine.
• 33:49
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I wonder what it would be like if somebody made a movie about my life so you watch.
• 33:54
  Arturo Sandoval: Did you watch the movie, did you?
• 33:56
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I've watched.
• 33:57
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So before this interview I watched half of it.
• 33:59
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I still have to finish it.
• 34:00
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I'm not gonna lie.
• 34:01
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I have to get to the end of it now but it was beautiful watch it, you're gonna like it.
• 34:06
  Arturo Sandoval: You're gonna like it.
• 34:07
  Arturo Sandoval: It's very well.
• 34:08
  Arturo Sandoval: The story was very well presented, you know, and Andy especially did an incredible acting.
• 34:19
  Arturo Sandoval: You know mimic playing the trumpet, all those things.
• 34:22
  Arturo Sandoval: He did an incredible job.
• 34:24
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Did you have to teach him?
• 34:25
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Did he learn a little bit of the trumpet?
• 34:27
  Arturo Sandoval: Actually, no, I'm going to tell you a good friend of mine.
• 34:30
  Arturo Sandoval: He was a principal of the Hollywood Ball Orchestra because I was living in Miami at that time.
• 34:35
  Arturo Sandoval: Now I live in LA for the last 16 years, but I was living in Miami.
• 34:39
  Arturo Sandoval: That gentleman, he is a very dear friend.
• 34:45
  Arturo Sandoval: He was helping him with all the things you know.
• 34:48
  Arturo Sandoval: And then when we started shooting the movie, one of my students in the University of Miami was his Andy shadow.
• 34:59
  Arturo Sandoval: You know.
• 34:59
  Arturo Sandoval: He was with him full time, helping him to put the fingers in the right way, to put the position in the mouth, all those kind of details you know.
• 35:10
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah.
• 35:11
  Arturo Sandoval: And the final result is amazing.
• 35:14
  Arturo Sandoval: A lot of people thought Andy was playing.
• 35:17
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah, when I was watching, I was noticing his fingers.
• 35:20
  Arturo Sandoval: Don't play the trumpet.
• 35:22
  Arturo Sandoval: He don't even know how to make a sound out of the trumpet.
• 35:26
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I did hear him give an interview that he has no idea how to play, but he convinced me, so he did what he was supposed to do.
• 35:33
  Arturo Sandoval: Yeah, yeah, yeah, he did a wonderful job.
• 35:36
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Great.
• 35:36
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Well, I look forward to finishing that movie, but I also look forward to seeing you at Rutgers in New Jersey on September 27th.
• 35:42
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah, is there anything you'd like to say to folks who are coming to see you in New Jersey?
• 35:47
  Arturo Sandoval: That's the only thing I want to say.
• 35:49
  Arturo Sandoval: Please come in, don't miss it.
• 35:51
  Arturo Sandoval: The band is kicking, the band is amazing.
• 35:57
  Arturo Sandoval: I so happy because I I'm positive that this is, at this moment, is my best band since 1981.
• 36:06
  Arturo Sandoval: I left it again in December 1980 and 81 the very beginning of 81, I put my own band together for the first time and then I started playing with my own band.
• 36:19
  Arturo Sandoval: I started traveling a lot, mainly to Europe, but since 81, at this moment it is my best band ever and very professional musician, very dedicated.
• 36:33
  Arturo Sandoval: My best band ever, very professional musician, very dedicated, very serious musician and I'm extremely happy with the band.
• 36:42
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: What a major compliment.
• 36:44
  Arturo Sandoval: I'll recommend that people don't miss the show, because it's some serious thing.
• 36:49
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Alright, listeners, you heard him guys.
• 36:51
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: This is the show to see.
• 36:52
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Well, I'm sold An evening of Latin jazz with the delightful Arturo Sandoval and his best band.
• 37:02
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yet how could I say no to that?
• 37:04
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: How could you?
• 37:05
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Sandoval will be at the Walter K Gordon Theatre at Rutgers University in Camden on September 27th at 7 pm.
• 37:14
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: For tickets and more information, be sure to visit gorutgersedu.
• 37:21
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: If you liked this episode, be sure to review, subscribe and tell your friends.
• 37:25
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: A transcript of this podcast, links relevant to the story and more about the arts in New Jersey can be found at jerseyartscom.
• 37:32
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: The Jersey Arts Podcast is presented by Art in New Jersey can be found at jerseyartscom.
• 37:34
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: The Jersey Arts Podcast is presented by Art Pride New Jersey, advancing a state of creativity since 1986.
• 37:39
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: The show was co-founded by and currently supported by funds from, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
• 37:44
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: This episode was hosted, edited and produced by me, Gina Marie Rodriguez.
• 37:49
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Executive producers are Jim Atkinson and Isaac Serna-Diez, and my thanks, of course, to Mr Arturo Sandoval for speaking with me today.
• 37:58
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I'm Gina Marie Rodriguez for the Jersey Arts Podcast.
• 38:01
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Thanks for listening.