This week on Saturday Jazz Caliente, we'll hear part of a suite written by percussionist Samuel Torres and dedicated to the victims of violence in his native Columbia. Also, from composer/arranger/educator Socrates Garcia's project Back Home, a selection in remembrance of three sisters who were assassinated in 1960 for their actions against the Dominican Republic's bloodiest dictator, Rafael Trujillo.
Columbian-born percussionist Samuel Torres recieved his first Chamber Music America New Jazz Works grant in 2012. He used it to develop a 10-movement suite addressing the violence in Columbia caused by the drug cartels, guerillas, paramilitary groups, and the national army. "Most people are afraid to talk about it, because they are scared of the repercussions," he says. Those who suffer most are the Afro-Columbian communites, and it is to them that he dedicates this suite called Forced Displacement. We'll hear "El Orgullo del Tambor (The Drum's Pride)" from the suite on Saturday's show.
Socrates Garcia's album Back Home presents a combination of Afro-Dominican and Afro-Caribbean styles performed by a contemporary jazz orchestra. The piece we'll hear on Saturday Jazz Caliente is "Celebration of the Butterflies," a reference to the four Mirabal sisters who actively resisted the brutality and terrorism of dictator Rafael Trujillo. The 1994 novel In the Time of the Butterflies and the 2001 movieof the same name tell their story.
Three of the sisters were assassinated on November 25, 1960. In 1999, the United Nations General Assembly designated November 25 as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
Jazz Caliente airs Saturdays at 5:00 p.m. The show is hosted by Robin Lloyd and produced by KNKX Public Radio.
