Concert
XV Festival Internacional De Jazz Y Blues
Nicolas Bearde & Gabriel Hernández
Sun, Nov 29, 3pm
Hotel Real de Minas
Ancha de San Antonio
US$47 & $55

World players fuse jazz and R&B
By Cynthia Simmons

Nicolas Bearde A couple of years ago, at a dinner party, a friend played a CD that caught my ear, Nicolas Bearde’s All About Love. I lost the thread of the table talk while I listened to his rich baritone.

My love for his style of music developed, as a child, listening to Billy Eckstein, a balladeer who fused jazz with black popular music—a style that Lou Rawls, whose spirit Bearde conjures in his latest album Live at Yoshi’s—A Salute to Lou, reinterpreted for a later generation. I’d assumed I’d have to return to the States to hear him live, but the 15th Annual Jazz and Blues Festival is bringing Nicolas Bearde to San Miguel in concert with one of my favorite jazz pianists, Cuban-born Gabriel Hernández.

Nicolas grew up in rural Nashville, a music town, singing in church choirs and doo-wopping with his brothers and cousins. In high school, he was introduced to choral music, and had his first studio experience recording with the Von Dells. His first break came while he was in the Air Force, stationed outside Tokyo. He got a gig with a popular funk and soul band. After leaving the service, it took Nicolas a little time to find his sound. He worked with a high-energy top-40 band for three years before honing his jazz chops and becoming a regular at Pasand’s in San Francisco. A subsequent gig with Jazzmouth provided an introduction to Bobby McFerrin that reconnected Bearde with his love for choral music, and in 1986 he became one of the original members of Bobby’s improvisational, a cappella choir, Voicestra. While Nicolas worked with Bobby, he continued to polish his solo act.

In 1997, Bearde started Right Groove Records and began producing his own CDs. His first solo project, Crossing the Line, landed in the Top 10 on British Soul charts. His recent tribute to the legendary Lou Rawls has been picked up by radio in the UK, Poland, Macedonia, Switzerland, South Africa and Russia. Nicolas connected online with a promoter that books artists in Russia.

This year he toured Russia and Siberia for three weeks in February and returned in June for several performances in Moscow. In October, Russian jazz saxophonist Oleg Kireyev joined him in Oakland for a performance at Yoshi’s.

Bearde has performed in Brazil with Bobby McFerrin and Voicestra, but his appearance in San Miguel will be his first time in Latin America as a featured artist. In addition to his two appearances at the Jazz Festival—he’ll be featured, along with Laike Abe Zimmerman, Whitney Moore and Pila Seca in the Motown Tribute that closes the Festival on December 5—Nicolas will conduct a workshop, The Jazz Singer, for elementary and high school students in San Miguel.

I imagine it would be a pleasure hearing Nicolas anywhere, but in San Miguel I’ll get to hear him with virtuoso pianist, Gabriel Hernández. Gabriel was only 14, studying at the Luis Casas Romero Music Conservatory in Camagüey, Cuba, when world-renowned jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie chose him as a sideman for his performance at a local jazz festival. Gabriel, who was studying classical piano, hadn’t played jazz, but after gigging with Dizzy, it became his passion.

He continued his classical music studies for five years in the Soviet Union but started his jazz exploration when he returned to Cuba and landed a service project playing with guitarist and bandleader Pablo Menéndez. Gigs with Menéndez provided Gabriel an entrance point to the international music scene. After living and working in Spain and Hungary, he came to Mexico in 1992, where he sampled life in Cancun and Mexico City before settling in San Miguel.

Gabriel has shared the stage with musical greats that include Roy Hargrove, Jean Carter, Chucho Valdez, Tito Puente and Branford Marsalis. In October he started touring with the Afro-Cuban All Stars, a band that takes him back to his Cuban musical roots, led by Juan de Marcos, the visionary behind the Buena Vista Social Club albums. Currently they’re completing 18 performances in Canada, after performing in Asia, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. After his performance at the Jazz Festival, he’s headed for London, where he’ll be headlining several concerts.

Bassist Tyler Mitchell and drummer/percussionist Victor Monterrubio will complete Bearde’s rhythm. Hernández, Mitchell and Monterrubio, who frequently perform together, interact with fine precision. In Moscow, Your Leisure Magazine described Bearde as an artist “who takes it to the max.” With this trio behind him, I’m sure he’ll deliver the same in San Miguel.

Don’t miss the pre-concert cocktail hour/barbeque, which starts at 1:30pm.

This year’s Festival lineup includes an exciting group of international artists. The North Sea Coyotes, a group from Belgium, open for Nicolas on the November 29. The complete schedule can be found on the Festival’s website, www.sanmigueljazz.com. 

Cynthia Simmons is a writer and arts development consultant living in San Miguel. Her website is www.cyntsim.com. For more information about the local jazz scene, check out her article for Jazz in San Miguel,   http://sanmiguelmagazine.com/JazzinSM.html.