LYNNWOOD — His feet stomped. He clapped his hands and thrust them in the air.
“That was the moment!” he yelled.
The band stopped and lowered their instruments. He was looking for a fuller sound, a sharper pop to the notes.
They tried again.
The students were learning to play Latin music composed by the greats, such as Tito Puente and Eddie Palmieri.
John Sanders instructs a jazz and salsa band at Edmonds Community College. The band of 18 is raising $44,000 to attend the Fiesta Del Tambor, or the Festival of the Drum, in Havana, Cuba. The weeklong event memorializes legendary Cuban drummer Guillermo Barreto.
In 2014, Sanders received a grant to take a professional sabbatical. He spent four months in San Juan, Puerto Rico, studying salsa piano composition and arranging. The catch was he had to start his own Latin jazz and salsa music curriculum at the college.
The program was officially up and running in the fall of 2014.
One of Sanders’ mentors, Memo Acevedo, is a Colombian-born drummer and percussionist living in New York. He has taken students on tours of Cuba in the past, and offered to take Sanders and the band.
The group of students began coming up with a strategy how best to fund their trip.
The band performed at a concert Nov. 3 featuring singer Carlos Cascante. More than $27,000 has been pulled together between ticket sales, online donations, grants, scholarships and the band’s annual budget.
Their biannual salsa dance been scheduled for Jan. An instructor plans to teach people the basics of salsa dancing while the band performs.
To Sanders’ knowledge, these students would be in the first American community college band to visit Havana.
He hopes they “absorb the rhythm and feel of Cuban culture.”
Sean Thompson, 23, a bassist, played jazz and classical music in high school. He had no prior experience with salsa.
But now, he’s hooked.
“(Salsa) is all based around dancing,” Thompson said. “It’s all one composite of feeling.”
Another student, Red Gill, 35, has been a guitarist for 20 years.
He likes to play Ella Fitzgerald tunes in smoky dives. His fiance sings with him as a duo called the Scarlet Lovers.
Gill said he dabbles in different genres, such as funk, disco and rock, to keep his interest piqued.
It took him a day to pick up the rhythm of salsa.
Learning Latin American musical styles can be compared to learning to read, Sanders said. His students don’t learn by reading dots on a page. They listen and repeat.
This March, the students hope for the chance to emulate the masters.
“They will be forever changed musically,” Sanders said.
He visited Cuba in August in preparation for the trip in March. The instructor visited musicians, traveled around Havana and observed a culture vastly different from what he’s used to.
He wants his students to take away more than just musical inspiration from this trip.
The U.S. and Cuba are at the start of rebuilding a relationship, Sanders said. “They will have an impact on Cubans. That’s part of this project.”
During his August trip, he spoke with people who had never met an American before. These encounters were challenging, he said.
The relationship is still strained, but he found a common ground in music.
“If you want two cultures to get along, put the artists together. Everybody grooves, everybody sings,” he said.
Not many people get to make that musical connection 3,000 miles away, Thompson said.
Caitlin Tompkins: 425-339-3192; ctompkins@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
Gallery
