A Fitting Tribute to a Little-Known Cuban Music Great

A year after his death in Havana, the long, legendary life of Cuban pianist-composer Frank Emilio Flynn was celebrated at the Jazz Bakery on Monday night in a nonstop succession of fine Latin jazz groups.

It was a worthwhile recognition of an artist too little known in this country. Flynn, who died at 80 last year, participated in all the significant eras of Cuban popular music, from the descargas of the ‘30s through the sounds of the orquesta tipicas and into the rhythmic, improvisatory settings of Afro-Cuban jazz. He’s often been described as a kind of “one-man Buena Vista Social Club.”

Unfortunately, the program proceeded without one of the scheduled headliners: saxophonist Jane Bunnett, who had a schedule conflict that kept her from the gig. On the up side, players such as percussionist Juan “Long John” Oliva, pianist Paul de Castro, young Cuban pianist Fermin Sifontes, flutist Danilo Lozano and, especially, percussionist Bob Fernandez with the CSULA Latin Jazz Ensemble made for a thoroughly entertaining evening.

There was an odd kind of synchronicity between the Flynn celebration and the Sweet & Hot Music Festival of the past weekend. Both events acknowledged the firm connections between music and dance: swing and jitterbugging in the latter; Afro-Cuban rhythms and salsa in the former. And both events saw audience members unable to resist the temptation to get on their feet and move with the music.

The climax of the Flynn program featured Fernandez and the talented young players in the CSULA Latin Jazz Ensemble (directed by De Castro). There was powerful symbolism in the presence of these young artists, taking the music handed to them by Flynn and his contemporaries and moving it into the future. Open to new ideas--there were passages of striking, but fascinating dissonance--the CSULA ensemble also maintained firm contact with its Afro-Cuban roots.

And one suspects that had he heard the ensemble in action, Flynn--one of Latin jazz’s most important nurturing figures--would have been delighted that his efforts have produced such impressive, long-term results.