In December 2014, when the U.S. and Cuba announced that they would restore diplomatic relations, UConn string bass instructor Gregg August heard the news not stateside but on the island itself. He was in Havana recording the album \u201cCuba: The Conversation Continues,\u201d as bassist for Arturo O\u2019Farrill\u2019s Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra. One of the tracks he played on that album was \u201cThe Afro Latin Jazz Suite,\u201d an energetic four-part work that would go on to earn O\u2019Farrill a 2016 Grammy Award for instrumental composition.<\/p>\n
August, who has been traveling to Cuba for the past 15 years to play jazz, vividly remembers the night the news was announced. \u201cNothing will compare to having experienced first-hand what was happening,\u201d he says. “It was an amazing thing.”<\/p>\n
Growing up in Schenectady, N.Y., August was surrounded by music. His father, who played piano, and his mother enjoyed listening to jazz and rhythmic music. He played drums in high school and his music teachers were his father\u2019s sister, who taught piano, and her husband, who taught bass, the instrument he would eventually turn to in college.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey always had music on in the house,\u201d he recalls. \u201cMy parents were listening to all kinds of music, especially jazz and R&B: Cannonball Adderly (with Nancy Wilson), Bill Evans, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Sergio Mendez. There were even classical records, like Glenn Gould playing Bach. I remember getting Earth Wind and Fire and Stevie Wonder records for Christmas. I didn\u2019t hear Latin music as a kid, but I think I developed a certain sensibility for it through listening to Chick Corea\u2019s music; his music always has that Spanish thing, those kinds of rhythms.\u201d<\/p>\n
He says he experienced a \u201cnatural gravitation\u201d to Latin music because of his background in percussion and bass, the core of a band\u2019s rhythm section.<\/p>\n
August received his bachelor\u2019s in bass at The Eastman School of Music, earned his master\u2019s from The Juilliard School before spending time as principal bass with La Orquesta Ciutat de Barcelona in Spain and freelancing as a jazz bassist in Paris. He says he returned to New York City because he knew he had to be there in order to grow as a jazz musician, and he missed the opportunity to play a wide variety of music. Over the years he has performed with percussionist Ray Barretto, The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, The Brooklyn Philharmonic, saxophonist Ornette Coleman, American Composer\u2019s Orchestra and saxophonist Paquito D\u2019Rivera, among others, before becoming a member of the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, which plays Sunday nights at Birdland in New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that we can play every Sunday at Birdland, there\u2019s nothing like it,\u201d he says of his work with Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra. \u201cYou have to show up, get your sound right. I feel very lucky to have that the last four or five years.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the past 12 years August also has been involved with Bang on a Can, an experimental music organization in New York, which conducts a summer festival at Mass Moca, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in the Berkshire Mountains.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt allows me to tap into what they\u2019re doing. It\u2019s not jazz and is kind of outside my world, which is very good because it expands your thinking. I go there for three weeks every summer and they encourage original music,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
August says that before recording \u201cThe Afro Latin Jazz Suite,\u201d in which his bass is prominent and helps to drive the rhythm section, O\u2019Farrill had a specific bass line for one of the movements. However once in the studio, the composer told him to ignore the score and just play.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Latin music in general, unless you\u2019re playing figures with the band, the bass will be allowed to do its thing,\u201d August says. \u201cYou have to really do your homework on what the bass it expected to do in specific grooves.<\/p>\n
Being able to work both in classical music and jazz is one of the reasons he was drawn to UConn, where he teaches students in both genres.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t find that anywhere else,\u201d he says of his weekly teaching schedule in Storrs. \u201cI pretty much bring in students and focus on classical bass. If they want to play jazz, they still have to know the bass. I found a certain comfort zone here. The level [of musicianship] is getting better, which keeps you going. It\u2019s more stimulating with the students.\u201d<\/p>\n
August is having a busy year. In addition to his teaching and work with the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, he is arranging piano quintet compositions for a Lincoln Center project with Holland Cruise Lines, working on a project with the Shanghai Pops and recently completed a recording as part of his work with the JD Allen Trio. In late May, he will join the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra at the historic Apollo Theater in Harlem to perform a new work by O\u2019Farrill, \u201cThe Cornel West Concerto,\u201d and in June he will head to Japan for a tour with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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