San Francisco/Bay Area Salsa & Latin Jazz: Interviews: Orlando 'Maraca' Valle

Orlando 'Maraca' Valle:
Su Visión

Orlando 'Maraca' Valle is not easy to catch up with. Either at rehearsal, recording or touring, the Cuban flute maestro is busy. After one vigorous rehearsal in Habana, Maraca found a little time to sit and talk.

Q: Tell us a little bit about your history.
Maraca: My history is quite short. I started to study music for thirteen years back in ’77 in Havana. I studied classical music, mainly the flute the whole time. Then in ’87 I went to Panama to perform.Ten years later, in ’87, I started as a professional. At first with Bobby Carrcases. Then I played with Emiliano Salvador, the pianist, for a while. Then I was with Irakere for six years and now I’ve been with my group, "Maraca y su Orto Vision" for five years. That’s my history up until now.

Q: Are you always writing music?
Maraca: There isn’t much time. I spend the day making music. Just writing with my group alone, I have played approximately 150 songs of mine–everything, arrangements. For instance, right now I’m preparing for a show celebrating the 60^th anniversary of "Teatro América," which is a theater that was made almost identical to one that exists in New York, they even have photographs of it. This one is sixty years old and they will have a show every day and we’ll close the event on Saturday with "Maraca." There I’ll have artists whom you are a fan of, like Tata Güines, Aramis, Mayito Rivera, Los Papines, Muñequitos de Matanza, Beatriz Marques, a theater dance troupe and other surprises. And then, of course, my group performing the whole repertoire where there will be surprising moments and the strangest thing is that the concert begins in the theater and it ends on the street. It doesn’t end at the theater. That’s what I’m planning for the tour we’ll be doing. We are going to be on tour from March 28 to April 18 in Europe: Holland, France, Switzerland and Germany. Starting April 19 to April 30 we’ll be in the U.S., May first through the 12^th in Europe: France, England and Ireland.

Q: When will you be visiting us in the Bay Area?
Maraca:We’ll be there later because at the end of May, between May and June, we’ll be in Costa Rica, from June 6 through the 17, back in the U.S. June 18 through the 30^th in France and July 13^th through the 22^nd back in the U.S. Then we’ll be in your home. Of course we’ll be performing at Yoshi’s, I think for the fifth time now.

Q: Are you currently working on a new recording?
Maraca:I’m working on another project, but what’s still selling is "Descarga Total". The video for it turned out really well. There’s a video that they play on H-TV and they play it a lot.

Q: How are CD sales going?
Maraca:The U.S. is going well, Europe is going well and the video is giving it a big push, but it’s very new–it’s not even a month old.

Q: Are you satisfied with the music you are producing?
Maraca:Being satisfied with music is difficult. It’s difficult because one always has new interests; one is always growing. We have already done two recordings with the company and we plan to do one more. There are always plans to work on other projects, to make more records, more groups, to bring new music.

For instance, right now I have a new bass player whose name is Vivico, from Pinat del Rio, he’s excellent. Also, a well-respected saxophone player in Cuba, Pepe Díaz, is a man with a great deal of experience, a lot of talent and we’ll do the show with that. We have some new material like a Rumba by los Muñequitos de Matanza, which we are taking to Yoshi’s. Also a Conga that ends up out on the street or on stage, depending.

Q: What can you tell me about work with Amadito Valdez?
Maraca:I just finished recording a project with Amadito Valdez. I made a composition, an arrangement, a composition of mine called "Celine's Blues." That’ll also be debuting at Yoshi’s. There are many new things. A number of mine, which has been out for five, six years, was recorded on my first CD and has been in high demand from everyone, so I have taken it up again. I’m playing it now. It’s called "Presentación". We haven’t played that piece much. We have played it a lot in Japan. I’m also writing a lot of music and I have projects in mind. There’s one with "El Indio," Manolito Simonet’s singer, who is one of the guests for the festival happening on the 24^th, but I’m also finishing up a recording with him. A record in which he is the soloist and for which I was musical director, composer and worked on the arrangements–a very complete record. It has music by many composers like Bienvenido Juan Gutiérrez and Benny Moré, which means it has a lot of boleros and orchestral pieces.

Q: You are also a guest with another group…
Maraca:Yes, this year there are some prospects to work on something else in addition to working with my group. I think there’s a tour being organized with a band called the "Afro-Cuban Jazz Project," which I also direct. I’m trying to find available dates that won’t clash with us, because as you saw, we have a lot of dates taken up for concerts with "Maraca y su Orto Vision." I’m also putting together a project that could be keeping us busy. A completely different kind of project, but not completely Cuban. It’s an invention, more like Cuban-American-Brazilian, something along those lines.

Q: Well, music is music and where it comes from doesn’t matter.
Maraca: With "Maraca y su Orto Vision" we want to make the new CD. We are working on that.

Q: And around when will that be done?
Maraca:We’re thinking of recording in October, so it would probably be ready in January. January, February, March, April, depending on the demand, depending on the moment they choose to release it. There are commercial politics at play because "Descarga Total" is selling well and they don’t want to stop it, they want to leave it for a while. They also have it in Europe, Warner Bros. has it out there doing well.

Q: Any other projects?
Maraca:I forgot to mention that in January I made a record with one of my brothers. I have four brothers who are musicians. Two of them live in Japan–the oldest and the youngest. The youngest, whom you met, Luis the trumpet player, came and recorded a CD. I made half of the arrangements and compositions for that project, he did the other half and I organized the project. We found musicians, rehearsed and recorded. We had musicians from "Clave y Guaguancó," I had musicians from my group and other people. He recorded all the trombones, trumpets and many sang, including my father; it’s an excellent CD. I have it with me so I can play it for you to hear it. There are some songs on there which are mine and I plan to keep them in mind. Like a cha cha chá called "Don’t You Jive" and another one called "Te Invitan", which has a trumpet dialogue at the end. This year we’ve made changes to our repertoire that you’ll notice and enjoy. Surprises.