As founder of the Latin jazz groups Afro-Cuban All Stars and Buena Vista Social Club, famed bandleader, performer and now Montgomery Fellow Juan de Marcos Gonzlez embodies Cuban music like few other people -- and yet he almost never became a professional musician.
Gonzlez, who follows Sheryl Crow as the second Montgomery Fellowship in the pop culture series "Making Movies, Making Music," spoke with The Dartmouth about his passion for music and the winding career path he has followed.
"My father was a professional musician. He always said, 'to be a musician is not to have a career.' He never wanted me to be a musician," Gonzlez said.
This admonition did not stop the young Gonzlez from following in his father's footsteps, but another incident almost did.
As a teenager, Gonzlez was right on track to becoming a professional musician, studying classical guitar at the conservatory in Havana.
Gonzlez recounts his first foray into the musical world as the band he formed at that time, called Sierra Maestra.
"We decided we were going to go against all the rules," he said. "We used to play traditional Cuban music but we dressed like punks -- it was a big success in Cuba."
Unfortunately, authorities at his conservatory did not approve of his musical tastes -- Gonzlez listened to American rock and roll, including acts like the Rolling Stones, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Santana. When he was caught playing rock and roll instead of classical music by Mozart and Beethoven, he was dismissed from school.
"This was good news for my father," Gonzlez said. "I had to go to high school and then to the university, to major in civil engineering."
During this interlude, Gonzlez stayed involved with music by keeping with the practice of composing new songs. Then, in 1990, he decided to return to the life from which his father had tried to steer him away.
Shortly after, Gonzlez followed a dream which he formed more than ten years before -- a band that would cut across generational boundaries and unite Cuban musicians from the 1940s and 1950s with Cuban musicians of today.
The concrete embodiment of this idea was realized when Gonzlez formed the Afro-Cuban All Stars, a 13-piece Latin jazz ensemble.
"I went to find the most important musicians still alive and capable of playing," Gonzlez said, explaining that he was familiar enough with the Cuban music scene to know who he wanted in the band.
Band members include singer Ibrahim Ferrer, who is 73, and pianist Ruben Gonzlez, who is 81. The youngest member of the group is percussionist prodigy Julienne Sanchez, who was born in 1982.
"There are no temporal boundaries to the music," Gonzlez said. "Everyone has the right to express themselves."
From this group, Gonzlez drew several members to join the Buena Vista Social Club, the focus of the Academy Award-nominated 1998 movie "The Buena Vista Social Club."
Both these groups are exclusively acoustic, utilizing instruments like trumpets, trombones, piano, vocalists, and multiple traditional Cuban percussion instruments.
Gonzlez certainly does not mind instruments like synthesizers, but he expresses lukewarm feelings toward many contemporary Latin acts like Ricky Martin and Jennifer Lopez.
"Ricky Martin is a rare phenomenon. For me, he is not a great musician, but he has charm," Gonzlez said. "He is alright if you like him, but I don't think he is something great from a musical point of view."
He expressed similar sentiments toward Jennifer Lopez, calling her, "an actress, not a singer."
However, Gonzlez took a surprisingly different stance toward pop artist Marc Anthony, labeling him "excellent," and "first-class."
In general, though, pop artists today are not as talented as they were in the sixties and seventies, Gonzlez said.
"Music is music, show is show. If you are playing music, you are playing music. You can use the show, but before the show is the music."
Speaking of Ricky Martin as a "myth created by big companies," Gonzlez also spoke frankly about the documentary "Buena Vista Social Club."
Referring to the movie, Gonzlez said, "It isn't accurate ... Personally, I don't like it at all -- it is a myth. But you have to create a myth, it's a marketing problem," although adding that the movie did help sell more albums.
Gonzlez's future plans include the establishment of his own record label, which will be called "A Hora," and the production of a dance album using the types of drums used by the Afro-Cuban All Stars.
Explaining the popularity of Latin music in the US, Gonzlez said, "America is the biggest market in the world and it's a natural market for Cuban music. It was always a natural market for Cuban music."
Gonzlez will speak about the reemergence of Latin music's popularity today at 5 p.m. in Loew Auditorium at the Hopkins Center.
A screening of "Buena Vista Social Club" will be shown at 3 p.m.
