|
|
|
|
Café Bellas Artes
honors Roberto Ocasio
By Arooj Ashraf, La
Prensa Correspondent
It was a night to celebrate music, and honor the memory of a
beloved friend whose musical legacy is exposing a new generation
to the sounds and passion of Latin jazz.
|
 |
|
Five years ago, eleven Latino artists collaborated on a vibrant
mural to celebrate Roberto Ocasio’s life. The 20 by 6 ft. mural
has a permanent home at Cleveland State University’s
Waetjen Lobby where Café Bellas Artes and CSU’s Office of
Diversity & Multicultural Affairs hosted a free reception and
concert on June 12, 2009.
“This mural represents unity,” said artist Salvador González.
“Artists have big egos but we all came together for Roberto to
create this,” he said. The artists: María de Jesús Paz,
Augusto
Bordelois, Bruno Casiano, Alejandro Rivera, Dante
Rodríguez, Linda Ayala, Joe Ayala, Rafaél Valdivieso, Mario
Kujawski, Carlos Alvares, Hector Castellanos-Lara, and
Angelica Pozo
hail from different Latin American countries, with different
artistic expertise but unified the mural to represent Ocasio’s
relentless efforts in composing and playing his music.
|
|
González began Café Bellas Artes as a project of Cleveland
Museum of Art as a venue for Latinos to showcase culture,
arts, and tradition in Spanish and English with the greater
community. He has since retired and returned to México to run a
bed and breakfast, but the Café Bellas Artes continues to meet
the second Friday of every month to explore Latin dances (salsa,
merengue, and so forth), music, poetry, and arts.
A unique session included showcasing of a Middle Ages European
guitar and how it has evolved into various related instruments,
for example, like the cuatro of Puerto Rico.
Roberto Ocasio Latin Jazz Project
performed at Drinko Hall, accompanied by New York-based
percussionist, Bobby Sanabría, a Berkeley College
classmate and lifelong friend of Ocasio’s. |
Roberto Ocasio |
|
Sanabría is also the Artist-in-Resident instructor for the
Roberto Ocasio Latin Jazz Music Camp.
The four-day camp is scheduled for July 12-17, 2009, at
Baldwin Wallace College Conservatory of Music. The camp is
open to Middle and High School students and the curriculum
exposes participants to bossa nova and Brazilian jazz as well as
mambo/salsa, and evening jam sessions with professional artists.
|
|
Bev Montie,
manager of the Roberto Ocasio Foundation, said the camp
attracts participants from as far as Detroit and Ann Arbor and
interest has grown in the past five years. With the help of
private donations the foundation is able to provide scholarships
to defer the $500 tuition.
In the Arooj
Ashraf photo on the top of this article are artist Salvador
González and Roberto Chávez of CSU.
For more information on the Foundation visit:
www.robertoocasiofoundation.org |
Bobby Sanabría |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
