Oscar Hernandez on Grammys, Salsa, Jazz and the Spanish Harlem Orchestra - Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival

Grammy winning Pianist and bandleader Oscar Hernández with the Spanish Harlem Orchestra has had decades of musical experiences, including work with legends like Eddie Palmeri, Tito Puente and Celia Cruz (including a quick introduction on short notice trip to Toronto to accompany Celia Cruz when Hernández was just 21).

The Spanish Harlem Orchestra plays at the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival Saturday March 16 at 4:45pm at Highmark Stadium.

September 5, 2023

Scott Hanley – WZUM

We are joined by Oscar Hernandez, the pianist and leader of the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, otherwise known as the Satchmo, which is an institution

known in Latin jazz for two decades, including three Grammys and six nominations. Oscar, so glad to have you coming back to Pittsburgh. We'll talk a little bit about the band because you you are wide ranging. There are a lot of things that you do have unique salsa kind of vocals and things like that to it, but also some really swing and stuff, too. And you've worked with a lot of great jazz players and Latin players as a part of what you've done in the last 20 years.
 

Oscar Hernandez

Without a doubt. You know, as a young musician born and raised in the city of New York, I tell people that the education that I got in New York City in the seventies, playing with the incredible musicians that I was blessed and fortunate to play with, you couldn't pay for at the best university anywhere. So, for me, it was a blessing to be brought up in that era. And, you know, a lot of musicians, a lot of us have our ear to the ground in terms of what was happening in jazz and our ear to the ground, to all the great jazz players and the evolution of jazz. So it's been part of our education as well and part of our upbringing. Obviously, you know, part of the scene in those days was heavily dance dance influenced and, you know, the swing of the music is involved with making people dance and making people move. But nevertheless, again, as young musicians, we were always keen on what was happening in jazz and trying to incorporate those elements into what we were doing. And again, as a young musician, I was exposed to a lot of great, you know, jazz players that would come on the scene and and also jazz fans that I got a chance to play with early on in my career.

So, it's always been part of what I do. It's awesome to be able to put that on display at a jazz festival because they get the best of all worlds in terms of Spanish Harlem Orchestra. They listen to one of the top salsa dance bands. But at the same time, you know, the the highlight of the musicianship and, you know, the technical aspect of the band orchestrations, listening to the different sections between the three vocalists, the five piece horn section, the rhythm section, and how they interplay with each other is very special and is very much a highlight to people who are just listening as well as dancing. But to people who are just listening, they could certainly come away with an appreciation of the integrity and the value of the music.

WZUM
Now, as you work with younger musicians and veteran musicians, how do you manage to keep it tight and loose?

Oscar Hernandez

That's a great question and it's a good way of putting it because, you know, my responsibility is to be able to keep it tight, but at the same time have enough looseness where the musicians feel they have the freedom to express themselves within the context of what we're trying to do. The context of the history and legacy of the music. But at the same time, they're being featured throughout the course of a Spanish Harlem Orchestra concert, you'll see every one of the 13 members of the band featured in some shape or form. That's what it's about, being able to listen to every single ingredient that you're witnessing up on the stage in terms of each musician bringing their magic, so to speak, to the evening.

WZUM
Well, it's nice to have big ears and it's nice to have you open them for us.

Oscar Hernandez

And it's always nice to be able to educate people who are not aware or, you know, we play in so many places, but that people come up to me at the end, they go like, Oh my God, I didn't know about you guys, but you guys are amazing. And that's the kind of feedback that we get. And, you know, that's priceless to me. You know, it's I tell people we you know, this is a job in a sense, because we work and we get paid. But it's not about the money. It's exactly about that, you know, goes beyond the music for me, you know, the message and protecting the legacy and the history of this music of, you know, something that I've been blessed to be a part of for the last 50 years as a young musician coming up in the city of New York. I started playing when I was especially at 16, so I got to play with the great Machito. I got to play with Tito Wednesday, with Celia Cruz, with Ray Barretto, with so many people who were part of the fabric of what this music is about. So very proud and very, very grateful more than anything.

WZUM
Well, let's talk a bit about working with Celia Cruz. I mean, what a unique performer and long-standing performer who people really today just don't understand how powerful she was.

Oscar Hernandez

Man, you know, I work with Celia so many times over the course of my career, and she was one of the most incredible artists that I've ever had the pleasure to work with and the pleasure to share a stage with, because her innate ability to translate where she comes from, which was, you know, Cuba and, you know, most of her career in New York City after that was unparalleled. And I was telling funny story. I for the first time, I played with Celia Cruz. I was 21 years old, and they called me to play with her to accompany her. I was an up-and-coming pianist at the time, and they wanted me and a great bass player named Manny Gonzalez to go to Toronto and accompany her, you know, because I guess the guys they had who they had over there. So, I go to the airport and I hear at JFK in New York at JFK, and I had never played with somebody. Obviously, I knew who she was. I was 21. She must have been about 51. And I see her for fun. I'm looking at I'm like, wow, that's me. I'm kind of admiring. I'm saying, well, she looks kind of old in my mind because she wasn't dressed. And I think, anyway, make a long story short, I go and introduce myself and she was the most down to influential person you could ever meet and the most professional person and giving. So, she was Oh, me too. In Spanish, you know, Welcome me. Welcome aboard. Thank you for being here. Make a long story short, we go to Toronto. We rehearse that night. We're the home of the bands on the stage, getting ready, they announce. So she comes out and I look at her like, Wow. She proceeded to take over the stage, to take over the audience and to take over the musicians. So, we were just like, I was just in awe. And she looked beautiful. So, you know, from what I'm saying, Celia was old, so seeing her come out dressed in full, full, you know, performance, you know, dress is an indelible memory that I'll take with me to my grave, man. And subsequently, I played with her so many times, and it was the same thing. She had a knack of interpreting, you know, the essence of what this music is about. So true blessing for me. Don't forget, she was singing since she was young. It's kind of

like I could make the same a similar comparison in terms of, you know, how much I love this music because I caught the bug when I was 13, 14, you know, just listening to the people that came before me. Then unfortunately, I got to play with them. But I mean, it comes from a real deep, genuine, beautiful place that once you have it and once you've experienced it and you've spent years doing it, you know, there's nobody that could take that away and it gives them, you know, the complete meaning. So, the music, in terms of every aspect of it, you know, in terms of grabbing people for sure.

WZUM
Excellent. Oscar Hernandez, thanks so much for your time and for sharing your music and joining us here in Pittsburgh on Saturday, September 16th.

Oscar Hernandez

Scott My pleasure, brother. Look forward to Saturday, the 16th in Pittsburgh, and hopefully I'll see everybody there. Thank you, buddy. God bless.

(Interview September 5, 2023, lightly edited for brevity and clarity)