(music playing) >>Hi friends.

>>We're so glad you joined us today on this.

>>We sure are and as always we've got a lot of learning to do >>Come learn with us.

>>Come on ♪come play with me, ♪ ♪ Won't you come play with me, ♪ ♪ Come on, come on, come on.

♪ ♪ Come play music with me.

♪ >>Yeah >>Welcome to songs and stories.

>>with Mary and Mike.

>>Where we tell the stories of music.

>>And we share the music of all people.

So where are we today?

And whose music are we sharing?

>>Friends?

We are out and about today, we are at Havana 59, a restaurant in the Shockoe Bottom district of Richmond.

>>Okay >>And we are here so we could get a flavor of Cuba.

>>Cuba.

>>Cuba, because today we're learning all about Cuba, Cuban rhythms and Cuban music.

>>It Sounds great.

I love it.

>>I love it too.

It's so exciting.

We have two guest teachers that we're going to be learning from today.

So Dr. Mike is from the University of Richmond.

He's a trumpet professor there, but he also loves Cuban music and has dedicated a lot of his career to studying it traveling to Cuba and learning everything he can about it.

>>That sounds like fun.

Who's our other guest?

>>So we're also going to have Gustavo and Gustavo was born in Cuba and he now teaches at the University of Virginia and he teaches classes on Cuban literature and Cuban history.

>>That sounds awesome.

>>Yes, we have a lot to learn today.

>>Let's get to it.

>>Let's get to it.

Let's meet Gustavo Gustavo.

We are so excited to have you with us today.

>>We're glad to see you.

>>Good to see you.

>>Yes, good to see you too.

So Gustavo, we know that you were born in Cuba and now you are a professor at the University of Virginia teaching classes on Cuban literature, Cuban history.

And we're just so honored to have you with us today.

So excited to learn from you all about Cuba, Cuban people and just a little bit about your Cuban story.

>>I'll be very happy to do that.

As you know, I was born in Cuba and lived there as a child.

And although my family left Cuba, Cuba never really left Cuba away with us, we took Cuba away with us in our hearts.

And it's a very, it's a very important part of my of my being and of my identity.

And I love to share that with my students.

Whenever I can.

Cuba is a very beautiful country.

Everybody who visit Cuba comes back talking about how gorgeous the whole country is.

Cuba is the largest Island in the Caribbean.

It is the largest Island in the Caribbean and therefore has a very varied geography.

And, but it is a tropical climate.

It is mild.

It is actually cooler than than Southern Florida because of the trade winds.

And one comment that practically everybody makes is about Cubans.

They talk about how, how warm, how open, how giving.

how generous Cubans are.

And of course, that makes me very proud whenever I hear people talk about that.

And the other thing they always mentioned is how delicious the food is.

They talk about the food, they talk about the tropical fruit, many other things.

The other thing they talk about a lot is the music, music is everywhere.

I know that you have been studying the importance of a very simple musical instrument the claves.

And I just wanted to mention that as a child we did not have a claves and my mother thought we should.

And so she took a broomstick and cut it and polished it and made my brother, Miguel and me a set of claves.

And they shouted very good.

>>Oh, what a fantastic story.

And yes, we are learning all about the claves, the claves rhythm today and how it's amazing that these two rhythm sticks and this rhythm is such an essential part of that Afro Cuban music.

And even in American music, jazz specifically >>You put your, you put your finger right on it.

The simplest way to define the culture of Cuba is a blend of African cultures and the cultures of Spain primarily, and the music and the food and all of that comes that way.

(music playing) (music playing) >>Now.

Can you tell us a little bit about the picture that we see behind you?

>>Oh, the picture that I chose is a photograph of my grandfather's house.

It is my grandfather's house Camaguey.

and it is the house where my father and his sisters and brother grew up.

There were seven of them in total.

Although I left Cuba as a child, when my family left Cuba we kept Cuba inside us, as I said, and my parents helped both my parents, my father, and my mother loved the poetry of Cuba's most famous poet, Jose Marti.

But anyway, Marti left us his poetry to to help us understand life and to help us love life.

And in all its variety.

Marti was a great lover of the world and of all the people of the world.

And I'd like to share with you one of my favorite poems of Marti, what I'd like to do is read it first in the original Spanish and then read the translation that I have made of it.

And the poems runs like this, (foreign language) In English, everything is beautiful and true.

Everything is music and order and everything.

And like a diamond starts as coal before it can shine.

>>Thank you so much for sharing those.

You know, I enjoyed all of it, listening to all of it even though we don't understand all of the Spanish words it's such a joy to listen to there's something so musical and rhythmic about the language.

And we did hear the word musica, right?

But Gustavo, what it did want to ask you about those last two lines where Marti is using the imagery of cold, turning into a shining diamonds.

There's something so powerful about that imagery.

>>It's a very modern image.

And what he has done is use his knowledge as a modern man.

His knowledge of science, his knowledge of geology.

And in fact, we know, that coal under great forces of pressure down beneath the crush of the earth.

And he is turned incredibly into diamonds.

I mean, it sounds like magic, but this is science.

And then Jose Marti takes that true fact from science.

And he thinks about it and he says, but isn't that true about everything that we try to do in life?

Isn't it true that at first things are dark and difficult but if we work, they eventually become like a diamond.

>>Thank you so much for being with us today and sharing this with us.

>>My pleasure.

Okay.

We say in Cuba hasta la vista.

Cuba until the next time.

>>Hasta la vista.

>>Hasta la vista.

>>Until next time.

And we do hope we see you again soon.

>>Bye-bye >>Oh my goodness.

I loved listening to Gustavo talk about Cuba.

>>Me too, I love hearing his stories.

>>I did too, and that beautiful poem.

>>Hmmmmm, I love that poem.

>>I did too and even though I didn't really understand, the word, the music of the poem was so lovely >>Uhmmm, yeah >>Yeah And I loved his stories.

I think my favorite was about his mom, making claves, claves are rhythm stick about this long.

But she felt that it was so important that her boys have claves that she made out of broomsticks.

>>Uhmmm, yeah >>I love that .

>>That was great >>And just how important the claves, just rhythm sticks and the claves rhythm is to the Cuban culture and the musical language >>Well, I love the claves rhythm.

>>I do too, you know it, right?

Can you play it for us?

>>Yeah, let me play it.

>>So hold on, lets get a steady beat first.

So we can hear the difference, because it's really it has a different feel to it completely.

>>All right.

>>So here's the steady beat.

(beat music playing) I love it.

It really does just made me want to move.

So I have an idea.

Friends, why don't we take a song we know, the ABC song.

And let's sing it two times.

The first time.

Let's just sing it with this nice steady beat going underneath.

And then the second time, Mike will add in the claves a rhythm.

And you'll use your musical ears to see how the feel of the music really changes with that rhythm.

Alright, so let's try it with just this nice steady beat.

(music beat playing) One, two, ready?

Sing.

♪A, B, C, D, E, F, G, ♪ ♪H, I ,J K, L M, N, O, P, ♪ ♪Q, R, S, ♪ ♪T, U, V, ♪ ♪W, X, ♪ ♪Y and Z.

♪ ♪Now, I know my ABCs ♪ ♪next time won't you sing with me.

♪ >>I don't know if I can stop this beat.

>>Ooh, he's gonna keep that going.

>>But can you... >>Add that Gustavo rhythm >>Yes add it, I got my music ears on (beat music playing) ♪A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, ♪ ♪I, J, K, L, M, N O, P, ♪ ♪Q, R S, ♪ ♪T, U, V, ♪ ♪W, X, ♪ ♪Y and Z.

♪ ♪ Now, I know my ABCs ♪ ♪ next time won't you ♪ ♪sing with me.

♪ >>Yes, that is fun.

>>I love that, and I truly I cannot sit still.

>>You can't, you can't do without moving.

>>I love it.

I love it.

So in just a minute, we're going to go learn all about this rhythm and all about Cuban music from Dr. Mike.

>>Well, awesome, let's go meet him right now.

>>Let's do it.

(music playing) >>Hi, Dr. Mike.

>>Well, Hello, how are you guys doing?

>>Great to see you today.

Oh, thanks >>We're doing great, Yes.

Thank you so much for being here.

Well, let's take a seat.

And we'll get to know your story a little bit.

>>So where are you from originally?

And where do you live now?

>>So I grew up in Wisconsin, and I went to school in New York at a conservatory.

And then I just played for a while and wasn't married.

And then I met my wife and decided, well, we needed to do something different.

And so I went back and did my master's and doctorate and had a little girl and then we moved to Richmond when I got the job at University of Richmond and I've been there 32 years.

>>So you've been in Richmond a long time.

>>Yeah.

>>Yeah.

>>Well, so I'm curious.

So originally from Wisconsin, spend some time in New York.

Now you've been in Richmond for so long but so what got you interested in Cuban music specifically?

>>I started playing actually in undergraduate school, I started playing this music called salsa.

And it's a fascinating music, like many styles of blending of American jazz and Cuban rhythms.

And I played it and I went, Wow, this is really cool.

(music playing) years went by and I got to Richmond.

As you know, I'm curious And I wanted to learn.

And I don't know if I'm a beautiful learner, but I'm a learner.

And so I started researching, going to Cuba, teaching Cuban classes, teaching classes on Cuba.

And then I started taking students and people and I've gone down there for the last 20 years.

>>So Dr. Mike, tell me a little bit more about when you were playing the salsa in New York and learning about that, but then realizing that that was also some Cuban music, but you were learning it in America.

Tell me more about that.

>>So if we start with the jazz part, which began in New Orleans, which is in the United States, it's American music.

And we, we would play a note like this.

(music playing) So jazz began as the music that would imitate the voice.

So if I played something like, ♪I am a beautiful learner, ♪ (music playing) we would play that, like you (mumbling sound) (music playing) we would play it just like someone were to sing it.

Well, in Cuba, they had these all these rhythm instruments, all these drums.

And the afro Cuban music has all these different players playing different drums, like the cojan is used over there and one of the styles.

And so the blending of this melody of the jazz instruments, the trumpets saxophones, with the rhythm of Cuba, as a matter of fact, I have one of those rythms right here.

>>I know.

>>Do you believe it was right here all along.

>>All along.

What are those fancy rhythm sticks?

>>They're called claves.

And I don't really go anywhere without them.

So the rhythm, and I'll play and then maybe you can give me a steady beat after a while.

So this is the rhythm.

And you can see there's three right here and then two, is a tension and release.

One, two, three, one, two.

you can hear some first rhythms, and flow, some space.

What do you think Mary?

Give me a steady beat >>I love it.

All right.

So, our little friends, I'm gonna keep my steady beat on my cojan, this is a percussion box.

And Dr. Mike is going to keep that claves rhythm going.

Listen.

(music playing) >>I can hear how sometimes, we line up.

And then other times, we not playing at the same time.

>>Right and that's what makes it so cool.

That's why people want to dance.

It's about this rhythm, just dance music.

If you like dancing, go forward.

>>I love it.

Awesome.

Can I try?

>>Whoa, of course, Mary.

I'm sure you'll be great.

>>Thank you, thank you.

Okay, so I'm gonna wipe them off real quick.

And then tell me how to hold them because I saw you had kind of a special way to you hold them.

>>You take the larger one and it's almost like you would were cupping water to get out of the sink to drink it.

And there's a little kind of an area there.

You set it on top of there so it's loose.

That's good.

And then you just bang away.

>>Bang away.

(music playing) I love it.

Okay, so I also need my hat on though obviously.

>>Oh, yes.

>>Yes.

Okay.

So if I'm playing the claves, could you add some melody?

>>Sure, Yeah.

>>Awesome.

Oh, and now I've got my hat.

Yes, perfect, there it stays on.

Okay, here we go.

>>She's giving me an intro.

Introduction on claves.

she's good.

(music lying) >>Oh, my goodness.

That is so fun.

I love this.

Friends, We are going to take all of these building blocks and put them together for this full sound.

So I'm going to be playing this new claves a rhythm on these great clave.

Dr. Mike is going to be playing the melody on the trumpet.

And we got Mike, and Mike is going to be playing the harmony on the keyboard.

Are we ready?

>>Let's do it.

>>Let's do it.

One, two, three, four.

(music playing) (music playing) >>Perfect.

>>That was awesome.

>>You guys guys are great.

>>Thank you so much.

How fun to take all of our building blocks and put them all together for that full sound.

Great job.

(music playing) >>You are a Beautiful Learner.

>>Dr.

Mike, thank you so much for being with us today.

We have learned so much about the rhythms and music of Cuba and how that can be put together with American music.

We have played new rhythms together.

It has been so much fun.

Thank you.

>>Well, thank you, It's been a lot of fun.

It has.

>>Oh man.

>>And thank you to Gustavo for telling us a little bit about Cuba and growing up there.

Friends, Remember what we always say about learning new things.

Repeat after us.

I am brave.

>>I am curious.

>>I am strong because I can do hard things.

I beautiful a learner.

>>Yes, you are friends and we will see you next time.

You ready?

One, two, three, four.

♪come play with me ♪ ♪ Won't you come play with me ♪ ♪ Come on, come on, come on ♪ ♪ Come play music with me ♪ ♪ We going to sing, yes ♪ ♪ And we going to dance ♪ ♪ We going to learn about some instruments ♪ ♪ So come play with me ♪ ♪ Won't you come play with me ♪ ♪ Come on, come on, come on ♪ ♪ Come play music with me ♪ ♪ We going to sing yes ♪ ♪ And we going to dance ♪ ♪ We going to learn about some instruments ♪ ♪ Oh come play with me ♪ ♪ Won't you come play ♪ ♪ Come play ♪ ♪ With me.

♪