MEINL Percussion

LJUBLJANA

Named after the capital city of Slovenia. We were there on tour with the Slavo Rican Assembly to perform at the 2019 Ljubljana Jazz Festival, when tourmate Gabrriel Chakarji and I caught a whiff of a melody from a performance barely discernible from a nearby stage. Then we started riffing on that idea over a clave for fun. That germ evolved into this video, featuring tourmates and brothers in music Gabriel Chakarji on keys, and Dan Martínez on bass.

SUBIENDO

Subir is the act of interpreting a dancer’s piquetes in bomba. With this tune, I took a djembe - what most closely resembled a barril de bomba - and interpreted imaginary piquetes in my mind over a rulé and a quick corvé. Then took that idea and passed it around the congas, timbales, and cajón (none of them part of the core bomba orchestration), but reinterpreted to fit in each particular instrument and their quirks.

LES

Lower East Side, NYC. This neighborhood has some strong Puerto Rican heritage, some still standing strong despite gentrification. This neighborhood also has a vibrant and diverse artistic scene, that I’ve gotten to experience as a performer and as a spectator. With this tune I put my experiences together: hints of bomba here and there, atmospheric percussion effects, along with a track I produced. Combined, this is what the LES sounds like to me.

PROBLEMÁTICO

“Problematic”, and it quite is, with its constantly changing meter, slow tempo, wide silences, and unison breaks, not to mention soloing over the form. All disguised over a straightforward son montuno percussion jam just like the ones we used to have at La Libre. The form consists of a tutti phrase that happens over 4 bars in this order: 4/4, 6/4, 4/4, 5/4. This spells out 4,645 - the estimated death toll according to a Harvard study into the real casualties of Hurricane María. This figure starkly contrasted the Puerto Rican Government's official count of 32 (at the time of conception of this tune). The repercussions of their negligent management of the disaster are still felt by the People to this day. Thus the title of “Problemático” refers also to the colloquial use of the word for “touchy subject”.

SERVICE CHANGE

The dreaded posters found on NYC Subway Stations when there’s something wrong with your train and your commute is about to get much worse. This tune is a soundtrack for an easy going start of the day suddenly gone awry thanks to the struggle that follows finding these signs and having to figure out a quick alternate way to get from point A to point B without breaking the bank.