Sandoval fondly remembers his early years with the Gillespie Big Band. “It wasn’t in America when I played with Dizzy the first time, it was in Cuba, in 1977.It was one of the most beautiful gifts from God to meet him and become a good friend of his. I played with him until he passed away, for many years. We did Japan and all over Europe.I learned a lot from him. He is the master, my hero. Imagine to get an opportunity to hang around with, watch and listen to your hero so many times. It was such a privilege, and something I appreciate immensely.”
Touring with Gillespie also opened doors of freedom besides music to Sandoval. While touring in Rome with the Gillespie band in 1990, Sandoval defected to the United States. His story of reaching the land of the free has been documented in the movie “For Love of Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story.” While we native born Americans debate the abstractions of freedom, Sandoval is able to tell first hand the values that we take for granted. This is the beauty of our “E Pluribus Unum”, as Sandoval states, “Freedom is the most beautiful thing in life, man. No freedom, no life. I couldn’t come out with a better phrase. For example, I’m talking to you right now, and I feel completely and absolutely free to say whatever I want in a way that I want. When I was in Cuba, I would have to be extremely careful what I say, and with who I was talking to and what I was talking about. Every time. There is such oppression, and you feel it all of the time. You have to be very very careful, because the government could do horrible things to you, because you say the wrong thing at the wrong time or the wrong place. That is enough, because they control even your mentality, because they then control whatever you are even about to think about. The system doesn’t work, and if you don’t know that, you’re ignorant. The system kills your soul. The system kills your desire of everything. It’s horrible.”
It is this God given freedom that gives Americans the creativity to explore music such as jazz, which is why Communist countries have banned it as “subversive” over the years. As it is written on our monuments in WashingtonDC, “Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” Sandoval wholeheartedly agrees, stating, “ The people take a lot of things for granted over here. A lot of American people, and I mean a lot of American people, I would say a good part of this country, they should go and spend some time somewhere else, and then when they come back, they’re going to appreciate a lot more of what they have here. I’m very pleased and grateful to God, because we live here in America, I’m very proud to be an American citizen. God has blessed me. I look to the sky every half an hour I ask God, “How am I doing? Help me, and tell me what I should do.”
The infectious joy of his playing is well captured on “RumbaPalace” which is loaded with tunes that are guaranteed to get you out on the dance floor. Having recorded over 40 albums by now, Sandoval is no searching for that intangible thing called “popularity.” He reasons, “I’m not popular. Popular is Paris Hylton or Britney Spears. Respect is something different. I appreciate that people understand what I’m trying to do and the respect I get from people is a blessing from God.”
“RhumbaPalace” is Sandoval’s first big band recording of latin music, but , Lord willing, it won’t be his last. Hopefully, someone will bring a recorder to the Playboy Jazz Festival July 17, as Sandoval will be heading an orchestra that is guaranteed to get the laid back LA crowd dancing in the aisles. “It’s going to be a big band playing a lot of Mambos,” exudes Sandoval, “with dancers! I’m very excited about it. The thing is going to be a different gig, and I hope the people enjoy it. I’ve never had dancers in front of my gig before, and it’s just going to be just mambos. It’s going to be the best musicians in LA. I will put maybe one or two songs from this cd in the show, but it’s going to be a bunch of Perez Prado stuff. I grew up listening to his stuff. I still listen to it all of the time. I like the song ‘Cherry Pink.’ It’s a beautiful melody.”
Only in a great country like America can musicians have the freedom to express themselves with such beauty and vigor. Yes, the cost of such vigor can be artistic vulgarity (we won’t mention any names, but are highly tempted), but the artistic highs always compensate for the cultural nadirs. It’s refreshing to see someone proud to wave the American flag, particularly while blowing the trumpet, while serenading its citizens with some of the best music this country has to offer. Viva Sandoval and America!