When we think of a café with jazz music playing, we all imagine the same thing: a playlist reminiscent of other elevator rides or, if we're lucky, a collection of undisputed (and almost forbidden?) classics: predictable.
For six years, in addition to being responsible for offering the best possible coffee at Café Paraíso in Oviedo (DEP), it was my obligation to offer a commensurate musical selection.
In this temple of coffee and cycling, a lot of different music played. I'd say there was even a fair amount of jazz. I committed all the sins mentioned earlier: Soultrane, Getz & Gilberto, Song for my Father, Green Street…
I remember the euphoria after arriving home one night and putting on Nostalgia in Times Square for the first time.
I had found that record that screamed in your face: YOU NEED MORE CAFFEINE.
This big band makes the ground shake, and you can only find your balance in a cup, or clutching a portafilter. It's not music that lulls you to sleep and offers you answers: it brings on a cold sweat and makes you dance, at least on the inside.
Mingus's compositions aren't typical of a jam session. They're not pieces a musician can approach on their own and find a place among strangers on stage. No. That's why the big band format is the perfect setting for ensuring the enormous dimension of these compositions doesn't escape us. This enormous performance points us from the tradition of Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk, gospel, and Dixieland, toward the most radical and orchestrated soul/funk records of the 1970s. Toward Latin jazz. Toward the end of the world.
I recently received a call from Luis at the roaster. Apricot, orange, and strawberry. — What?
In this country, there are three main forms of coffee production: forests, gardens, and plantations. A multitude of different coffee varietals coexist in their own unique, largely untamed ecosystems. This, coupled with the extremely difficult political circumstances, makes traceability almost always impossible, reaching, in the best of cases, as far as the washing station where the coffee beans are separated and graded according to ECX (Ethiopian Commodity Exchange) criteria after harvest.
In conclusion: it is not easy to have the opportunity to taste a coffee from the forests of Ethiopia.
“Kercha Forest"comes from Guji, the heart of the Oromia region. Although it isn't certified organic, this coffee can be considered "wild." The only human intervention in the entire process occurs after harvesting.
It was selected at the Temesgen washing station, and the natural processing was carried out by one of the oldest producers in the entire region: Moplaco.
Mingus died in 1979. Nostalgia in Times Square was recorded in 1993 by the Big Band promoted by his widow, to preserve his legacy.
I'm not going to play jazz critic here, but the baritone sax arrangement (Sy Johnson) during the opening bars of “Moanin' ” is all it takes to get hooked on this recording forever.
Many of the musicians who participated in this recording, led by Sue Mingus herself, have gone on to highly illustrious careers. Ronnie Cuber, Sy Johnson, Art Baron, Randy Brecker, Ryan Kisor…