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- This is One-On-One.

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(upbeat music) - Hi, everyone.

Steve Adubato with my colleague, Jacqui Tricarico.

This is "Remember Them."

We'll also be seen on our nightly series, "One-on-One."

Jacqui, first of all, how exciting is this particular program for you?

Because you also did one of the interviews featuring the late, great Sarah Vaughan.

How exciting is this for you?

- Yeah.

Yeah, getting to just learn more about Sarah Vaughan and we'll talk about her for the next segment.

And then up first also learning about Celia Cruz.

You know, just this legend, musical legends that we get to speak with.

Arturo O'Farrill, who is a Grammy nominated and Grammy winner himself for his artistic work.

He has this personal connection with Celia, which we get to hear about from him, but also, you know, just learning more about her and the fact that she came from Havana, from Cuba.

She was in the United States touring with her band after they got together in the late 1950s.

And during that time, Fidel Castro took control of Cuba.

Celia Cruz and her band were not allowed back into Cuba at the time.

Even after her mother passed away.

- They were exiled.

- Exiled.

Didn't let them back in.

- They left and then they were exiled.

- So she became a US citizen and has, you know, was here for the rest of her career and the rest of her life until her passing.

Her and her husband settled down in Fort Lee, New Jersey.

- Yep.

- And she passed away in 2003 actually, but ended up making New Jersey her home.

And she is a New Jersey Hall of Fame inductee as well.

- What year, Jacqui?

- New Jersey Hall of Fame was 2013.

- You are good.

That or you have great notes.

- It's funny 'cause New Jersey Hall of Fame has been doing this initiative over the past couple years by renaming a lot of the rest stops on the Garden State Parkway, and other major highways in New Jersey, and one of them was named after Celia Cruz.

- Yep.

- And what Arturo touches upon she, this next year, is gonna be on the quarter, on the United States quarter.

I think that's just incredible.

- It's a huge deal.

- Huge deal.

- For Jacqui and myself, on the back end, she'll be talking to Dr. Elaine Hayes, right, about Sarah Vaughan.

But up next, we have Arturo O'Farrill who's a great Latin jazz musician himself talking about Celia Cruz.

Let's check it out.

♪ (salsa music) ♪ Oye cómo va ♪ Mi ritmo ♪ ♪ Bueno pa'’ gozar ♪ ♪ Mulata ♪ ♪ Oye cómo va ♪ ♪ Mi ritmo ♪ ♪ Bueno pa'’ gozar ♪ ♪ (salsa music) ♪ Fast Singing ♪ (latin folk rhythm) ♪ ♪ Guantanamera ♪ ♪ Guajira Guantanamera ♪ ♪ Guantanamera ♪ ♪ Guajira Guantanamera ♪ - We're now joined by Arturo O'Farrill, who is an eight-time Grammy winner, professor of Global Jazz Studies at UCLA.

Good to see you, Arturo.

- So good to be here today, I'm very, very grateful.

- You know, right before we got on there, you said you're grateful to have a chance to talk about Celia Cruz, why?

- Wow, I can't even begin to think about it.

First of all, for a Cuban lady to have impacted world culture so incredibly strongly, to be such an unbelievable image of powerful womanhood, to have a coin, to have a stamp, to have a rest area, I mean, for her to have made an impact in, you know, and not just in Latin culture, but on a worldwide scale.

I'm so proud of her, I have such 'orgullo' Latino, I have so much pride for my people that when I see one of us become an icon it just throws me, because, you know, we are not the dominant culture in the United States or in the world.

And so for me, when I look at Celia Cruz, and I look at her various faces of her career, and how she ascended from Sonora Matancera to be this superstar she is, I just feel like somewhere there's a little Latina girl going, if she can do it, I could do it.

- Arturo mentioned several things, and I'm gonna go back over Celia Cruz's iconic, and by the way, PS, 2013 New Jersey Hall of Fame inductee, But in 2024, she'’s gonna be on the quarter.

- Yes, this is what I've just read, yeah.

- That's a big deal.

- It's amazing.

- So let's do this.

- It's huge.

- Okay, 70 albums, a Grammy winning Afro-Cuban singer, settled in Fort Lee, New Jersey, if you're wondering what's the New Jersey connection.

Beginning, let's do this, she unfortunately died of brain cancer at the age of 77 in '20, excuse me, 2003.

Prejudice, racism, discrimination and Celia Cruz, talk about it Arturo.

- Oh my God, it's not easy to admit sometimes, but as a nation, we have a fear of brown, black skinned people, and especially if their ethnicity is spoken through a different language than English.

And so, it's really amazing to me, 'cause I've experienced some of that otherness.

In the beginning of my career, I couldn't figure out why I didn't fit into this circle, or that circle, I wasn't Latino enough, I'm certainly not black.

And we all experience it as Latinos, this thing that we can't put our fingers on.

And so, you know, we still see this diatribe against immigrants that I think is horrendous, and I wanna say this, Celia Cruz is an immigrant that changed the face of music, how much more powerful we can be to be able to say that.

I mean, the face of popular music was changed by a "guarachera" from Santos Suarez in La Habana.

- Hold on, go back for a second, 'cause Scarlyn, who's operating our camera knows exactly what you just said, I do not.

Please, stop, Scarlyn, let's see it.

Now you're into this.

Go ahead, please translate.

- You want me to translate?

- Yes, please.

- Yeah, of course, of course, hold on.

- I'm Italian, I'm not Hispanic, I don't pick it up, I'm not Cuban.

Go ahead.

- Wait a second.

Italian and Spanish, we're closely related in very many ways.

- Yes, you know what the word in Italian is?

What?

- Vicino, which means close, here.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

- So go ahead, I'm sorry.

Pick it up.

- And it's great, because "guaracha" is kind of catch-all word for a kind of groove music, there's a guaracha, when a Latino is said to be grooving, he's said to be 'guaracheando', or 'guarachando', depending on what part of the Latin America you come from.

So it's a word for groove, and kind of the beginning of Celia Cruz's career, she was known as a guarachera, which means that she sang this groove music, which is impeccable.

I mean, I'm thinking about specifically her, and her work with Sonora Matancera, which was very, very popular.

In particular, her song "Crocante Habanera", which is- - Say it again.

- "Crocante Habanera".

And the thing about where she's from, I know Santos Suarez, in La Habana, this is one of the little sections of Havana, it's fairly foggy, but man, Havana is beautiful.

And to think about this habanera coming from this very specific neighborhood and changed the face of history, it's just great pride to me.

My father was from Havana, and he also made a big impact in the world of Afro-Cuban Jazz and in the world of jazz, so I'm always proud to see this happening.

- By the way, let's make sure we put Arturo's information so people can find out more about him and his work at UCLA as a professor of Global Jazz Studies.

Do this for us, because over my left shoulder, that is the autobiography of Celia Cruz.

She talks about her husband Pedro, talk about Pedro and their relationship.

- That Pedro was her guardian angel.

I mean, Pedro attended to her musically, emotionally.

I mean, she really had a spirit guide in Pedro, who immediately saw, very early on in her career, he saw her genius.

And it's funny, because in a way, it's a really beautiful story, a person who did put aside their male masculine ego need to be able to be a source of assistance to a brilliant, incredible woman.

And so, everywhere you saw Celia, Pedro was there.

We did a jingle for Colgáte, for Colgate.

- Hold, go back, because you worked directly with them.

Please, put that in context for us.

I'm sorry for interrupting, Arturo.

- No, not at all, not at all.

I was privileged to, my father ran a jingle house, just a place that makes music for commercials.

And he was a pioneer, because he kind of put real Latin genres into the commercials, they were made for the Hispanic market.

And one of his big clients was Colgáte, or Colgate, and we had the privilege of being able to record one of those commercial jingles with Celia Cruz.

And I just remember, oh, just, okay, she came in, and she was so lovely and genuine, and Pedro was by her side every step of the way.

But I remember specifically how genuinely warm she made you feel, like you'd been her friend for decades.

And having just met the woman, I was struck by how lovely she was.

And also, you know, my mother's father had that same symbiotic love kind of thing that just was so, so special to see.

You see that periodically in couples, but in the case of Pedro and Celia, it was very moving, it was very moving to me.

- I would be remiss if I didn't bring this up, Celia Cruz, Cuba, Castro, getting outta there.

- Whoa.

- Like countless others, put that in perspective.

- Well, you know, in 2004, the Miami Herald released some classified information that Celia had beginnings in the Communist Party.

But like many Cubans, when Fidel came to power, she distanced herself from that.

And she lived like my father, and like so many Cubans, in exile, with a broken heart.

Cuba is literally- - It was our home.

- One of the most, it was her home.

Cuba's literally one of the most incredible places, one of those magic power centers, where Europe, Africa and the new world, the Americas meet.

And also the indigeneity of the Americas, all come together in this place, like Brazil, it's the same magic, this is a place where so many worlds meet.

And for her to have left, and I know exactly how it felt for her to have left Cuba, it must have been very difficult.

And strangely enough, she returned to Cuba in 1990 to perform at Guantanamo, and she took soil from her native land, I find this so touching, she took soil from her native land and asked for her to be buried, when she died, with this soil from her native lead.

And in fact, indeed, she was entombed with Cuban soil in a coffin, at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.

- Arturo, thank you, because it's one thing to read about Celia Cruz, or to try to understand what an incredibly important impact she's had on music, on culture, on salsa, and so many artistic aspects of our life in this country, particularly those who come from a certain background, but listening to you has taught us a lot more.

Thank you, we look forward to having you on again.

Thank you, Arturo O'Farrill.

- It's my pleasure.

- Eight-time Grammy winner.

- Thank you for the opportunity.

- I was just plugging, don't interrupt me while I'm plugging you, okay?

(Arturo laughs) Eight-time Grammy winner, professor of Global Jazz Studies at UCLA.

Arturo, I cannot thank you enough, thank you.

- Thank you.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] To watch more One on One with Steve Adubato find us online and follow us on Social media.

Now "Remember Them" takes a look at Newark's own, Sarah Vaughan.

Jacqui, you talked to Dr. Elaine Hayes, correct?

- Yeah.

All about Sarah Vaughan.

And Elaine is a musical historian.

Has this love and appreciation for Sarah Vaughan.

Created this beautiful book all about her, her legacy, who she was.

And, you know, Sarah Vaughan her roots were in Newark, New Jersey when she, her family at the Mount Zion Baptist Church.

Her parents were very religious.

She found this love for music, for jazz, for all types of music really in her young teen years.

All throughout Newark she would be sneaking out, her parents not knowing, 'cause they were very, very religious.

And getting into these jazz clubs, and these other clubs, these African American owned clubs around "The Hill," that's a section in Newark at the time.

Just getting in there.

And they put her up on stage.

They got her performing and that's where she gained her confidence - In Newark?

In "Brick City?"

- Yep.

In "Brick City."

And her career really just blossomed from there and expanded from there.

And she's known by a lot of names, "Sassy," "The Divine One."

Elaine's book is called the "Queen of Bebop."

But she didn't actually really like titles.

She didn't want to be pigeonholed into anything specific.

And she just said, "You know what, I'm a singer.

That's what I am."

- That's awesome.

And also, I want to make it clear, talk about Newark Public Schools.

Not only Mount Zion Baptist Church was Sarah Vaughan a part of, but she attended Arts High.

Some of the greatest - She did, but she didn't graduate.

She dipped out of there early to pursue the singing career.

(Jacqui laughs) - So she never graduated?

- No, she did not.

Yep, dipped out a little early to pursue that singing career.

And obviously it paid off.

- I always learn things from Jacqui Tricarico.

Let's all learn together.

Jacqui's interview with Dr. Elaine Hayes, talking about the extraordinary Newark's own, "Brick City," Sarah Vaughan.

♪ I got rhythm ♪ ♪ I got music ♪ ♪ I got my man ♪ ♪ Who could ask for anything more ♪ ♪ I got daisies, in green pastures ♪ ♪ I got my man ♪ ♪ Who could ask for anything more ♪ ♪ Old man trouble ♪ ♪ I won't find him ♪ ♪ No, no 'round my door ♪ ♪ I got starlight ♪ ♪ I got daydreams ♪ ♪ I got my man ♪ ♪ Ask for anything more ♪ ♪ Who could ask for anything more ♪ - Joining us now is Elaine Hayes, who is a musical historian, and she wrote the beautiful book, "Queen of Bebop: The Musical Lives of Sarah Vaughan."

Elaine, thanks so much for joining us today.

- Thanks for having me.

- So Elaine, your fascination with Sarah Vaughan started when you were in college, right?

Talk about that time discovering Sarah, who she was, and why you wanted to really dive deeper into her story and the musical legend that is Sarah Vaughan.

- Yeah, of course.

Like you said, I didn't learn about Sarah Vaughan until I was in college.

I was a classically trained pianist and really had no experience with jazz, until a roommate of mine, she played Sarah Vaughan all the time, and I found myself immediately drawn to her voice.

The voice itself is just beautiful.

It's sumptuous, elegant, agile, almost operatic.

But I was also really drawn to the musicianship that was clearly in everything that Sarah sang.

She could be at the bottom of her range, and then swoop up to the top, and then cascade back down again.

All without missing a beat.

And as a classical musician, her ability to improvise just wowed me.

Fast forward a couple years, I'm in graduate school in Philadelphia.

I'm taking a Women in Jazz course, and our professor schedules a trip to go up to Newark where there's this amazing jazz archive called the Institute of Jazz Studies, and we were tasked with doing a research project.

Of course, I chose Sarah Vaughan and I dove right in.

And that was the first time I really started to understand the woman behind the music, and I was simply fascinated.

- There's that three-octave part of her voice, right.

And it's funny, you talk about just listening to her and getting entrapped with her voice and just how it sounded.

And I've been listening to a little bit of her in preparation of this interview too, just to...

I felt that same way.

You're holding onto every note listening to this huge voice that she had.

And like you mentioned, Newark, it really all started for her in Newark.

That's where she was born and raised, that's where her career really started, right?

She grew up in this world of jazz, and these clubs, and this lifestyle, and this environment.

Talk a little bit about that and how important her Newark roots were.

- Oh, I think they were crucial to who Sarah Vaughan became.

I often say without Newark, there wouldn't have been a Sarah Vaughan, because like you say, that's where her musical foundation began.

And it really began at her family's church, the Mount Zion Baptist Church.

That's where she had her first musical experiences.

There's these really wonderful stories of people talking about how she would hum along while her mom sang in the choir.

Or how as a toddler, she'd kind of sneak up to the front of the church so that she can sit with the organist and watch everything that was going on.

And when her family decided it was time for Sarah to take piano lessons, they enlisted the church organist to teach her, and then she became the pianist for her church choir and her school choirs.

But even though she was this amazing pianist, she basically would say later in life that, "No, I really wanted to sing and they weren't letting me sing."

So even though she became a alto in the church choir, her education, like the creation of Sarah Vaughan, the jazz musician that we know now, began when she started expanding her musical horizons and started venturing out into the Hill neighborhood in Newark.

There were a lot of Black-owned bars and nightclubs and dance halls.

And she started when she was 12, 13, 14 years old, sneaking- - Getting into the clubs.

They were letting her sing right up on stage.

And wasn't the fact that she was sneaking out and making sure her parents didn't know about it, because it seems like they were very against this because of their religious beliefs too, correct?

- That's right, yes.

They were not excited to have their preteen running around Newark singing.

- Yes.

(Jacqui laughs) Of course not, of course not.

But that's where she really started developing her sense of who she was as a singer, right, and really was able to get her feet grounded there and be seen by so many people throughout the jazz community, even outside of jazz, right?

- Yes.

Yes.

- So in your book, you talk about Sarah Vaughan as, right, she's not just a jazz singer, she's not just the Queen of Bebop, like the name of your book.

There were a lot of nicknames for her, but she didn't like to be pigeonholed.

She didn't like labels.

Talk about that a little bit.

Especially as a singer, she just didn't like those labels, right?

- Yeah, you're exactly right.

In interviews, she'd often say, "I am not a jazz singer.

I'm a singer."

And like you say, she really hated labels.

She thought there were too many labels in the music world.

There are too many labels in life in general.

I think she had a very instinctive understanding that labels, like you say, were a way to confine and contain her.

And that if she allowed herself to be labeled, it would limit her artistic options and her freedom to create and to sing whatever she wanted.

And over the course of her 50 so years as a jazz singer, I shouldn't even say jazz singer.

- Right.

- As vocalist- - She wouldn't like that, right?

- She wouldn't like that.

As a vocalist, I mean, she was singing spirituals and religious music as a kid.

She was a classically trained pianist.

Of course we have the jazz, the bebop.

In the '50s and '60s, she was a pop singer.

In the '60s and '70s, she really got good at Brazilian music.

She covered The Beatles.

And then in the last decades of her career, she almost became like an operatic diva who would perform with symphony orchestras across the country.

So there's this huge scope of the way she would sing.

- And huge crossovers into so many genres.

- Yes.

- So the "Queen of Bebop," what does that really mean?

What does that title mean to you?

And what do you think... Or what would you want it to mean to Sarah Vaughan?

- Well, for me, it was a way to acknowledge the contributions that she made very early in her career.

When she was just starting out in 1942 and 1943, she was in two bands that we now consider legendary.

One was led by the pianist, Earl Hines, and another was led by a fellow vocalist, Billy Eckstine.

And in both of these bands, you had some of the most creative, innovative musicians of the day.

People like Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, Gene Ammons, Art Blakey.

And together, all of these musicians were in the process of redefining what jazz, how it sounded, what it would become.

And they're in the process of developing this new kind of jazz called bebop.

So unlike swing that had preceded it, that is danceable, has hummable rhythms, bebop is focusing on virtuosity, a very complex cerebral music with really, really fast musical lines, extensive harmonic explorations into dissonance.

It was not music you would dance to, it's music that you listen to.

And so there was this moment when jazz is switching from a popular music to an art music.

And while we've talked a lot about Dizzy Gillespie or Charlie Parker, we've talked a lot less about Sarah Vaughan's contributions.

She was an- - Why do you think that is?

Is it because she was a woman during that time period?

- I think that has definitely impacted that.

And also there's a tendency not to take the musical contributions of vocalists quite as seriously.

But the reality is that she was the first person singing in a bebop style.

She was defining what Marlon vocal jazz would become.

And that title, "Queen of Bebop," is just an opportunity to honor that contribution.

- And you talked about Dizzy Gillespie a little bit, but talk about the relationship.

I know at one point he nicknamed her The Sailor, and you talk about that in your book, and just her on the road with this band, the only woman, and some of the hurdles she had to cross to get through those times on the road being the only woman in an all-man band.

- Well, I think the way that she survived that was, yes, she was the only woman in the band, but she insisted upon being one of the guys.

If they are playing craps, if they're drinking, she's doing it right alongside them.

So there was that kind of lifestyle choice of, "I'm gonna be one of the guys."

But also musically, she was right in the thick of it.

She was a musical equal to these guys.

And when they're doing their brash musical exploration and experimentation, she was right there doing it too.

- Yeah, she gained that respect really quickly, it seemed like.

- Yes.

- So, describe too her relationship with Ella Fitzgerald.

That is a name I feel like we hear more commonly or just as a more well-known name.

But there was a time when really Sarah broke through, people became to know her more after her performance on the Apollo, correct?

And then shift over to the Ella Fitzgerald relationship as well.

- Well, I think in the press, there's a tendency to want to pit them as rivals against one another and the idea that there's only space for one really big jazz star.

But the reality is that they both had great respect for one another.

They understood that they were both very talented women and they both thrived in the scene.

We do know Ella Fitzgerald a little bit better, or you could say a lot better.

I think that's, in large part, because she had really good management and really good producers that knew how to market her for a wide mainstream audience, whereas Sarah often didn't have the best managers.

- In your book, if people wanna pick up your book, you're gonna get more plethora of information about Sarah Vaughan and her life even later on in her career.

But for you, what do you think Sarah Vaughan would want her legacy to be?

- I think she would want people to believe that, first of all, she was a very talented person who always sang the way that she wanted to.

That she had a very unique vision of her voice and what she could do with it.

And she thoroughly enjoyed using her voice in this extremely virtuosic way.

And I think when I think about her legacy for other musicians, it's that she...

In many ways, by listening to Sarah Vaughan, generations of vocalists have learned that you can be a creative equal and an ensemble, and that you can own your musical choices, and that you can be a serious musician, rather than just the chick singer off to the side.

I believe that's what she would want people to appreciate in addition to her amazing recordings.

- Of course.

And Elaine, thank you so much.

If you wanna learn more about Sarah Vaughan, like I said, pick up Elaine's book, "Queen of Bebop: The Musical Lives of Sarah Vaughan."

Thanks, Elaine, for joining us and thank you at home for joining us.

We'll see you next time on "Remember Them."

- [Narrator] One-on-One with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by PSE&G, NJM Insurance Group.

Hackensack Meridian Health.

The New Jersey Education Association.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

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Kean University.

And by New Jersey Sharing Network.

Promotional support provided by New Jersey Globe.

And by New Jersey Monthly.

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