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<\/p>\nBorn to Puerto Rican\/Cuban parents in the South Bronx, Gumbi Ortiz was raised in a neighborhood of Caribbean immigrants, hearing people playing drums in the streets, \u201clike they did in the islands.\u201d<\/p>\n
That pulsating, syncopated rhythm has been in his blood now for as long as he can remember. A St. Petersburg-based percussionist, drummer, composer and bandleader, Ortiz happily cops to being a one-trick pony \u2013 he practices between 10 and 15 hours a day, every day.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always been that way, since I was maybe 9 years old,\u201d Ortiz says, conceding that this routine, at age 69, is slightly \u201cobsessive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whatever he\u2019s chasing, he hasn\u2019t quite caught it yet. Sometimes the chase is more exciting anyway.<\/p>\n
Ortiz is currently off-tour with guitarist Al Di Meola \u2013 he was hand-picked by the jazz legend in 1987, and has been part of almost every Di Meola project since. Ortiz holds seven different passports.<\/p>\n
Wednesday finds him and his two St. Petersburg bands, New Groove City and Electrik Rendezvous, performing at the Palladium Theater\u2019s Side Door Cabaret.<\/p>\n
The latter group focuses on jazz fusion, music from the likes of DeMiola\u2019s old band, Return to Forever, and Weather Report (plus Ortiz\u2019s own competitions, and others); New Groove City (once known as the Latino Project) is Afro-Cuban dance music.<\/p>\n
With New Groove, he\u2019s interested in \u201cexpanding the vocabulary\u201d of the music, cultural bedrock in several parts of the globe.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfrica, Afro-Cuba and Afro-America is the same people, it\u2019s the same culture,\u201d Ortiz believes. \u201cSo all I am trying to do is connect the dots, rhythmically, to something that was already there socially.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re separated in America because, you know, English-speaking, Spanish-speaking, dark-skinned people, light-skinned people \u2013 we have a lot of apartheid tendencies in America.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I was just trying to, in my own little humble St. Pete way, musically do this without being Tarzan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tarzan? \u201cYou know, King of the Jungle.\u201d<\/p>\n
The players in New Groove City are transplants from New York and New Jersey. Musicians with life and work experience from that region, he said, all speak a particular language.<\/p>\n
When you know, you know.<\/p>\n
A great-grandfather, Ortiz has resided in Florida since 1979 (St. Pete became his home six years later). Still, \u201cI\u2019m a citizen of the world from New York. I haven\u2019t lost my accent, and my kids all make fun of me. I sound like Joe Pesci. And I grew up speaking nothing but Spanish.\u201d<\/p>\n
He makes a living from recording sessions, shows with his bands and other performances (he and the late Chick Corea, who lived in Clearwater, played a half-dozen duo concerts) and with Di Meola.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Al Di Meola, left, and Gumbi Ortiz. File photo.<\/p>\n
The New Jersey-born guitarist and the Cubano\/Bronx percussionist are thick as thieves.<\/p>\n
Why? \u201cBecause I\u2019m from the Bronx, and I know how to do the dance,\u201d Ortiz offers. \u201cThere\u2019s a dance that you do with people with those kind of egos. Because to play like Al, the reason he plays his ass off is he\u2019s got this thirst in his ego that needs to be filled. Jesus Christ, he can play. And that ego never bothers me.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a genius guitar player. I was a really good hack. I can play, I can do this and I can do that, but I didn\u2019t have that ego to become the next whatever. I\u2019m a plantain, rice and beans motherf\u2014er. I don\u2019t have those ambitions.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s obsessive with rehearsal, like I am about practicing. If he doesn\u2019t have a pick in his hand, he\u2019s in the bathroom.\u201d<\/p>\n
New Groove City includes Aron Ferre, piano; Kenny Walker, bass; Luis Alicia, drums; Eduardo Videaud, vocals; Gumbi Ortiz, percussion.<\/p>\n
Electrik Rendezvous includes Edepson Gonzalez, piano; Luis Alicea, drums; Evan Garr, violin; Elias Tona, bass; Gumbi Ortiz, percussion. Special guest horn players Scott Myers, trombone; Ronnie Dee, saxophone; Terry Clark, trumpet.<\/p>\n