Bobby Sanabria’s new album honors Arsenio Rodriguez
Photos courtesy of Bobby Sanabria
A Bronx-based musician is bringing the work of Arsenio Rodriguez to life through a new live album.
Bobby Sanabria has been into music for as long as he can remember. Growing up as a Nuyorican in the South Bronx, Sanabria said that music was deeply ingrained in the world he grew up in; he told amNewYork that his father had an eclectic taste in music, and Sanabria would often stay up late sneakily watching programs like “The Ed Sullivan Show” and “The Tonight Show” to catch jazz acts.
Sanabria said that where he grew up in the Melrose projects, he would hear the adults listening to jazz quite regularly, inspiring him to take up the drums.
“They listen to jazz and when they saw a kid with an instrument who is African American or Puerto Rican like myself, they would be like nodding their heads and yeah, go on, you know, maybe you’ll be the next Miles Davis or the next Max Roach or the next Tito Puente,” recalled Sanabria. “Despite the chaos of that was happening at the time period that I grew up in, the music really kept us alive.”
Sanabria has certainly made a name for himself in the music space. After graduating from the Berklee College of Music, Sanabria worked over several years to become a seven-time-Grammy winner and has recorded ten albums. He has performed and recorded with legends such as Dizzy Gillespie, Tito Puente, and Mongo Santamaria.
This month, Sanabria will be releasing a new live album, “Arsenio and Beyond: Live at the Bronx Music Hall.” As the name suggests, the album, performed live at Bronx Music Hall, is a tribute to the late Cuban musician and composer Arsenio Rodríguez.
“My wife Elena Martinez, who’s a well-known folklorist and also a documentary filmmaker, it was her idea. She came up with the idea for the album. She said, ‘Hey, we have a grant for you to do a concert at the hall. Why don’t you record it, but do it in honor of Arsenio Rodriguez?” said Sanabria.
Bobby Sanabria performing.Photo courtesy of Bobby Sanabria
Sanabria told amNewYork that the choice to make it a live album definitely adds pressure to make it great, considering you don’t get a chance to redo a track if you mess up.
“It’s a dangerous proposition because you have to have really great musicians. In a recording studio, if you make a mistake, you can stop or you can replace something. But live, it is what it is, what you hear is what you get,” said Sanabria. “So I’m very lucky that I live in New York and I have access to not only the best musicians in the world, but the most versatile in the world.”
Sanabria said that while he was a faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music, the Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, which he led, had previously done a concert to honor Arsenio Rodriguez. They updated the music and added a few extras to make this performance unique, with the album featuring nine tracks embodying Rodriguez’s work.
“I picked songs that I related to from my youth, that are instantly recognizable to Arsenio and we included two compositions by people that were influenced by it, three compositions by people that were influenced by Arsenio. That’s the beyond part,” said Sanabria.
And since Rodriguez had previously lived in the South Bronx for a period of time, Sanabria felt he was the perfect subject for the album.
“He was a ubiquitous presence, plus it’ll be in the new Bronx Music Hall, so it’s the converging of all of these related things coming together and the result is this fantastic album for the dedicated to this band that, without him, there’s no salsa really today,” said Sanabria.
“Arsenio and Beyond: Live at the Bronx Music Hall” will be released on April 10. For more information about Sanabria, visit bobbysanabria.com.