Jazz for scholarships

Jazz for the scholarship fund
photos by Eric Jackson

Finca La Maya is somebody's private house, gardens and business on which a registered charitable organization operates. It's a cultural center that has what are for the locals some pricey high-level arts seminars by people in various fields from around the world, which attracts students from afar. It has Spanish lessons for newcomers, who pay the price of their instruction. It has arts and English classes for local residents, and that part of the program is where the charitable work comes in. It's also a growing library, mainly in English.

The San Carlos area has a new legislator, and one of the reasons for that was that the old one championed the teaching of English in schools and got legislation passed that was then used as an excuse to require a certain level of English proficiency in order to get into public universities --- but he neglected to get decent English instruction funded for the local schools, so in effect condemned a lot of bright young people in his district to menial jobs instead of the higher-skilled work that they can do. Thus there are all these kids in San Carlos and vicinity who come to Finca La Maya to take weekend English classes in order fill a sinkhole that our wretched public schools left in their path toward higher education.

On July 17 Finca La Maya honored three of its best students, Alex Martínez, Zulay Vogt and Lloele Muñoz, with stipends to help with their continuing education. There was an open house and silent auction, but the main attraction was jazz by some mainstays on the national scene, the Blue Note Jazz Quartet of Panama.

Guitarist José Maturell, who plays in a style somewhat
suggestive of the way the late Wes Montgomery played.

On percussion, Rogelio Reyter, who has played with just about everybody in Panamanian
jazz and played for many years with the late Victor Boa. Reyter's formation as a musician
was particularly in Afro-Cuban and African rhythms, which he studied in Cuba and New
York as well as here. The term "tambo jazz" brings Boa's name to mind, but also Reyter's.

Eduardo Irving on sax and flute. A son of the Panamanian
diaspora, he was born in New York but came back here.
In addition to his work on the local jazz scene, Irving is
the first flautist for the best of the bombero bands. He's
also a jazz journalist and has hosted several radio shows.

On the bass is Álvaro Maturell, José's twin brother and
a fixture in Panamanian jazz. He has played with a lot of
musicians in many different styles, with perhaps his best
known collaborations being those with sax master Carlos
Garnett and years with the Ashante Percussion Ensemble.

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