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00:01:43 0 |
Slate - the Eleventh Hour #113 Rec 2/9/89
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00:01:47 4.15 |
Blank
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00:02:01 18.17 |
Grants from charitable organizations announced and overlay The Eleventh Hour graphic.
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00:02:19 36.3 |
Show opener
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00:02:39 56.3 |
Hands playing piano
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00:02:46 63.47 |
Host Robert Lipsyte leaning over piano introduces himself and his guest on the piano, Johnny Colon, American Salsa Musician and Founder of the East Harlem Music School.
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00:02:59 76 |
Pan in on Host Lipsyte talking about his guest, American salsa musician, Johnny Colon, who founded the East Harlem Music School.
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00:03:34 111.44 |
Shots of Johnny Colon playing the bongo drums and singing with his Latin, Johnny Colon Orchestra in the studio
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00:03:42 118.79 |
Musician, William Rios, playing maracas and singing with a Latin Salsa music band. He narrates over performance how he was into droop, the Flamingos, the Four Tops, until he discovered Johnny Colon
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00:03:51 128.66 |
William Rios, former Johnny Colon student, speaking live with unseen Interviewer tells how he discovered Johnny Colon after hearing Colon's song Boogaloo Blues, a Latin rhythm but with English lyrics.
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00:04:01 138.08 |
B&W photo stills of young Johnny Colon holding trombone, as a child holding a guitar, on stage, part of a foursome.
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00:04:23 159.99 |
Johnny Colon playing bongos
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00:04:35 172.07 |
Drummer from Johnny Colon's Orchestra, drum sticks flailing wildly
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00:04:46 182.96 |
Side shot Colon on bongos
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00:04:51 188.52 |
Willie Martinez, Jr. former student from Colon's East Harlem School of Music speaking with unseen interviewer about how the school covers Latin music from its "roots up"
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00:05:12 209.17 |
Johnny Colon at the East Harlem School of Music talks with unseen interviewer and is playing bongos
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00:05:27 223.71 |
Pan out Colon and unknown student banging away on a row of bongos, they laugh and shake hands
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00:05:37 234.55 |
Colon is seen in classroom teaching music to students. Students looking at music in notebooks as Colon gives the beat.
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00:06:05 262.41 |
Close up on Colon as he speaks with unseen interviewer about his philosophy - "treat people as human beings, give them whatever you have to give them to facilitate the learning process".
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00:06:18 275.33 |
Former music student, Frank Ritual speaks with unseen interviewer about how Puerto Ricans used to get beat up, were alway fearful, but now have hope.
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00:06:29 286.04 |
B&W still photos - bloodied men with police officers, Puerto Rican men sitting in back of a van with police officer looking at camera
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00:06:47 304.58 |
Men entering back door of building into dark hallway, door is open on to the street, door closes to darkness.
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00:07:00 317.33 |
Close up shot two music students, likely Puerto Rican, playing unseen piano, looking and listening intently
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00:07:04 321.33 |
Close up dark skinned girl playing on trumpet, only mouthpiece is seen.
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00:07:13 329.77 |
Three young music students, two men and a girl, standing practicing on saxophones reading the music from music stand
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00:07:20 337.2 |
Close up young man practicing on trumpet.
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00:07:50 366.78 |
Musician William Rios talks to unseen interviewer about the famous Latin musicians who came out of the East Harlem School of Music.
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00:07:53 370.45 |
Willie Olenick, Trumpet Teacher from East Harlem School of Music talks with unseen interviewer about the value of what the students learn at the school.
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00:08:08 385.64 |
close up hands adjusting the keys on a digital portable piano type instrument.
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00:08:24 401.34 |
Young African American man joyfully playing portable piano strapped around his neck. Female music teacher stands by and narrates.
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00:08:47 424.67 |
William Rios speaking to unseen interviewer about how the music is an alternative to drugs, gets kids off the streets and can find their identity.
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00:09:03 440.02 |
Out on the streets of New York, an older man with white hair introduces musician Johnny Colon (shot from rear) to two unknown African American men on the street.
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00:09:23 460.22 |
Johnny Colon speaking to unknown African American man on the street, he shakes his hand and welcomes him to the Music School and community.
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00:09:35 471.98 |
Interior shot. Latin band is playing and people dancing. Christmas tree in bkgd.
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00:10:09 506.48 |
Latin man playing maracas.
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00:10:14 511.51 |
Johnny Colon vigorously playing bongo drums
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00:10:51 548.29 |
Back to Host Lipsyte in studio, leaning on piano and talking with Colon who is seated at piano.
Interview Inserted. Robert Lipsyte: Always a lot more than salsa has always been going on at the East Harlem Music School. But salsa is still the bottom line. It's the basis of it all. What exactly is it? I mean, is it is it a beat? Give me some salsa. Johnny Colon: Okay. I'll tell you what, let me give you this. That is that is salsa in the essence. And some people will argue well, that's that's, you know, well, I won't go you know, elements of a roomba, what have you. And they would be right. It's a it's a derivative of that. But because of the contribution that young kids like Tito Puente, I say young because I'm going back to when he started contributing to the music, who were born and raised in New York had a different cultural upbringing. And they contributed a certain amount to that music. Of course, my era contributed something else. So that when you start bringing all these different musical contributions to the music, it changes to the point of where it's not called salsa. Salsa is also a commercial term which blankets all the different rhythms you know the one called a song or someone to a tune or a chacha so Robert Lipsyte: You can overlay salsa on anything then, in a sense, you could give something a salsa beat. Johnny Colon: Yeah, there was a pianist called Joe Loco. Robert Lipsyte: Joe Loco? Johnny Colon: Joe Loco, yeah, from the from the late 40s, early 50s, who said you give me any, any tune in to 2/4 or 4/4 time and turn it into salsa, and he was right. Robert Lipsyte: Can you do that? Johnny Colon: Well, I can't do it. Because I haven't, I haven't done it. Well, Robert Lipsyte: I mean, can you give me 20 seconds right now of something that I would have known otherwise with a salsa? Johnny Colon: (plays a salsa beat on piano) Well, let me see if I can think of something. You could- look let me let me put it to you this way you could do, uh, just a vamp. But you could add anything that you wanted to on top of that. 6/8, just as an example, this is 6/8 time. Keeping that in mind, I'll try to do it together. I know if I can. Sings while clapping the beat: "The most beautiful sound I ever heard Maria, Maria:- right, so there's Maria right from West Side Story. You could also do something like the most beautiful sound I have ever heard. So you can, yeah, you can lay it over. Robert Lipsyte: Okay, now I know what salsa is. Why is it so important for kids growing up in East Harlem or the South Bronx to know what it is? Johnny Colon: Because it's part of their culture at this point in time. It's it's part of their roots. And what happens is every other generation is coming back to it, looking for its roots later in life. When I was a kid, probably came around to when I was about 16 years old, or between 14 and 16. I heard a guy who was not a Latino named Cal Tjader, who was a drummer first and then a vibus. And he fused jazz and Latin together. And that- that was the bridge for me. So that set it off. Robert Lipsyte: When you were growing up, and you wanted music early, you weren't into salsa right away. Johnny Colon: Absolutely not. Robert Lipsyte: I was born and raised in East Harlem. When I was a kid I was into Latin trio music. And then by the time I was nine, I said I'm not gonna play this stuff. It's not It's not my roots. Well, you grew up in East Harlem. Then what's in your roots, Frank Sinatra? Johnny Colon: Oh, Frank Sinatra, Country and Western, you know, Gene Autry. Uh, more of a range concept. Robert Lipsyte: Did you take music lessons? Johnny Colon: Well, I started taking music lessons when I was about six or seven. And it was a quarter an', and I used to go to all old guitarists to teach. And I took that for about two years. Robert Lipsyte: Where'd you get the quarters from? Johnny Colon: My mother. My mother worked in a factory and she, she pulled lace in the factory, you know, the lace on women slips. And so and she's she come home with her fingers bleeding from pulling lace in the factory. And that's where I got my quarter from. Robert Lipsyte: The bloody quarters went to your music lessons. Johnny Colon: Absolutely. Absolutely. And after two years, the guy kicked me out because he said "I can't teach you anymore." You know, I just swallowed it up. And I wanted it so badly. And by the time I got tonight, I said well, you know, I want to try something else. And I did. I went into rock and roll years after that. And because that was happening, you know. And then I went- actually, rhythm blues, The Moon Blows, The Flamingos, the Cadillacs, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers that kind of stuff. Chuck Berry. And then I went from that to, into, back to the roots, because I heard the music. Robert Lipsyte: When the roots hit you, I mean, what when did it suddenly mean something to you? Johnny Colon : Well, probably once I got introduced to the music, I wanted to find out, you know, more of actually who I was because, you know, that's when everything just gelled together. And I said wait a minute, the name is not co-lan like they say in school. It's not colon, you know, nobody's intestines. And then I found out that the my name was Colon, you know, and I started wanting to know more. And I found out that the my forefather was not George Washington, you know, and where my- I knew where my people were from, because I was taught that early on, but I started finding out more about my people. My roots. |
00:16:18 875.23 |
Interview with Johnny Colon continues:
Robert Lipsyte: You're Puerto Rican? Johnny Colon: Absolutely, yeah. And in that's that the music I think probably triggered that that sense again, because when you're a little kid, it's it's you. This is who you are, this is what you are, and this is your culture. But when you start going into the mainstream, which is what happens to any kid was born here, you forget. And so that brought me back. Robert Lipsyte: And of course your, your big hit Boogaloo Blues was an absolute expression of this, this new sense of self and place. That was '65? Johnny Colon: That, we recorded that in '65. Robert Lipsyte: Do you think you remember, would you play a little bit of Boogaloo Blues for us? Johnny Colon: Yeah, I'll try. (Colon plays a bit of the song). Robert Lipsyte : Suddenly you looked a lot younger there. Well, I mean, sold 3 million copies of a chartbuster. What happened? I mean, why didn't you just keep doing it? Johnny Colon: Boogaloo Blues, two, three. Well, one, we got ripped off, because we never got royalties on it. And while the recording company was getting more famous and more famous because of that first album, to tell you the truth, we weren't getting any money. And what we did was we worked seven nights a week, and we were doing doubles and triples. So when you work that that that much, you know, you don't think about money, because you're making it on the outside. But when the group started cooling off because of a plot against the group, which was what really happened. Then you start wondering what happened to your royalties, and you go back and one guy's dying, and the other guy tells you Well, I didn't take care of that part of the bill. You know, you got to see this guy and the other guy dies. And that's it. Robert Lipsyte: Yeah, it must be particularly hard for a Puerto Rican artist in this city with so many things are stacked against you, to get your money, and, you know, politics. But but but what was the segue from that to the school? I mean, did you at some point, say, "I've had enough of this, I just want to teach people." Johnny Colon: Oh no, the school had always been a dream of mine. And before I recorded it, as a matter of fact, the the first concept of it, I wrote in 1961. And then, towards the end of '62, I started, someone gave me a room, the Children's Aid Society on 101st Street. Between Park and Lexington, I taught 56 kids music theory for about a year and a half, but the promises of the instruments to come never, you know, came through and, and so I moved on, I went to the Lower East side, I taught down there for about another year, another year and a half. Greet kids, you know, streetwise kids because they were always in the street. And I'm talking about kids between the ages of, I would say, seven, through about fourteen. Robert Lipsyte: Do you see them change through your music? Johnny Colon: I, I met one of them a couple of years ago who said "you changed my whole life. You know, if it hadn't been for you, I'd be dead or in the streets somewhere shooting up or something. And now I'm making my music, my living off my music." And so, you know, that's gratifying. You don't want anybody to say thank you, just to see that you that you made a massive change in somebody's life, positively. That's it. Yeah. Robert Lipsyte: Yeah, look the question, because I mean, we're not being coy about this, I've been following you and covering you for 12 years now. And you've always been in hot water. You've always been waiting for instruments to come. The school is always on the verge of bankruptcy or trouble. And the poverty pimps and politicians of the neighborhood are always giving you a hard time because you're arrogant, and you do your own thing, and you've got your own vision of things. So, but what I need to know is, was it the music that brought you into, you know, your kind of activism? Or was it activism that led you to music? Johnny Colon: Oh, no, I think it was it's a combination of both because I was raised a particular way. It was inbred in me that you that you always fight for the underdog, always. And you never stand for abuse. Never. And if you, if you, if you don't do anything about it, then you're just as bad as the abuser. So that was inbred. The music was by my family, you're all musicians and poets and educators and all that kind of stuff. And so it was always there. Robert Lipsyte: But your your act, your- I hesitate. You have politics, but your politics really comes first. I was surprised. Well, maybe I wasn't surprised. But you turned down money from the Coors Beer Company. Which kind of, could have helped that I guess and put you over Yeah. Why? I mean, this was this is money that would have helped the kids,would have helped the music, would've Johnny Colon: Well, yeah, but could I sleep, you know, at night, knowing that the workers in the brewery and in Colorado were being oppressed. You know, the, the Latino brothers and sisters there as well as the black workers there and, and the poor whites who work there were also being oppressed. And I didn't feel comfortable with that. And the, the overtures were made and, and the direction was set. And one of the people who happens to be a Latino also, who worked for the center, which was, you know, I just, I wouldn't have it. I could not take that kind of money. You know, I couldn't sleep, I couldn't take that kind of money. Robert Lipsyte: Do you have heroes? Are they all musicians? Johnny Colon: No, they're not all musicians, Albizu Campos is one of my heroes, because I thought he was a great man. And he was a man who, who fought for the liberation of Puerto Rico. Robert Lipsyte : Tell us about Campos, I'm not sure we all know who he is. Johnny Colon: Well, he was, he was a man who held several degrees, several doctorates, who believed in the independence of Puerto Rico and was caught up in that whole, that whole shootout in Washington around '53. And, and served all of his life and stayed in prison all of his life because of that. Robert Lipsyte 20:58 This is pretty radical, I mean, your heroe's a guy who tried to bump off one of our presidents. Johnny Colon: It's, it's, it's radical, and maybe that would not have been the direction I would have taken, you know, I don't think anybody should kill anybody, I really don't. But I think that when you're pushed in a corner, you know, and you've got nowhere to go, you try to do whatever you need to do to grab the attention of your movement, of your of your plight. And I think that that's really what it was all about. And he was willing to give his life to do that. And, in fact, I think that he, he thought he was going to die, I think he wanted to die. And he didn't, and he was tortured. He's a hero only because he had the conviction to put his life on the line for for the benefit of his people. And so that has to be respected. You have to admire that whether you believe in the idea, his ideology, political ideology, or not. Robert Lipsyte: Another thing that didn't totally surprise me, but certainly did interest me, we did a piece on AIDS and the minority community. And we found that one thing is that age tends to be denied, you know, in the Puerto Rican and the black communities is something that people don't want to talk about. And you wrote a song. Johnny Colon: Yes. And I'm not going to play it only because, you know, I'm not the guy who plays it. And I don't really know, in terms of the piano part. But yeah, it was it's a tune that we were commissioned to do, by the Department of Health. And we proposed it actually, in terms of doing the tune because the within the Puerto Rican community, in the Hispanic community at large, you know, it's not, it's not me. Robert Lipsyte: Do you want to play a little bit of it? Johnny Colon: Well, I don't, I don't sense- Robert Lipsyte: Are there English lyrics? Johnny Colon: No, Spanish lyrics, it goes like this. (Colon plays a bit of the song) Something like that. Anyway, what's it says, protect yourself, don't become a victim, and don't become a statistic. Education is where it's at. Robert Lipsyte: Well, I mean, writing a song like this, which is certainly not a mainstream thing to do, giving up Coors' money, your constant battles against community boards, you're holding on to your own thing. Do you think that that an artist has a political responsibility above his or her art? Johnny Colon: I think that the art becomes part of that political responsibility. And if you can use any tool that you need to use to, to get the things you want for a community, for your people, and for your way of life, then you use it. That's, that's always been my philosophy. And I've tried to maintain my life that way. |
00:25:19 1415.73 |
Interview with Colon continues:
Robert Lipsyte: Where does things begin? and end? I mean, where does the politician and the musician, or has it all come together now? Johnny Colon: Well, the reality is that they don't, they're not separate, they don't begin and end, you know, you're, even when you, when you, when you sing about love, when you think about love, to an extent, it's political, because if you love then you're a human being. And if you're a human being, is that humanity and if that's humanity, then you relate that to every other human being. And so they really don't separate. However, I do think that if more people who were involved in the performing arts would get involved a little more politically, and in deal with issues a little more, you know, dealing with, with a performance that deals with a political issue doesn't mean that you take the art away from the art. That's the problem. People think that once you go into a little political area with through the arts, you take it away. It's not true, but they had they, in no way shape or form, ever mentions AIDS. But it implies AIDS you see. And so if people can't take the brunt of AIDS, you still implied it. And you said, these are the steps to take to be able to last your whole life through. Robert Lipsyte: The East Harlem Music School is is a kind of, almost a political institution in El Barrio. Johnny Colon: At this point in time, it's uh, it's it's an institution. You could say it's political only because Robert Lipsyte: You're not you're not necessarily creating the next generation of bandleader. I mean, you're obviously creating the next generation of committed human beings. Johnny Colon: And I think that that's more important than creating the next generation of leaders. Because you you can be a bandleader and be a really nasty human being, or you can be a human being and be a bandleader. And I think that we will produce both we've produced some great musicians that have come out of the school and band leaders. But I think that we create an exceptional human being, or not create, we bring out the humanity and people that's that's more important. It's funny, but if you observe our theory classes in particular that I teach on Wednesday nights, you see the humanity. It's totally. Robert Lipsyte: Mede combe. Did I get that right? Mede combe, kind of a fusion of a lot of things that are going on now. After we say goodnight, I hope you'll play it. Johnny Colon: Always, be my pleasure. Robert Lipsyte: Thank you very much for being with us, Johnny. Johnny Colon : Thank you ever so much. |
00:27:53 1570.3 |
Interview concludes. Host Lipsyte announces the show and introduces himself as show ends.
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00:27:58 1575.34 |
Johnny Colon at piano plays a tune, show credits overlay.
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00:28:36 1613.62 |
Funding and grants for the showannounced and overlay The Eleventh Hour graphic.
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00:28:53 1630.26 |
Reel end.
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211 Third St, Greenport NY, 11944
[email protected]
631-477-9700
1-800-249-1940
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