July 8-14, 2004

music

Aqui Se Puede

GLOBETROTTERS: The Spanish Harlem Orchestra (above) actually has some Philly roots.

How Germantown's Aaron Levinson became a producer, label magnate and co-founder of the Spanish Harlem Orchestra.

by A.D. Amorosi

At 40, Aaron Levinson has lived more lives within Philadelphia's musical continuum than a pack of alley cats.

Now this cat with the Cheshire grin is sitting fat with a new label, Libertad Records, whose debut CD, Across 110th Street, comes from salsa's finest ensemble, the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, and their guest star, Ruben Blades.

"Libertad's motto is simple: Aqui se puede," says Levinson, happily. "You can do it here."

Levinson has done it here. Happily.

As a kid he gigged with neighbors Sun Ra and Byard Lancaster in Germantown. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, he produced mind-bending jazzheads Kurt Rosenwinkel and Edgar Bateman, pre-skronk rockers Stinking Lizaveta and EDO, and hip-hoppish in-betweeners Goats and Gutbucket — Levinson's avant-funk band. "Hijinks you can tell your grandkids about," jokes Levinson about his past, musical and otherwise.

He produced one CD for his fledgling Spruce Hill Music label in 1994, Respectfully Yours by Ali Abdul Majeed, a spacious, bare-bones recording of one of jazz's strangest, elegant guitarists.

"I had a run-in once with John Hammond Sr., who forced me to accept very deep things about technology," says Levinson. "Hammond impressed upon me that there's something special about making Spartan recordings, live — in a superb room with the right mic setup — that all the gizmos in the world can't replicate."

In '96, Levinson and local music attorney Brad Rubens founded RykoLatino for Rykodisc. There, Levinson signed and produced progressive acts like Jimmy Bosch, Plena Libre and Truco Y Zaperoko — giving each a brisk open sound. Five years later, Levinson gave that same sound to The Philadelphia Experiment, an idea he developed for Roots' drummer Ahmir Thompson, avant-classical pianist Uri Caine and fusion bassist Christian McBride. Produced by Levinson for the Ropeadope label, their eponymous CD was a left-field jazz-funk excursion that, in turn, paved the way for the Spanish Harlem Orchestra.

Once Levinson conceptualized the live, analog sound of a large-scale salsa ensemble, he brought the idea to legendary pianist Oscar Hernandez.

Un Gran Dia en el Barrio was born.

"I had a very definite way that I wanted to record Hernandez," says Levinson of the pianist who played previously with Celia Cruz and Daniel Ponce.

"I'm positive whether it's Ruben and Oscar who go back 30 years together, or Ahmir and Chris who go back 10 — when they sit in a room and laugh and think together, that interaction is the magic."

This goes in opposition to the record-biz dictum — "misery sticks to the tape."

"True friendship sticks to the tape," corrects Levinson with a laugh. "It's just not as loud as misery."

Like their previous effort, the newest Spanish Harlem Orchestra recording was produced by applying the "Sinatra/big band approach" of the '50s — everyone in one room, isolated but visible to Levinson, cut live to analog, no ProTools.

This helps recreate the "un-smooth" kick-ass density and interactive intensity that was the Fania label sound of '70s salsa.

Only Levinson had "24 gorgeous tracks" and the historic reunion of pianist-leader Hernandez with Ruben Blades. Salsa music's greatest singer spent too long a time away from the sounds of his past — one that began with Hernandez and Willie Colon.

Rather than record a covers-only album like Un Gran, Across 110th Street (named for the blaxploitation film and the salsa club of the '70s) benefits from five fiery originals, including one by Blades.

"Ruben brings living-legend status," says Levinson, who points not only toward Blades' "Tu Tel lo Pierdes," his smutty tale of a horny guy and a hysterical hooker, but to "Bailadores," a classic recorded by the Joe Cuba Sextet whose singer, Cheo Feliciano, influenced Blades.

"I wanted to highlight [the Spanish Harlem Orchestra's own] composers while sticking to the sonic signature of the first album." says Levinson. While "Un Gran Dia en el Barrio," written by singer Ray De La Paz, name-checks barrio greats with reverence, Hernandez's "Escucha el Ritmo" single-handedly revives cha-cha for the new millennium.

Then there's Ray Viera, the hippest salsa singer to emerge from North Philly, a great cantante and composer whose "Tun Tún Suena el Tambor" is a forceful tribute to the power of the drum and the drummer.

Across 110th Street is but the first step for Levinson's Libertad label. Along with offering Latin music lovers thick-sounding new albums like Musica Universal by Truco y Zaperoko, a series of compilations — Essential Latin Music and Lost Classics — will bring, lesser-knowns to the funky foreground.

"Whatever's needed to bring the highest quality salsa we can find to the world, one dancer at a time, I'll do," says Levinson.

World Music Wednesday presents Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Wed., July 14, 7:30 p.m., $25, Kimmel Center, 300 S. Broad St., 215-893-1999.