Paquito D'Rivera: Frank West used to say that the clarinet was invented by five men that never met.

[laughter]

Manny Ax: From WQXR and Carnegie Hall, this is Classical Music Happy Hour, hosted by me, pianist Manny Ax. Each episode will speak with a special guest about their lives. Listen to some of their favorite musical gems, play music-inspired games, and answer questions from you, our listeners. Saxophonist, clarinetist, composer, author, it's hard to put my guest today in a single category. At least, I know he's not a football quarterback. Born in Cuba in 1948, he's a founding member of the Cuban Modern Music Orchestra and, along with Chucho and Oscar Valdés, the innovative ensemble Irakere.

Over the course of his career, El Paq-Man, as he's known, has racked up 16 Grammys and Latin Grammys awards and recorded more than 40 solo albums. Paquito D'Rivera, welcome to the show. It's a great honor.

Paquito D'Rivera: Thank you for having me here, Manny. I can't-can't believe that I am in the same studio with you. I admire you for so many years, you know.

Manny Ax: It's--

Paquito D’Rivera: I am a lucky guy.

Manny Ax: I'm at least as lucky as you, so it's wonderful to have you. How old were you when you started? When you first got a-an instrument in your hand?

Paquito D’Rivera: Five years old.

Manny Ax: Five years old. And from your father?

Paquito D’Rivera: Yes.

Manny Ax: Yeah.

Paquito D’Rivera: My father was a retired from the army. So he used to practice his tenor saxophone 26 hours a day.

Manny Ax: Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

Paquito D’Rivera: The entire day. And he gave me a plastic saxophone.

Manny Ax: Uh-huh.

Paquito D’Rivera: From Sears or something.

Manny Ax: Right, right.

Paquito D’Rivera: And then th-they say that I pretend to practice next to him.

Manny Ax: I see.

Paquito D’Rivera: So he saw that I-- my-my inclination to, uh, the music world, and then he gave to me a little soprano that I still have that-that instrument, and he presented me when I was six years old.

Manny Ax: Fantastic, fantastic.

Paquito D’Rivera: So when that happened 70 years a-ago.

Manny Ax: I heard in one of your interviews something very important, I think. You were talking about playing and teaching, and you said it doesn't always go together. And being a great teacher is like its own talent.

Paquito D’Rivera: I-it's a total different talent, so--

Manny Ax: I completely agree with you. Yeah. Yeah.

Paquito D’Rivera: Some people, they definitely knows how to explain things.

Manny Ax: Right.

Paquito D’Rivera: That's all what it is.

Manny Ax: Right.

Paquito D’Rivera: The people that know how to explain to others how to do, you know.

Manny Ax: And especially, I think that in a way, the most difficult thing is when you have young kids. Because when they're older, already musicians, you know, you can talk about music.

Paquito D’Rivera: Yeah.

Manny Ax: But to teach young children, to keep them interested, and still to be serious. To have fun and to be serious, it's a special talent.

Paquito D’Rivera: Yes.

Manny Ax: Your father must have been fantastic.

Paquito D’Rivera: He used to say that, "You learn more from your students that what the student learn from you."

Manny Ax: Uh-huh.

Paquito D’Rivera: Mainly because sometimes they ask you things that you never asked yourself.

Manny Ax: Uh-huh.

Paquito D’Rivera: But you have to find a way to answer it, uh, because they-

Manny Ax: Yeah.

Paquito D’Rivera: -hey are waiting for you to answer that question. So you have to do a research in-in- y-- in yourself and find the answer.

Manny Ax: Was he a nice teacher or a tough teacher?

Paquito D’Rivera: Uh, well, he was a-a tough teacher.

Manny Ax: Tough teacher. Uh-huh. Okay. [chuckles]

Paquito D’Rivera: Ye-yeah. But I was a very rebellious, uh, student, too.

Manny Ax: I see. I see.

Paquito D’Rivera: Especially because I inherited from him, I had, uh, to develop sense of humor. I was a prankster.

Manny Ax: Uh-huh.

Paquito D’Rivera: And my father want me [chuckles] to be a little more serious, you know, in what I was doing.

Manny Ax: Uh-huh. Did you practice a lot?

Paquito D’Rivera: I am not a good practitioner, you know. But with him, you had to practice, you know. He love Jascha Heifetz.

Manny Ax: Yes.

Paquito D’Rivera: He said, "You see the way Jascha Heifetz play? There is no-no shortcuts for that."

[music]

Manny Ax: You were very influenced by Benny Goodman.

Paquito D’Rivera: A lot.

Manny Ax: Yeah.

Paquito D’Rivera: Still-still today, sometimes I-I steal one of two of his phrases.

Manny Ax: What are the characteristics of his playing that you love?

Paquito D’Rivera: The sound. Music is about sound.

Manny Ax: Uh-huh.

Paquito D’Rivera: He has a very recognizable and beautiful sound.

Manny Ax: Uh-huh.

Paquito D’Rivera: Because some other people have recognizable but horrible sound. [laughter] You can recognize the face of Frankenstein.

Manny Ax: [laughs] Yeah. Yes.

Paquito D’Rivera: Oh, immediately you recognize that, but it's horrible. [laughter] But Benny had a beautiful timbre,-

Manny Ax: Uh-huh.

Paquito D’Rivera: -you know, to play the-the clarinet.

Manny Ax: I see.

Paquito D’Rivera: Which is an instrument that is very easy to make it sound horrible. The saxophone is a more reasonable instrument, I call it.

Manny Ax: Uh-huh.

Paquito D’Rivera: You know?

Manny Ax: Uh-huh.

Paquito D’Rivera: The clarinet is that you have to pay attention of what you are doing because in any minute it will go [onomatopoeia].

Manny Ax: I see. I see. [chuckles]

Paquito D’Rivera: I remember that I-I-I asked the wonderful Phil Woods once, "What is your clarinet?" And he said, "My clarinet is a lamp now." [laughter] That instrument scream, uh, in the case. It will go [onomatopoeia]. [laughter] You have to take care of what you are doing. It's like- it's like a violin or something.

Manny Ax: Uh-huh.

Paquito D’Rivera: That doesn't make any sense, but it's-- that's the way it is. Frank West used to say that the clarinet was invented by five men that never met. [laughter] And it's true.

Manny Ax: Wonder-wonderful. You were able to play Benny Goodman's clarinet at Carnegie Hall. Uh--

Paquito D’Rivera: It's a great instrument. It's not the instrument that he played at Carnegie Hall in 1938.

Manny Ax: Right, a different one.

Paquito D’Rivera: Because that was a Selmer. The one that I played was a Buffet. Eh, it looked like, it's-- was an instrument made for a star like him.

Manny Ax: I see.

Paquito D’Rivera: It's a very fine instrument.

Manny Ax: Uh-huh. And was it also kind of a-a-a great feeling of connection or?

Paquito D’Rivera: W-w-was an honor, you know, to be invited.

Manny Ax: Uh-huh.

Paquito D’Rivera: The only thing that I was so sorry was that my father was not there because he was the person who planted that in my heart.

Manny Ax: Yeah.

Paquito D’Rivera: That, uh, was, uh, a very touching feeling.

Manny Ax: A-a touching moment.

Paquito D’Rivera: You know, playing the Benny Goodman clarinet. Yeah.

[music]

Manny Ax: I'm hoping that you can help me answer some questions about classical music from our listeners.

Paquito D’Rivera: Yeah.

Manny Ax: We've invited them to submit their questions, and we're going to do our best to answer them. And if I don't know the answer, I'll just make something up.

Paquito D’Rivera: Let's do it.

Manny Ax: That's all.

Paquito D’Rivera: Remember that I have o-only 100 words in English. [laughter] And 50 of them are not very cultured.

Manny Ax: That's okay.

Paquito D’Rivera: So--

Manny Ax: I answer everything in Polish, so nobody knows-- nobody understands anything. So it's perfect. So this is a write-in question, so I'm going to read the question.

Paquito D’Rivera: Uh, okay.

Manny Ax: I never understood why woodwinds such as the B-flat clarinet, E-flat saxophone, and so forth don't sound the note they're reading. Is it to do with the fingering? Is it easier to read the music without flats? Why don't we all play C clarinets?

Paquito D’Rivera: Because the different instruments in a different keys, m-make the sound totally different. The C clarinet is too bright.

Manny Ax: Uh-huh.

Paquito D’Rivera: The B-flat is mellower, and the A clarinet is like honey.

Manny Ax: I see.

Paquito D’Rivera: You know.

Manny Ax: I see.

Paquito D’Rivera: It's a mo-- a little more complicated instrument because of the intonation and all of that, but, uh, just for me. But the different sizes of the instruments-

Manny Ax: Uh-huh.

Paquito D’Rivera: -have to do a lot with the chord of the instrument.

Manny Ax: The-- I see. But I'm curious. Let's say you bring your B-flat clarinet.

Paquito D’Rivera: Mm-hmm.

Manny Ax: And the music that you're playing for happens to be written for A clarinet. You have to actually deal with that, right?

Paquito D’Rivera: You have to deal with that.

Manny Ax: Oh, my God. [chuckles]

Paquito D’Rivera: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I used to do that very good.

Manny Ax: Uh-huh.

Paquito D’Rivera: Especially that transposing type of thing.

Manny Ax: Uh-huh.

Paquito D’Rivera: From B-flat to A.

Manny Ax: I see.

Paquito D’Rivera: Was very common because in Cuba, very few people have A-clarinets. We were fantastic transposing, you know.

Manny Ax: Uh-huh.

Paquito D’Rivera: "No, it's A clarinet," but then, no-no problem.

Manny Ax: Yes.

Paquito D’Rivera: So we used to do that very well.

Manny Ax: There are piano geniuses who play with singers very often.

Paquito D’Rivera: Often, yeah.

Manny Ax: And you know, they have music in let's say B-flat, and the singer will say, "No, I-I need it lower. I would like to do it in A-flat." And the pianist says, "Oh, it's no problem. I just play it that way."

Paquito D’Rivera: Oh, yeah.

Manny Ax: They're in-- they're quite genius people. [chuckles]

Paquito D’Rivera: I know some pianists who do that. The pianist, Uruguayan pianist that is a fantastic doing that, like Pablo Ziegler.

Manny Ax: Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

Paquito D’Rivera: Uh, Uruguayan pianist, uh, from-from New York.

Manny Ax: I see.

Paquito D’Rivera: He wa--

Manny Ax: He just--

Paquito D’Rivera: Always dealing with singers, I am so sorry for him. Because, [laughs] "Maestro, I don't feel very good." She would say, "Uh, that's not my problem, man." [laughter] But then he goes and play in any key.

[music]

Manny Ax: You go from classical music, jazz, Latino, you name it, you compose. Is it just natural to go from one to the other? I mean, it's-- for you, is it natural to play the Brahms Clarinet Trio?

Paquito D’Rivera: Uh.

Manny Ax: And then the next minute to play something like,-

Paquito D’Rivera: Una rumba.

Manny Ax: -uh, co-contrada—una rumba, or Contradanza? It's just natural, yeah?

Paquito D’Rivera: [chuckles] Well, you know that you don't play two styles of music the same way. You have to do minor or major, uh, adjustments. You don't play the same way Stravinsky that the way you play Heifetz.

Manny Ax: Mm. Mm-hmm.

Paquito D’Rivera: It's a totally different way of approaching music. You don't play the Cuban music like you play Brazilian music, for example.

Manny Ax: Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

Paquito D’Rivera: Brazilian music is more nostalgic.

Manny Ax: I see.

Paquito D’Rivera: Cuban is a- is a more spontaneous, I can say that. Brazilian, they mix happiness with-- they-they have something called, uh, nostalgia thing, saudade.

Manny Ax: Yes.

Paquito D’Rivera: The saudade is something that the Brazilian musicians put in their music that have no explanation. I ask them, "Is that nostalgia?"

Manny Ax: Uh-huh.

Paquito D’Rivera: They say, "No, it's a lot more than that." It's interesting, you have to adapt yourself to the difference when you pass from one composer to the other. So the same thing when you pass-

Manny Ax: Yeah.

Paquito D’Rivera: -from one style of music to another, you know?

Manny Ax: Yeah. So we have a treat, I hope, for our listening audience. And that is, Paquito wrote the piece called Contradanza. And I'm going to try and fake my way [scoffs] through the accompaniment so that we can hear Paquito D'Rivera play this piece, and I have the pleasure of watching him and messing up with the piano notes, but getting to hear you play.

Paquito D’Rivera: And I'm very happy that we are going to play specifically this piece because Contradanza is dedicated to the most representative of all Cuban musicians. A great concert pianist and composer by the name of Ernesto Lecuona.

Manny Ax: Okay.

Paquito D’Rivera: So it's an honor to do it, especially with the fantastic pianist that I have here with me, Manny Ax. [laughs]

Manny Ax: Yeah. Next-next year, I will practice it.

Paquito D’Rivera: Yeah.

Manny Ax: I need one year, and then I'll be ready to play.

[laughter]

Paquito D’Rivera: I'll be ready, waiting for you.

Manny Ax: I'll be ready to play. And we have to do some Brahms also.

Paquito D’Rivera: Oh, very good. We do the trio with Yo-Yo.

Manny Ax: So let's-let's have a go at it. [music] Okay, so we try? Okay.

Paquito D’Rivera: Let's do it.

[music]

Manny Ax: I'm Manny Ax, and this is Classical Music Happy Hour. We'll return in just a moment. This is Classical Music Happy Hour. I'm Manny Ax. Let's rejoin our conversation with Paquito D'Rivera. This show is called Classical Music Happy Hour. What is your favorite drink after a long day of work?

Paquito D’Rivera: Well, you know, I like non-alcoholic beers.

Manny Ax: Oh, I see.

Paquito D’Rivera: I don't drink alcohol-

Manny Ax: Uh-huh.

Paquito D’Rivera: -for a few years now.

Manny Ax: Uh-huh.

Paquito D’Rivera: But I love the taste of the beer.

Manny Ax: Yes, I see.

Paquito D’Rivera: And especially in Spain, they have different brands of-

Manny Ax: Uh-huh.

Paquito D’Rivera: -non-alcoholic beer, and I love that.

Manny Ax: Fantastic.

Paquito D’Rivera: I can even drink it and play a concert.

Manny Ax: Yeah. No, I agree. I love it as well.

Paquito D’Rivera: Uh-huh.

Manny Ax: I think it's wonderful.

Paquito D’Rivera: Uh-huh.

Manny Ax: What is the best book that you ever read about music?

Paquito D’Rivera: One of my favorites is the Oscar Peterson biography that is called Jazz Odyssey. And I was very impressed with that book because Oscar Peterson was a great pianist, but also he writes very well, he's a poet too. He was a poet.

Manny Ax: Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

Paquito D’Rivera: So it's-it's amazing the hi- the history of this man. I read constantly.

Manny Ax: Uh-huh.

Paquito D’Rivera: But this is a book that impressed me very much.

Manny Ax: Great. I'll have to get it.

Paquito D’Rivera: By Oscar Peterson.

Manny Ax: What is the first album that you bought with your own money?

Paquito D’Rivera: Wow. That is hard for me. I remember the first album that I heard that my father played for me, which was Benny Goodman live at Carnegie Hall.

Manny Ax: (chuckles) And when you heard the name, this is-- [laughter] this is-- [laughter] this-- [laughter] is one of my favorite things that-that I ever heard. That's when he told you it was Benny Goodman at Carnegie Hall-

Paquito D’Rivera: Carnegie Hall.

Manny Ax: -what-what did you hear?

Paquito D’Rivera: I only understood carne y frijoles.

Manny Ax: And what-- and you said, "What does beef and beans have to do with music?"

[laughter]

Paquito D’Rivera: With-with what my mother cooked at home. Then he played to me the city of New York. Ever since, I-I was obsessed, you know, with the city of New York and being a musician here. And, uh,-

Manny Ax: Yeah.

Paquito D’Rivera: -well, finally, I become a musician in the city of New York.

Manny Ax: It's fantastic. It's a fabulous, fabulous remark. Which composer would you like to have dinner with the most?

Paquito D’Rivera: Antônio Carlos Jobim, for example-

Manny Ax: Really.

Paquito D’Rivera: -is one of my favorite. Yeah. If he choose the food, probably he would choose some beans also.

Manny Ax: Okay.

[laughter]

Paquito D’Rivera: You know he's Brazilian.

[laughter]

Manny Ax: So carne y frijoles.

Paquito D’Rivera: Yeah, yeah.

Manny Ax: Okay.

[music]

Manny Ax: How do you learn to improvise? Because I'm so hopeless. You know, when I started as a kid, you play exactly what's on the page.

Paquito D’Rivera: Which is not really exactly.

Manny Ax: Well-well, it's never exactly right. I agree--

Paquito D’Rivera: No. You had a lot of--

Manny Ax: I agree with you.

Paquito D’Rivera: Yeah, I know.

Manny Ax: I agree with you. But--

Paquito D’Rivera: And there is no too many Manny Axes around, you know, the interpretation of the music.

Manny Ax: I just mean, you know, the idea of actually deciding at a moment instead of playing the duples, you play triplets. I'm just beginning to learn in Mozart piano concertos, where the tradition really was to add many things in the slow movements, to add little notes and passages. It's a kind of improvisation, but the kind you do is-- uh, it's phenomenal. You have to understand the harmony so well.

Paquito D’Rivera: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Manny Ax: Yeah.

Paquito D’Rivera: You have to know harmony by theory or by ear. Some people learn it by ear,-

Manny Ax: Yeah.

Paquito D’Rivera: -and they don't know what they are playing.

Manny Ax: But-but they hear it.

Paquito D’Rivera: Everybody has a different way to do things.

Manny Ax: Is there a way to learn to improvise, do you think?

Paquito D’Rivera: I think Paul Desmond say that-that you can learn.

Manny Ax: Yeah.

Paquito D’Rivera: I learned by transcribing. And I started with the Benny Goodman concerto in all the pieces that he played there.

Manny Ax: Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

Paquito D’Rivera: I used to with my little soprano saxophone. I try to transcribe by ear all the solos, not only from Benny but from Harry James,-

Manny Ax: I see.

Paquito D’Rivera: -Lionel Hampton, the wonderful Teddy Wilson, that, uh, was one my favorite musician.

Manny Ax: Yes. Yes. Fabulous, yeah.

Paquito D’Rivera: Uh, and Toots Mondello. I used to copy all those solos. I think if I play the LP now, the recording, I still I can play all those solos. And then some friends of my father, who was improviser, told me, "On top of those solo, you try to do your own solo."

Manny Ax: Ah.

Paquito D’Rivera: Mainly by ear.

Manny Ax: Yeah. So you just--

Paquito D’Rivera: It's mainly by ear, but it's good to learn harmony, you know, to have a good, uh--

Manny Ax: Yeah. But then you just experiment.

Paquito D’Rivera: Try and fail, that what it is.

Manny Ax: But it's phenomenal. It's a phenomenal art.

Paquito D’Rivera: See, we are talking about only the jazz improvisation, but I know a fantastic improviser in classical music. Her name is Gabriela Montero.

Manny Ax: Of course. Of course.

Paquito D’Rivera: A wonderful pianist.

Manny Ax: Wonderful.

Paquito D’Rivera: And-and sometimes she cannot tell you what she's doing.

Manny Ax: Right. Right.

Paquito D’Rivera: She told me, "You know, I really don't get what it is. But you like it, I love it."

Manny Ax: Yeah. No, she's quite phenomenal. As far as classical piano,-

Paquito D’Rivera: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Manny Ax: -there's Robert Levin,-

Paquito D’Rivera: Yeah.

Manny Ax: -who improvises a cadenza for Mozart every time different, you know,-

Paquito D’Rivera: Yeah.

Manny Ax: -on the stage. So there are people. Yeah, Gabriela is amazing, of course, yeah.

Paquito D’Rivera: Gabriela is amazing. And I like improvising because, since I was a kid, I played the Mozart concerto a few times.

Manny Ax: Uh-huh.

Paquito D’Rivera: Then I used to learn the written ones-

Manny Ax: Mh-hmm.

Paquito D’Rivera: -by people like Simeon Bellison and people that knows the style very well.

Manny Ax: Yes.

Paquito D’Rivera: Those cadenzas are very well written, but I prefer to do my own cadenza, which is, I think, what they used to do in those days.

Manny Ax: Uh-huh. In the slow movements especially, they-- it would never be what's on the page. He writes sometimes a half note and then a quarter note, and he himself probably played all kinds of roulades and passages and-and so forth.

Paquito D’Rivera: And jokes, you know that because I-I-

Manny Ax: And-and jokes, yeah. Yeah.

Paquito D’Rivera: -I heard that he was a pranker, too.

Manny Ax: He was a prankster. [laughter] Yeah. Apparently, he was a prankster from the letters you know a little bit.

Paquito D’Rivera: Yeah, yeah.

Manny Ax: Yeah. Yeah.

[music]

Manny Ax: We have another write-in question. Are you born with perfect pitch, or can you develop perfect pitch?

Paquito D’Rivera: Well, I saw an advertise in a magazine that there is a guy who say that you can acquire that thing. I don't know, I never checked, but no, I don't have perfect pitch.

Manny Ax: Yeah.

Paquito D'Rivera: No.

Manny Ax: I-I don't either, but I know that Leonard Bernstein was asked the question. He did not have perfect pitch.

Paquito D'Rivera: Ah.

Manny Ax: He had relative pitch,-

Paquito D'Rivera: Relative pitch.

Manny Ax: -you know? And some people-- you know, if I hear a note on the piano, I usually can know what note it is, but if you say, "Sing C," I couldn't find it, and you couldn't either, right?

Paquito D'Rivera: No.

Manny Ax: No.

Paquito D'Rivera: I can't do that.

Manny Ax: No. You have-- yeah, you have to hear it.

Paquito D'Rivera: It-it is-- it's not very common, that type of- that type of thing.

Manny Ax: No, probably not.

Paquito D'Rivera: Yeah. [chuckles]

Manny Ax: Probably not. It's interesting because also my wife does have-

Paquito D'Rivera: Ah

Manny Ax: -a perfect pitch, but for her it's a problem now, because you probably know that the general pitch of orchestras and of instruments has kept going up, up, up, up, up, little-little by little.

Paquito D'Rivera: More and more and more.

Manny Ax: Yeah.

Paquito D'Rivera: Tell me about it.

Manny Ax: It becomes-- so the A from our childhood-

Paquito D'Rivera: 440.

Manny Ax: -it was 440 megahertz, and now it's probably 445.

Paquito D'Rivera: That much, huh?

Manny Ax: Yeah, that much. So-so she says very often she hears a piece in B-flat, but she hears it in B.

Paquito D'Rivera: Well, but also-

Manny Ax: You know?

Paquito D'Rivera: -when I talk about perfect pitch, I am talking about harmonically, too.

Manny Ax: Right, that too, which has-- which changed, yes.

Paquito D'Rivera: People like-like-like-like Chucho, you-you can't do whatever wrong in the piano, and he tell you-

Manny Ax: Yes.

Paquito D'Rivera: -all the notes.

Manny Ax: He tells you everything, yeah.

Paquito D'Rivera: Yeah.

Manny Ax: Boulez was like that.

Paquito D'Rivera: Boulez too, right?

Manny Ax: Pierre Boulez was like that, yeah.

Paquito D'Rivera: No, Stravinsky was not.

Manny Ax: Really?

Paquito D'Rivera: I wa-- I heard that--

Manny Ax: Stravinsky wasn't like that.

Paquito D'Rivera: I have a friend of my-my assistant, Juan Ruiz, who told me that Stravinsky used to have a person that he'd bring this person to-to rehearsals-

Manny Ax: Mm-hmm.

Paquito D'Rivera: -in case there is some note that he wrote wrong in the orchestra, and Stravinsky was not able to detect the note.

Manny Ax: Interesting.

Paquito D'Rivera: I heard that, you know?

Manny Ax: Yeah.

Paquito D'Rivera: They-they say yes. They call him The Ear or something.

Manny Ax: [laughs] I see.

Paquito D'Rivera: Yeah. The-the guy said, "Oh, yeah, but, uh, I-Igor, the second trumpet, that-that is a wrong note," and all that.

Manny Ax: [laughs] Amazing.

Paquito D'Rivera: Because he didn't hear this. You know, I wrote it, but I don't-- something is wrong, but I do not know what is wrong.

Manny Ax: I see. [laughs]

[music]

Manny Ax: As you know, sometimes, uh, the stuff I do, the classical music, sometimes it's a very serious stuff, but I'm hoping that you can help me a little bit to be not so serious. [laughs] And we have a game to play. It's called Animal or Instrument. We're going to hear sounds, we have to decide, is this an animal or is it a musical instrument? So are you ready to play?

Paquito D'Rivera: Yeah, let's go for it.

Manny Ax: Okay, let's try it. [laughs]

[sound plays]

Paquito D'Rivera: That sounds to me like an electronic instrument or something.

Manny Ax: You know what, I think it's an instrument, not an animal.

Paquito D'Rivera: Uh-huh.

Manny Ax: I think it's a slow version of a wind machine like they have in Don Quixote of Strauss.

Paquito D'Rivera: Yeah.

Manny Ax: I think-- I th-- I'm guessing that that's what it is. So, I think the answers are written here. That was an animal.

Paquito D'Rivera: Yeah?

Manny Ax: [laughs] Yeah.

Paquito D'Rivera: A boar.

Manny Ax: It's-it's a ty-- no, it's a type of seal that lives in the Antarctic [laughter] and they weigh up to 1,100 pounds.

Paquito D'Rivera: It shows.

Manny Ax: Yeah.

Paquito D'Rivera: It sound like that?

Manny Ax: And so even 100 pounds more than me. [laughter] So, okay, number two.

[sound plays]

Paquito D'Rivera: Can you play that again, please?

[sound plays]

Manny Ax: Well, I mean, it sounds like a bird, huh?

Paquito D'Rivera: [imitates instrument] That sound like a bird to me, too.

Manny Ax: Yeah? Shall we guess a bird?

Paquito D'Rivera: Yeah, that's a bird.

Manny Ax: [laughs] No, it's not a bird. It's an instrument.

Paquito D'Rivera: It's an instrument?

Manny Ax: That's right.

Paquito D'Rivera: What type of instrument is that?

Manny Ax: It's called the seagull effect, and it's a technique for the cello.

Paquito D'Rivera: For the cello?

Manny Ax: For the cello.

Paquito D'Rivera: We have to tell Yo-Yo-

Manny Ax: We have to tell--

Paquito D'Rivera: -to get that. [laughs]

Manny Ax: Yeah, we have to tell Yo-Yo, then the next time he plays the Dvořák Concerto,-

Paquito D'Rivera: Yeah. [laughs]

Manny Ax: -he can add, you know, a little bit for the bird on the side. [laughs]

Paquito D'Rivera: I-in-in the cabeza- in the cabeza.

[laughter]

Manny Ax: Okay, let's do number three. [laughs]

[sound plays]

Paquito D'Rivera: That's a contrabassoon.

Manny Ax: You, the contrabassoon?

Paquito D'Rivera: Yeah.

Manny Ax: Okay. I--

Paquito D'Rivera: To me, it sound like a contrabassoon.

Manny Ax: I go with you. I go--

Paquito D'Rivera: [imitates instrument]

Manny Ax: I go- I go with you.

Paquito D'Rivera: Oh.

Manny Ax: I go with you. That's an animal. [laughs]

Paquito D'Rivera: Yeah?

Manny Ax: Yeah. [laughs] It's--

Paquito D'Rivera: Very im--

Manny Ax: It's- it's called a musk ox. It's found in cold places. They live in the Arctic, and they produce a kind [laughs] of wool that's called qiviut.

Paquito D'Rivera: "Oh."

[laughter]

Paquito D'Rivera: "Oh, it's-it's cold here."

Manny Ax: So, if-if I could get a jacket from this wool, I could go around, [imitates instrument]

[laughter]

Paquito D'Rivera: "It's-it's cold here."

Manny Ax: Do we have one more? We have one more. Yeah, okay. [laughs]

[sound plays]

Manny Ax: What?

[laughter]

Paquito D'Rivera: That's the water. It's-it's an instrument in the water. It's-it's somebody-- it's Wynton Marsalis playing his trumpet in the- in the swimming pool.

[laughter]

Manny Ax: So what do you think? What-what's your guess?

Paquito D'Rivera: Wow. It's like-- it's-it's like something-- somebody blowing instrument in a-- in-in-- underwater or something, but on the surface.

Manny Ax: Yeah. On the surface of the water?

Paquito D'Rivera: Yeah.

Manny Ax: Yeah. [chuckles]

Paquito D'Rivera: But I don't know if it's a person or-or an animal. [laughter] Yeah.

Manny Ax: It's an animal playing a trumpet. [laughs]

Paquito D'Rivera: Yeah.

Manny Ax: Okay, let's see. It's an instrument.

Paquito D'Rivera: Oh.

Manny Ax: Okay? But used up-- you were 100% right, almost, 99. That's a trumpet played into a bowl of Jell-O.

[laughter]

[music]

Manny Ax: Paquito D'Rivera, thank you so much for joining us today. It's a great, great honor and pleasure. It's wonderful to talk to you.

Paquito D'Rivera: Thank you for having me in mind, because I am an old fan.

[music]

Manny Ax: Hi. I'm Manny Ax, and this is Classical Music Happy Hour. Classical Music Happy Hour is supported in part by the Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation, and by Linda Nelson. Our production team includes Lauren Purcell-Joiner, Eileen Delahunty, Laura Boyman, Elizabeth Nonamaker, David Norville, Christine Herskovits, and Ed Yim. Our engineering team includes George Wellington, Irene Trudel, and Chase Culpon. Classical Music Happy Hour is produced by WQXR in partnership with Carnegie Hall.

[music]

 

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