#148 Felipe Fournier- Vibraphonist, Multi-Percussionist, Latin Grammy Winning Producer & More!
This week’s guest is Felipe Fournier. He is a Latin Grammy-winning producer, vibraphonist/percussionist, musical director, arranger & educator from Costa Rica. He graduated from the Puerto Rico Music Conservatory, in Jazz and Caribbean Music. In 2017 Fournier won the Latin Grammy for Best Mariachi/Ranchero album for Las Caras Lindas by Flor de Toloache, as a producer. He was nominated before for Grammy & Latin Grammy; with Charlie Sepúlveda & The Turnaround (2008); Grammy & Latin Grammy with Nestor Torres Nouveau Latino (2009); Rubén Blades & Cheo Feliciano Eba Say Aja (2012); and Charlie Sepúlveda Mr. EP -A Tribute To Eddie Palmieri (2017). Based in New York City since 2013, Felipe is the musical director of Supermambo! A Vibes Tribute to Tito Puente; Luba Mason’s Triangle; Ballet Folklorico NEPANTLA; and the cabaret show The Mexican Affair among others. Fournier also plays as a sideman with Miguel Zenon’s SUR, Luisito Quintero's 3rd Element, Axel Tosca Quartet, Xiomara Laugart, Guillermo Klein, Consoul Big Band.
Shoutout to last week’s guest Mike Dawson, one of the co-hosts of the Modern Drummer Podcast with Mike and Mike. He gave this podcast a shoutout on his podcast last week and for that, we thank him.
R.I.P. to Justin Angel of NJ and also Ray Santos of NYC.
Gig alerts for this week…..
Damon will be in the Halloween parade with Scott Kettner’s Maracatu NY in the west village of NYC. Damon will also be playing duo with Ken Freeman at Cisco Brewers Portsmouth (NH) on the 7th & 8th of Nov. After that he is heading to Pasic, from Nov 13-16th.
Nov. 9, 3:30 pm: "Drum Improv: Organized Chaos?" discussion with Stanton Moore, Shannon Powell, and Herlin Riley, at New Orleans Jazz Museum at Freeman Auditorium, Tulane, part of Improv Conference New Orleans, Nov. 8-10
Nov. 15, Pedrito Martínez Group + Yoruba Ensemble at Kaufmann Concert Hall, 92Y.
Marcos will be playing at the Copacabana with Eddie Torres and his Mambo Orchestra on Nov 9th.
Educational Spotlight for this week…..
You can still pre-order Ari Herstand’s book “How to Make it in the New Music Business” (2nd Edition) and you can email him the receipt and get over $150 in bonuses. He’s very close to being a NY Times best seller, and with your pre-order, you can push him over the edge. Also, he has a band called the Brassroots District that Damon recorded percussion for.
Product Review for this week…..
Apple Announces AirPods Pro With Noise Cancellation — Priced at $249.
The iconic recording for this week is……
“Carioca” by Tito Puente from the ‘Night Beat’ album released in 1957.
Music News for this week…..
The Grammys organizer is giving artists a metadata gold mine to credit unrecognized music workers. Create your custom “Credit Cover(s)” by using the Credit Cover generator. Use the code BTR2019J to access the site. Health regulators in Virginia are asking the state’s legislature to establish a system for licensing music therapists. U.S. stops flights to all Cuban cities except Havana. Fight for the Future’s artist-led boycott of Amazon Music Festival continues with over 800 artists. Activist group Fight for the Future has managed to get 40 music festivals to ban facial recognition technology. To chase away homeless people, 7-Eleven stores in L.A. use classical music.
The song leading into the interview is “Nina” by Ruben Blades & Cheo Feliciano featuring Felipe on vibraphone.
Marcos and Felipe are on a new album released by Jeremy Bosch also featuring Marcos Lopez, Danny Torres and Yeisson Villamar.
Felipe grew up in Costa Rica before moving to Puerto Rico to attend the Puerto Rico Music Conservatory.
Here is an article to teach improvisation to musicians (as well as school bands) who normally do not improvise.
Felipe (and Damon) both studied with (friend of the show) Stefon Harris. If you would like to strengthen your harmony and ear training, check out Stefon’s app, the Harmony Cloud.
This is the video Damon was talking about explaining the Peruvian percussion ensemble of Cajon, Cajita and Jawbone. Felipe recommends, Cotito Medrano and his new album, “La Conexion” as well as Freddy “Huevito” Lobaton playing on the album “Nuevo Mundo” by Gabriel Alegria.
While in Puerto Rico, Felipe studied with Andrew Lazaro.
Felipe was a producer for the Latin Grammy winning group Flor de Toloache and connected with them shortly after moving to NYC. The arrangement of “Las Caras Lindas” that Felipe talks about uses the Bata drums from Cuba (originally from Nigeria).
Here’s a brief history of the Cajon that Damon mentions. Felipe mentions that the Tapatío is the percussive part of Mariachi (in addition to the percussive playing of the stringed instruments. He also mentions the Son Jarocho style of music from Vera Cruz and specifically the traditional group of Son De Madera. The more modern group would be Los Cojolites. They also released the album “Rema Rema” and were nominated for a Latin Grammy. Felipe also mentions the group “Los Vega”
Here’s an example of Felipe playing the cajon set that he talks about. You can see Felipe play this setup with Mireya Ramos, Axel Tosca and John Benitez at Joe’s Pub on Nov 2 in NYC.
The book Damon brings up is called Masters of the Vibes.
The albums of Tito Puente that Felipe mentions to check out are “the Complete 78s” Here are the first two volumes (out of four total). He also mentions vibraphonists Cal Tjader, Louie Ramierez and Tony Berrios.
The Tito Puente song Felipe mentions with the arrangement and space is “Ran Kan Kan”. This version he is playing vibraphone.
If you’re curious about the difference in record sizes (33 1/3, 78, & 45), you can read this article here.
Two of Felipe’s mentors are Walter Flores who produced Ruben Blades’ albums ‘Mundo’ and ‘Tiempos’. The salsa band in Costa Rica that Felipe has performed with is called, Son De Tikizia.
The other person Felipe credits for some of his mentorship is Carlos Vargas "Tapado".
The band that Felipe leads is called Supermambo!
The vibraphone that both Damon and Felipe have is the Pro Traveler vibraphone (model M48). He puts it on a Rock-N-Roller cart. He also uses the Yellow Albright series of Stefon Harris mallets by Malletech.
The podcast that Felipe co-hosts with Jeremy Bosch is called Echale Semilla. You can listen to is wherever you listen to podcasts.
The song leading out of the interview is "Tapado" by Felipe Fournier & [menos es más] Cuarteto.
