Breaking the silence

Alex Coolman

Through the static, he could almost hear Michael Jackson. He could barely

hear Lionel Richie’s soulful croon or Stevie Wonder’s wailing harmonica.

It was only when the weather was clear and the radio signals could arc

unimpeded through the sky that Arturo Sandoval could tune in the Florida

radio stations on his receiver in Havana.

And when the weather was poor, Sandoval couldn’t hear America anymore. He

was stuck in Cuba without radio contact. Isolated.

“That was the only way we had to listen to what was going on,” said the

acclaimed jazz trumpeter. “We had so many problems to getting access to

what was going on in the rest of the world.”But just as music gave

Sandoval his introduction to America, music eventually became his ticket

into the country.

Sandoval, who comes to the Orange County Performing Arts Center tonight

through Sunday, visited the U.S. for the first time in 1978, with his

fusion band Irakere.

It was an auspicious introduction: The band came to play at Carnegie Hall

in New York City.

“The hotel was just across the street, the Salisbury,” he recalled.

“That’s one of the biggest impressions of my life. We couldn’t even

imagine we were going to be so lucky.”

For Sandoval, Carnegie Hall was just the beginning.

The player known for his indomitable energy and his finesse with the high

notes went on to be named Cuba’s Best Instrumentalist from 1982 to 1984,

releasing a number of successful solo records and piling up a dozen

Grammy nominations.

Sandoval also struck a friendship and working relationship with legendary

bebop trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, who died in 1993. The two met in 1977,

when Gillespie stopped in Havana for 48 hours during a jazz cruise.

“We played together, and from then on I started playing with him,”

Sandoval remembered.

The pair of trumpeters seemed to have an immediate chemistry in their

relationship, he said. “We connected like we met all our lives. I felt so

great an admiration and respect for him even before I met him. I was in

heaven.”

Thirteen years later, the friendship took an important turn, when

Gillespie and Sandoval walked together into the American Embassy in Rome.

With Gillespie at his side, Sandoval asked for political asylum.

“That’s a big step, you know,” Sandoval said. “I was moving out of my

country forever and never was able to come back.”The sight of the famous

musicians wowed the consulate staff, and it wasn’t long before Sandoval

was established in a small apartment in Miami. In retrospect, he said,

the move made all the difference for his career. In Cuba, it was

difficult to garner the recognition he felt he deserved.

“I’m playing music for 40 years. The first 30 years, I was having a lot

of problems to get my music in clubs. For any little things I achieve in

my life, you have to fight very hard.”

Though a handful of Cuban musicians have recently achievedprominence in

connection with the film and record of “The Buena Vista Social Club,”

Sandoval says the general fate of the players in his country has been

bleak.

“I’m very happy for those people, the Buena Vistas or whatever they call

them,” Sandoval said.

But most musicians don’t have the chance to become movie stars, and their

lives suffer in a climate of neglect.

Cuba’s political isolation, Sandoval believes, has had serious

consequences on the musicians’ ability to make a living with their music,

or be remembered for their talent.

“It’s such a big group of great Cuban musicians who passed away, and

nobody knew who they were.”

Had he stayed in Havana, Sandoval confirmed, a similar fate would

probably have awaited him.

“I have no doubts at all,” he said. “You need some support. You need a

record label. You need a manager. Maybe I would have been one of those

Buena Vista guys. Maybe that would be my opportunity. But I’d have had to

wait another 10 years, and I didn’t want to do it.”

FYI

* What: Arturo Sandoval

* When: 7:30 and 9:30 tonight and Saturday, and 1 p.m. Sunday

* Where: Orange County Performing Arts Center’s Founders Hall, 600 Town

Center Drive, Costa Mesa

* Tickets: $42 for performances at 1 and 7:30 p.m., $36 for 9:30

performance* Call: (714) 740-7878