FEATURE ARTICLE
A Homecoming for Gladys "Havana" Carbo
by Seth Rogovoy(PITTSFIELD, Mass., Jan. 24, 1997) -- When Havana Carbo kicks off the Berkshire Museum's winter jazz series on Saturday night at 8, it will be more than just a concert. For Carbo, at least, it will be a homecoming.
"I feel a little bit like the prodigal daughter," said the former resident of Stockbridge better known locally as Gladys Carbo, in a recent phone interview from her New York City apartment. "I have lots of friends in the Berkshires, and I left because of a divorce, and I'm coming back feeling good about myself, feeling that it didn't destroy me. I feel I've never been happier in my life. It made me stronger and there are things that I can do now that I couldn't do before, things that I can bring to my music that I could never bring to it before."
The singer, a native of Cuba who grew up in New York City and who specializes in Cuban and Brazilian music and jazz standards, will be performing with her group, the Havana Midnight Jazz Quintet, featuring pianist Alain Mallet, bassist Oscar Stagnara, saxophonist Oscar Feldman, and drummer Mark Walker, all of whom perform with the acclaimed saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera.
Carbo's program, "Double Rainbow," will include Brazilian sambas, Cuban boleros and popular songs by Sammy Cahn, Kurt Weill, Billy Barnes and Cole Porter. It will also include music by well-known Brazilian composers Antonio Jobim and Ivan Lins.
Tickets are $12, $10 for museum members and $6 for students. Call 443- 7171 for more information.
Carbo first came to the Berkshires in 1965, shortly after she had put aside her early attempt at a career as a vocalist, which began when she sang with ensembles in high school in New York. After graduation, she began singing in nightclubs, but parental pressure put a stop to that before she had a chance to establish herself.
"Nice girls don't sing in nightclubs late at night and have the saxophone player drive them home," said Carbo, relating her parents' attitude to her chosen profession, "so I had to give it up. Had I been singing opera that would have been different. But nightclubs meant cigarettes and liquor and all that. That whole picture didn't sit well with my parents.
"Then I married a Cuban man who did not want that either. He didn't even want me to sing in the chorus. And I was a very obedient wife in those days, so I gave it up." In Stockbridge she raised a family and lived a typical Berkshire life, she said. Then one day in 1980, a friend who owned a restaurant heard her sing casually at a party and asked her to sing at the restaurant.
"I hadn't performed in ages, twenty-odd years, but I did a weekend there. It was kind of brave or stupid of me to do this," she said. "But I did have an incredible repertoire of Latin American music, Cuban boleros -- which is what I grew up with -- and of course jazz that I did in high school and afterwards."
The gig was a success and led to other local stints at places like Wheatleigh, the Shaker Mill Tavern and the Red Lion Inn. Carbo formed Havana Midnight, which included such well-known local musicians as John Sauer, Rob Putnam and Randy Kaye.
"It was certainly a curiosity in the Berkshires," said Carbo, "but I was just determined not to let it end this time. I had more time, the kids were grown, so I just did it."
In 1991, Carbo enrolled in a master's degree program in music at New York University. After two years, she said, "I wrote two shows, I got my master's degree and I also got my divorce decree."
Around the same time, Carbo released her first recording, "Street Cries," on the prestigious Italian jazz label, Soul Note. She also began gigging around New York City, at venues including the Tavern on the Green, the Water Club, the Squire and Cornelia St. Cafe.
"Starting all over again in New York, well, it's like starting all over again," said Carbo, "because you have to make the contacts at the clubs. But I am working, and I'm working a lot, but most importantly I'm playing with amazing musicians, some of the best musicians in the country. I was never afraid to work with great musicians. I think you learn a lot by working with people who are better than you are.
"Besides, it's not about me, it's about the song, I feel, partly because I'm also a composer. I feel it's very important to tell a story. You have to be the vehicle for the song. Somebody didn't write a song so that I could look good. They wrote it to say something. Of course you bring your experience to what you do, but I'm not a competitive singer or screamer."
Carbo favors a cooler approach in her arrangements -- for which she is responsible -- albeit one topped by her warm, richly musical vocals. "The Brazilian style is very compatible with who I am," she said. "It's very subtle. It's about the song. It's not about screaming at the top of your lungs and holding a note for ten hours. It's not calisthenics."
These are some of the things Carbo looks forward to sharing with her hometown audience tomorrow night.
"Leaving a life that I had been living for twenty-odd years, you're rooted in a place, you're living in a place where everyone knows your history," said Carbo. "But I'm a survivor. A very good friend said, `Gladys, nothing can destroy you.' I am determined. There are things I need to do and I have to survive. And I have children and I really need to do my thing and do my part in being happy so that they can be happy.
That's my obligation."
[This article originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on Jan. 24, 1997. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1997. All rights reserved.]
Seth Rogovoy
rogovoy@berkshire.net
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