WALFREDO REYES AND RADIOBAND19th May 2006 in Kiev was held the presentation that pleased many ukrainian performers on percussion instruments. The ukrainian company EURHYTHMICS started selling instruments of the company «MAPEX», - drums that won world fame among artists of different styles. In connection with this event, in Kiev arrived the “MAPEX” drums demonstrator, legendary musician and pedagogue - Walfredo Reyes Jr., the son of the great Latin American percussionist Walfredo de Los Reyes - Senior. The program of stay in Kiev included the master class, the press conference, the autograph session and, of course, the informal inter-communication with the ukranian colleagues. Walfredo Reyes Jr. is the universal musician. He brilliantly performs a variety of music on drums and percussion. Among the musicians who played with Walfredo - Carlos Santana, Steve Winwood, Joe Sample, Frank Gambale, Smokey Robinson, Gloria Estefan, Ricky Martin, Celia Cruz, Sergio Mendes, Ricardo Silveira, Tania Maria and many others. Among the unplanned (i.e., totally jazz ones) meetings, there can be mentioned the visit of Reyes to the RadioBand of Alexander Fokin. Walfredo was accompanied by the President of the company «EURHYTHMICS» - Alexander Molnar and the director of the "Tic Tac” company - Leonid Romanyuk. From the first minutes of the meeting Walfredo enchanted all the musicians of the RadioBand with his openness, genuine interest in the creativity of the ukrainian colleagues and goodwill characteristic of a real master. After listening to two pieces and shaking hands with the leader of the RadioBand - Alexander Fokin, he exclaimed with a charming smile «Great band!», and began to applaud the musicians. Then Alexander Fokin invited the guest to play. Walfredo instantly agreed - nor affectedness, multiplied by indifference, not pseudo – tiredness and star fever are just not known to this musician. After personally getting acquainted with each of the musician of the "Radio Band", Walfredo took his place after the instrument and in a moment became a member of the orchestra, carefully looking at the leader. Here it is, the true professionalism . And then the music began ... Walfredo demonstrated tremendous "groove" and the ability to listen to partners. He often liked to say that for him the ability to play in an ensemble, create the rhythm and enjoy the nuances of the music are things much more interesting than the performance of lengthy solos. By the way, Walfredo performed a solo only after the sign of Alexander Fokin. Walfredo - shrewd and very apprehensible accompanist, had immediately got along with his colleagues - bassist Kostya Ionenko and percussionist Armen Kostandyan. All of our musicians of the RadioBand played with the guest on equal footing. I am sure that for this brief meeting, they also learned a lot from Walfredo. What particularly struck in the performance of Walfredo was his ability to play softly and loudly. The Ukrainians highly estimated the mastery of the musician to let each of next soloist "skip" forward, i.e. to play so quietly that the first notes of a soloist didn`t disappear in the noise and din of the previous "chorus" ending. BRAVO! And lastly Walfredo played percussion. The piece by Ivan Lins was a concluding point (or rather a starting one?) in this impromptu visit. The guest did not hide his delight, hugged Alexander Fokin, and after a few minutes passionately explained to Alexander that after returning home to Los Angeles, he surely sends his new friends some of the interesting scores for the Radio Band. Then there were the autographs, pictures and short joint dialogues with the musicians. Alexander Fokin gave Walfredo CD and DVD of the RadioBand. As he learnt that Jonathan Butler played with the Ukrainians, Walfredo was delighted – Butler is one of his partners. Noticing on the wall a poster of the RadioBand with Eric Marienthal, the guest just grabbed his head: "Oh God, I'm playing with Eric and David Garfield on May 24, immediately after returning home.” By the way, while playing with the RadioBand the piece of the Freddie Ravel` s «Passion Dance», Walfredo cunningly smiled - he played the drums in this recording of Ravel! Really, this world is small. Already by the car, Walfredo continued asking me many questions about the RadioBand. The musician`s interest seemed genuine to me. And with some sort of a slightly noticed advance for the future…but that would be quite different story. P.S. The RadioBand of Alexander Fokin expresses sincere gratitude to Alexander Molnar for the friendship and true jazz solidarity! The author of the article: Alexei Kogan Photo with Walfredo Reyes jr.
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