Annette Aguilar is many things — Afro Latin Jazz drummer, percussionist, educator, and one of Uptown's greatest treasures. She has performed at the Kennedy Center, toured Africa as a Latin Jazz Ambassador, played the Havana Jazz Festival, and earned two masters degrees. She could be anywhere. She chooses Inwood. And Uptown is better for it.

In this episode of Uptown Voices, Led Black and Octavio Blanco sit down with this beloved Inwood neighbor for a wide-ranging conversation as rich and layered as the music she plays.

Annette traces her journey from San Francisco's Mission District — where she grew up surrounded by Santana, Sly and the Family Stone, and the roots of Latin rock — to Washington Heights in the mid-80s, when the neighborhood was at the height of the crack epidemic. She talks about arriving as a grad student at Manhattan School of Music and never really leaving.

From there the conversation goes deep: her two trips to Cuba with Arturo O'Farrill and Bronx Banda, performing at the Havana Jazz Festival; her Kennedy Center Latin Jazz Ambassador tour through South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Rwanda, and Eswatini; her decades teaching at Celia Cruz Bronx High School of Music; and her ongoing work with Jazz Power Initiative bringing jazz education to young people across the city.

Annette also opens up about losing her mother recently, the extraordinary work ethic her Nicaraguan-born mom modeled for her, and why — after a life of touring the world — Inwood is still home.

And she's not slowing down. On March 27th, she's bringing a 20-piece orchestra to the ACTS Building in Inwood for a Women's History Month celebration with Jazz Power Initiative. Don't sleep on it.

SHOW NOTES
🥁 Guest: Annette Aguilar 📍 Follow Annette on Instagram: @aaabeans
🎵 Jazz Power Initiative Website: jazzpower.org Instagram: @jazzpowerinitiative
🎙️ Uptown Voices Podcast
Instagram: @uptownvoicespodcast
YouTube: Search Uptown Voices Podcast or find us on the Uptown Collective page

00:21 — Welcome & intro to Annette Aguilar 00:55 — Annette's busy day: teaching, rehearsing & running
02:22 — Teaching percussion at Celia Cruz Bronx High School of Music
03:28 — How Annette stays so energized
04:43 — Arriving in Washington Heights in the mid-80s 05:01 — Losing her mother & the force she was
08:20 — Where the love of music comes from: San Francisco's Mission District
09:28 — Santana, Tito Puente & the roots of Afro Latin Jazz
13:34 — Two trips to Cuba & the Havana Jazz Festival
21:37 — Kennedy Center Latin Jazz Ambassador tour: Africa
27:35 — Teaching Latin jazz to African youth
31:43 — Has Annette ever thought about writing a book?
35:29 — Inwood's evolution & the LGBTQ community
37:50 — The uptown jazz scene & Jazz Power Initiative
41:58 — The March 27th Women's History Month concert
47:18 — Why Inwood is home 49:31 — Taking care of her hands as a percussionist 51:23 — Led's moth story & Lin-Manuel Miranda
1:02:29 — Where to follow Annette & what's coming up
1:05:26 — In the North — Annette's album tribute to Washington Heights & Inwood

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