The luxurious voice of Nat King Cole was never a common sound in Mexico, not even back in the 1950s. But Gabriel Espinosa, now associate professor of music at Central College, would listen to Nat and other jazz greats like Duke Ellington every time he visited his uncle’s house as a child. His dream was to become a jazz band director. “When I discovered that I wanted to study music,” he says, “I knew exactly what music I wanted to play.” Today, on top of recording several albums, he directs the jazz band at Central, his alma mater.
Espinosa grew up in Merida, Yucatan, where he learned to play the guitar from his mother. At age 13, he and his brothers formed a group called Los Deltons, a sort of Latin Jackson 5 — or Espinosa 3. In August, the group held a free reunion concert on the beach of Progreso, Yucatan, and 500 people came to hear them perform.
Although Espinosa provides bass and vocals for the Latin jazz group Ashanti, he considers himself a composter first and foremost. On each of Ashanti’s three CDs, he has three or four compositions of his own. And he recently released his first solo album, From Yucatan to Rio. Produced by ZOHO Music, the album was a result of Espinosa’s trip to Yucatan in 2008 for a celebration of his 40th year as a musician. There, he played with some of his friends from New York City and was inspired to record an album with the international musicians he had met over the years during Jazzmania — the annual festival held at Central each winter. The album was released in August 2009 with a bash at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York.
The road to that achievement began back in the 70s in Yucatan, when he played tennis with the Central professor Jim Graham, who was teaching in the college’s study abroad program in Merida. Graham knew Espinosa was interested in music, so he asked him: “Why don’t you come to Central?” With those simple words, an illustrious music career was born.
Espinosa arrived at Central in 1976 as a language assistant, which allowed him take classes for free. In 1980, he graduated with a B.A. in music. Like most recent graduates, he wondered what was next for him. “I know the basics of music,” he thought. “I have a good round music degree. But I still want to learn jazz.” His lifelong love of Nat and Duke was resurfacing.
With the support of his family, Espinosa attended Berklee College of Music in Boston and earned a diploma in arranging music after three years. He and a friend founded Ashanti during his last year, and after graduation, Espinosa took the name and started a jazz quintet in Cancun, where he played six nights a week for seven years. Influenced by the Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Jobim, Espinosa ended up taking Brazilian jazz as his own. “It offers me great rhythms, great harmonies and great melodies,” he says.
It was a visit from another Central professor that got Espinosa’s life and career moving back toward Iowa. When Paula Holcomb, then director of bands, came on tour through Yucatan in the early 90s, Espinosa asked her a simple question: What would it take to teach at Central College? Her answer — a master’s degree — propelled him to the University of North Texas, where he got his master’s in jazz studies. By 1996, he was an adjunct at Central.
Espinosa credits the support of the music department and the college administration for his move from a quarter-time adjunct to a full-time associate professor who directs the jazz band and the vocal/instrumental combos. It turned out that, for Espinosa, teaching music was just as fun as playing it. “It’s great to see students discover things they never thought they could do music-wise — and watch them do it,” he says.
One of the things Espinosa appreciates most about Central is the variety of music students get to perform, something he implemented here based on his experience at Berklee. “For me, all styles have value,” he says. “Classical music has value, jazz has value, pop has value. Rock, country, you name it. It just has to be done right.”
Espinosa has been doing music right for over 40 years now. When he returned to Central, he created the Iowa version of Ashanti, and they’ve been performing around the state for 15 years. As much as he loves teaching and directing, he knows that he has to keep playing. “I cannot only teach, I have to play,” he says. “If I don’t play, I don’t function.”
To keep functioning, Espinosa has been working on his newest album, a collaboration with the composer Hendrik Meurkens. The CD — titled Celebrando — is nearly finished; it will be released in Pella on March 30, followed by a release in New York City later in the spring. For Espinosa, it’s just the next stage of a musical existence that won’t end until he’s too old to hum a tune. As for his teaching, he never wants to leave Central. He says the best music years of his life have been lived here, and he’s not about to retire from that environment. “I’m still composing,” he says. ”I’m still writing. I’m still dreaming. I’m still fighting. I’m still growing.”
