Latin Jazz Series Showcasing Unique Sound of San Antonio

By Miranda Smith

In the past three months, the Latin Jazz Brunch Series has provided a stimulating experience to both its musicians and listeners.

The event is sponsored by San Antonio’s jazz radio station KRTU based at Trinity University and is coordinate by Henry Brun, a KRTU radio show host.

Brun, 58, was first captivated by jazz while living in Puerto Rico as a boy. He began professionally performing jazz at 11. Since then, he has played around the world, and has performed with his award-winning band for nearly 30 years. For the past 10 years, he has also hosted a Sunday afternoon radio show on KRTU called "the Latin Jazz Brunch."

"The series itself is a curatorial extension of my radio program, the Latin Jazz Brunch, with a focus on the smaller ensembles playing Latin Jazz mixed along with Brazilian, Caribbean and Spanish Flamenco influences," says Brun. "Special guests may be a guitarist, flutist, marimba player, vocalist, bassist, or pianist...and [each] bring a totally different perspective and repertoire from one another."

According to Kory Cook, 45, music director of KRTU, the Latin Jazz Brunch Series was a new concept that he hoped would become popular given Brun’s local renown. “The original idea,” he said, “was to have one of our hosts go live on-location. We had never tried brunch, and wanted to do something different. We wanted to show that we’re capable of innovating our presentation of music.”

This idea of being “different” meant that KRTU had to create a live atmosphere. The first step in designing this augmented listening experience would be finding the ideal location. While San Antonio’s abundance of unique cafes would seem to make the search difficult, Rosella at the Rand was an easy choice for the station. 

Located in the recently-revived Rand building, Rosella is a cafe known for its artful early-20th century architecture, as well as its modern cuisine and epicurean clientele. In Brun’s opinion, the space has “the flair of elegance but yet informal as well; lends itself for the creation of a cool place calling for cool music to complete the experience.”

Despite the fact that Rosella provided an appropriate atmosphere for Brun’s Spanish and Afro-Caribbean (Latin) jazz performances, KRTU wanted to make sure that the performance series offered an experience distinct from San Antonio’s other brunch concerts.

In particular, Cook hoped the series would be an enjoyable demonstration of the city’s cultural heritage, but without the fanfare and simplified focus of large-scale cultural events. “We thought we wanted to have some kind of a weekend activity that wasn’t affiliated with a cultural event. And with Latin jazz, we knew we would have a large variety of jazz artists within the city who would be able to provide their ability as well.”

Brun said he specifically looked for musicians with a “cutting edge, consummate professionalism, and an innovative approach to the unknown.” The first such musician, who would play alongside Brun nearly every week during the series, was Robert Garcia.

A professional Spanish guitarist, Garcia, 41, worked extensively with Brun to create the distinctive atmosphere they wanted for the series. “We had been working together on a unique repertoire of percussion and guitar duets almost every day over the past year,” said Garcia. “The sound became mellow in volume, yet energetic enough to keep the listener entertained.”

Yet, once this theme was established, the music would still emerge differently in each week’s performance. While Brun and Garcia were the individuals in charge of organizing the musical selections for the brunches, collaborating with new guest artists every week offered both an unexpected challenge and artistic quality. 

Joe Posada joined them with his saxophone and flute one week, and the next week they had Toro Flores on marimba, and another week they would have dueling Spanish guitars, says Garcia. The musicians “kept me on my toes at all times. Thinking back now reminds me of how much fun it was,” he adds.

These musicians’ collaborative improvisation lent itself to the unique sound that the KRTU team had been aiming to create. For Brun, the necessity of continual adaptation is also what made performing the series a rewarding experience. “Learning is what maintains passion and keeps [me] pursuing my craft; without it, there is no reason to keep playing,” says Brun.

Seemingly a result of this hard work and collaborative effort, the series was positively received by both brunch guests and those listening via KRTU’s live broadcasts. Cook said he was happily surprised by the fact that many of the radio station’s listeners found the series engaging. “We got phone calls during the live broadcasts from people wanting to know more about the series, and letting us know that they had been enjoying listening to it.”

Brun recently signed up for another season of this series.