Alex Acuna Interview

Keeping Jazz Alive in Our K-12 Schools
And Interview with Alex Acuna
By Bob Barboza



I do a column for PNN The Personal News Network called Where in the World is Bob Barboza.  Right now I am working on my jazz project.  I am traveling to see the legends of jazz in person.  This week I went to visit Alex Acuna drummer for the group "weather Report".  Alex is such a great guy that you would want to see him even if he was not one of the top drummers/percussionists in the world.  It was such a treat to spend the day with Alex.


I am on a mission to see what I can do to keep jazz alive in the minds of your children.  Jazz is an American art form and we need to keep it alive. 

We have to start somewhere.  I love fusion jazz so I wanted to explore the original group Weather Report.  



Photo:  This is the "Fusion Jazz Group Weather Report" from left to right.  Joe Zawinal, Joco Pastorius, Alex Acuna, Wayne Shorter and Marolo Badrena


Kid's Talk Radio wanted to do a live interview with Alex Acuna.  We contacted Alex and he agreed.  The group was magical we they were together.  When they improved music they were at their best.

What are kids doing talking to old school fusion jazz musicians? They are learning about the roots of jazz from the masters themselves.  The piano player and bass player have died.  Their recordings live on.  Kid's Talk Radio has decided to start with Alex Acuna.  We explored the family man, the musician, and person who is on a mission to help the people of Peru.  We invite you to listen to our Kid's Talk Radio Jazz Mini Series featuring Alex Acuna.

Alejandro Neciosup Acua aka Alex Acua (born December 12, 1944) is a Peruvian Afro-Cuban jazz drummer and percussionist.

Born in Pativilca, Peru, Acua played in local bands from the age of ten, and moved to Lima as a teenager. At the age of eighteen he joined the band of Perez Prado, and in 1967 he moved to Puerto Rico. In 1974 Acua moved to Las Vegas, working with artists such as Elvis Presley and Diana Ross, and the following year he joined the jazz-fusion group Weather Report, appearing on the albums Black Market and Heavy Weather. Acua left Weather Report in 1978, and became a session musician in California, recording and playing live with (amongst many others) Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell, Ella Fitzgerald, Chick Corea, Whitney Houston, Plcido Domingo, Phil Keaggy, Sam Phillips, former Weather Report bandmates Wayne Shorter and Joe Zawinul, Herbie Hancock, Carlos Santana, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Beck, Roberta Flack, U2, and Al Jarreau. He can be found on recordings by musicians as culturally diverse as Lee Ritenour, Peter Gabriel, Johnny Clegg, Robbie Robertson & Jackson Browne.

In the 1980s Acuna also recorded and toured with the Christian jazz band Koinonia, which featured session musicians Abraham Laboriel, Justo Almario, Hadley Hockensmith, Harland Rogers, and Bill Maxwell. He played on Willy DeVille's Crow Jane Alley album.

He has also worked as an educator at University of California, Los Angeles and Berklee College of Music.

Alex lives in Southern California and he is the first call for major motion pictures.  Bob Barboza did an exclusive interview of Alex Acuna and then they spent some time running over odd time signatures from Bob Barboza visual jazz opera Cabo Verde Dreams.

I invite you to listen to ten audio and 1 video segments of Alex Acuna One-On-One.   Visit: http://KidsTalkRadio.PNN.com.

Try the Alex Acuna Video Below! Just click the play button.