Global music, culture student in residence at Wesleyan

Thursday, March 5, 2009
Middletown Press, CT

By JENNIFER SHAFER WOOD


MIDDLETOWN — The city’s North End is where multitalented musician Jorge Arevalo Mateus is based and where this well-known music archivist, ethnomusicologist, scholar, musician, composer and audio installation artist is studying for his Ph.D in ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University.



Mateus was born in Colombia and migrated to the to the United States as a child. His family settled into Yonkers, N.Y., where he was raised, and at the age of 9, he started playing guitar. Now he is a Grammy-winning producer for Best Historical Recording. In 2008, Mateus also won an award for writing from the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award, CD Liner Notes, and he has published many essays, articles and reviews in academic and popular journals, edited volumes, and other publications such as New York Archives Magazine, Ethnomusicology, Journal of Popular Music Studies; and Centro, The Journal of Puerto Rican Studies.



His music has taken him to far away places around the world and he has played with a variety of musicians — Jeffrey Lohn, Rhys Chatham, Anthony Braxton, Guillermo Gregorio, and Peter Kotik, choreographers Karole Armitage, Donald Byrd and Jody Oberfelder.

About music, he said, "It’s the connection to one’s self. That’s what music is about, really." He has a master of arts degree in ethnomusicology from Hunter College, N.Y., and specializes in Latin American, Caribbean, jazz and popular music.



According to Mateus, "Ethnomusicology is the study of music in its social and cultural environments." Once a limited study of music focusing on primitive music and culture, ethnomusicology is now a global study of music and culture.

Mateus says Wesleyan has one of the best ethnomusicology programs in the nation. In the final stages of his dissertation, Mateus is writing about how music travels beyond its indigenous origins. His focus is Colombia and explained how Colombians have a bad reputation in the world for violence and drugs.

However, he examines how musicians carry music from one place to another, "How it’s received and perceived. How it effects audiences, people and the musicians themselves, why they do it and how they do it."

Mateus has discovered that the people of Colombia are reshaping their global image with music.

"Colombians are very much involved with changing the image through music. So people aren’t so quick to judge," Mateus explains the evolving perception of his people.



Although Mateus resides in Middletown, he considers himself a New Yorker, and travels from Connecticut to New York regularly. While in Connecticut, he lives in the North End Artists Cooperative in the city’s North End.

Mateus is active within the art and music scene in Middletown. He explains that being a part of the cooperative is good way to get involved with the local art scene. "We try to work together ... doesn’t always work, but we try to work together to do things with the gallery space by bringing in different kinds of programs."



Mateus has a passion for Latin jazz and a desire for more Latino culture in the area.

"The music that you play is your voice," he says. Recently, he started a Latin jazz workshop on Tuesday nights at the MAC Gallery, 650 Main St. He wants to reach out to Latin jazz players from around the state.

On his blog, mac650.blogspot.com, he writes, "The goal of the workshop is to grow Latin jazz right here in Central Connecticut. With the participation of musicians interested in creative experimentation with Latin rhythms from all over, and new improvisational techniques, the aim is to forge a collaborative ensemble inspired by the work of Latin jazz artists such as Ray Barretto, the Fort Apache Band, Eddie Palmieri’s orchestras and Sergio Mendes, among many others.

"The musical field is wide open and the MAC650 workshop is an ideal laboratory."



Mateus has his own company, a music consulting business called Arevarc. He has a new Web site up and under construction about his life, work and business at http://web.mac.com/arevarc/iWeb/Site/homepage.html.

"What I provide is consulting services to individuals, organizations and institutions that have music collections, music instrument, manuscripts and rare historical material," he said.

In 2008, Mateus won a Grammy award for his restoration of a Woody Guthrie recording, "The Live Wire: Woody Guthrie in Performance 1949."

Mateus has been the head archivist and curator for the Woody Guthrie archives at the Woody Guthrie Foundation in New York since 1995. The lost recordings were found in Florida and Mateus restored them into Grammy-winning material.



On Tuesdays evenings from 5 to 6 p.m. on WESU-FM 88.1 radio, the musician hosts his own show, "La Pipa de la Paz," or "the peace pipe."

His goal is "featuring traditional and folkloric artists as well as contemporary pop and jazz innovators. What links them? The musical cultures that define and express Colombianness!" states the WESU online program guide at www.wesufm.org.

When Mateus completes his dissertation later this year, he plans to produce a Colombian music concert at Wesleyan that will exemplify his doctorate work. He plans on bringing in musicians from Colombia and New York.



Aside from his musical and artistic pursuits, he is an animal lover and has helped to care for the feral cats in the North End. Mateus explained there is no animal shelter in Middletown and that makes it very hard to care for the lost and abandoned cats.

He is a member of Cattails (www.cattails.org) and has helped to find homes, and neuter homeless cats. "We care a lot about the animals here," he said.

For information, see mac650.blogspot.com or www.woodyguthrie.org.