Growing up in Puerto Rico, Carli Muñoz was fascinated by jazz, particulary its Latin purveyors, whose free-flowing stylings could be heard all over the island. He himself later embarked on a successful music career, which culminated in being invited to join one of the world's most famous singing groups -The Beach Boys - in 1971.
Carli Muñoz: Gifted Musician
Carli was prolific on a variety of instruments, but it was the piano that truly captured his fertile immagination
"At around age11 and 12, I felt quire comfortable with the piano – just imitating what I heard," he explains. "At times I would dazzle my parent and relatives by jumping on a piano in a family reunion or dining with my family in a restaurant and playing a piece or two on the piano. They had no idea that I had been evolving; especially when I hadn’t take music lessons at all!
Carli Muñoz: Hitting the Big Time
Carli longed to show off the musical skills he had acquired through hours of practice, and was presented with a chance of lifetime when legendary Latin percussionist, Sabu Martinez came to Puerto Rico.
"Remember my first LP – Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers + Sabú?" he asks. "Well, one morning in early summer, while still in high school, I glanced at a newspaper that my dad had at the breakfast table and something caught my eye: 'Monchito Muñoz at the Holiday Inn, featuring the famed Cuban percussionist, Sabú Martinez'. As the story goes, I shaved my three stumps, strapped on a suit, asked my dad for the car keys and some spending money and headed out to see Sabú.
"The band was great! It was really a whole review, with a dance troop called The Paper Dolls, a featured jazz singer - Myrna Pagan, and the band of all ace musicians plus Sabú. I spent the whole summer visiting the club every single night and learned the show by heart just from being in the audience, hoping that one of the musicians didn’t show up on night and in my fantasy I’d jump on stage to the rescue."
Carli Muñoz: Dreams Really Do Come True
Most fans dream of being picked out of the crowd to join their favourite band on stage - something that drummer and Who fan, Scot Halpin experienced at a concert in San Francisco in 1973, when he was called upon to take the place of an incapacitated Keith Moon.
Carli Muñoz experienced something similar when Sabu Martinez came to his town (although it is assumed that it wasn't because the musician he replaced had taken a horse tranquilizer washed down by copious amounts of brandy).
"One night the veteran bassist, Freddy Thomas didn’t show up and I was cocky enough to go up to the stage and offer my services for the show on that evening," explains Carli. "Although I was still in my early puberty, I was tall and looked older than most kids. Also I was well dressed. So they had no choice and I was their stand-up bassist for that evening. I probably discreetly missed every other note, but I had good rhythm, was already familiar with the repertory and could fake it pretty well.
"After that I became sort their mascot and they were impressed enough, so that I ended up playing piano on their show. At the time well-known musicians such as Joe Morello would visit and jam late at night with the band and it would just be a roar.
"Sabú and I became very good friends and he laterasked me if I would form a new band with him. We did – it was the short-lived Sabú Martinez and his Afro-Cuban Twisters. He soon fell in love with a Scandinavian woman and then moved to Scandinavia where he lived and died."
Carli Muñoz: Change of Direction
Having gained his apprenticeship playing jazz, Carli sought to demostrate his versatility and expand his horizons by crossing over to another musical style.
"While playing at the Holiday Inn, an acquaintance of mine approached me to form a rock band," he recalls. "The timing was right, I graciously exited jazz and we formed The Living End. That was a rock sabbatical that lasted 20 years. There is some very interesting information about The Living End in the discussion board of a Facebook group called LSD Social Club."
Carli Muñoz: Solid Foundation in Jazz
Carli's move to rock was nothing new, as the list of established rock musicians who perfected their skills on the jazz scene is as impressive as it is long. The Rolling Stones' Charlie Watts, Artimus Pyle of Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Mike Kowalski of The Beach Boys, are just three examples.
Although he was to become known to international audiences predominantly for his session work, and his association with The Beach Boys, Carli has never forgotten his roots, and the jazz music that first set his soul on fire and got him where he is today.
Adrian Peel - Adrian is an English freelance writer and journalist currently living in Mexico. Over the past eight years, he has had articles, features ...
