RESOURCES:
University Musical Society (UMS)
TRANSCRIPTION:
David Fair: This is 89.1 WEMU, and throughout the year of 2025, we're celebrating 60 years of broadcasting from the heart of the Eastern Michigan University campus. I'm David Fair, and you can be sure we'll have some celebratory events throughout the rest of the year. One of the other ways we're marking the occasion is by taking time to explore the history of the station and its role in our community. And we're doing so by talking with people that have made an impact. Through most of WEMU's history, you've probably known us as your jazz station. So, how is it that an arts organization focused on classical music, entertainment and education would come to bring some of the world's best jazz artists to the stage right here in our community? It's all about partnership. The impactful partnership I'm referring to in this instance was forged by the two gentlemen in the room with me today. Dr. Alberto Nacif was the creator and longtime host of the Cuban Fantasy program on WEMU. You may also know him as the percussionist and band leader of the Latin Jazz outfit Aguanko. Welcome home, Alberto! It's good to see you!
Dr. Alberto Nacif: Man, it is so good to be here with you guys! I just feel so good! My heart is full!
David Fair: And the other voice you're going to hear is that of UMS President Emeritus, Ken Fischer. Ken, always great to have you back in studio!
Ken Fischer: Well, I can't tell you how much it means to me to be here with you two guys who've had such an impact on UMS over the years! I can't wait to talk about it!
David Fair: Well, Alberto, let's start right back at the beginning and your relationship with WEMU. I believe it was, what, early or mid-90s, you began hosting Cuban Fantasy on WEMU. How did that come to pass?
Dr. Alberto Nacif: Well, Michael G. Nastos, rest in peace, had a radio show and invited me to do an evening show for a couple of hours, bringing in some of my collection of Latin and Cuban music, specifically. And I brought that in, and the phone was ringing off the hook the whole night. People calling, "What is that? What is this? What is that rhythm?" People freaked out! They had never heard some of this stuff. And, a few weeks later, I was contacted by Linda Yohn, and she asked me if I would consider doing a show, which I did. And I think that show went on for about 10 years. It was wonderful! We had a couple of different days of the week that it was done, but it was once a week. And I just remember those two hours were joyful because I brought music. Nobody told me what to play. I played what I wanted to play, what I liked. And since I know a lot of those musicians, or knew a lot of them, a lot them have passed, I knew them personally from my travels to Cuba to learn to drum and to learn about the music, I was able to really make that music come to life with anecdotes and discussion about the actual musicians and the type of music that it was. So, I try to make it educational. And people liked it, loved it. And unfortunately, I had to quit after 10 years because I was so doggone busy with my medical practice and also wanted to perform the music myself.
David Fair: At the same time, you are responsible for untold numbers of people actually dancing while they drive. That is a sensation that has continued throughout the years, even on your tenure here at WEMU. At the time you were doing that, Alberto, you were serving on the board of the University Musical Society. Ken, that provided an opportunity for a conversation that would ultimately add to the UMS program schedule and create partnership with WEMU.
Ken Fischer: Well, I think you hinted at it in your introduction that, yeah, we were pretty much identified as a presenter of classical music and at the very highest level. But when I arrived here, and we have our offices in Burton Memorial Tower, it became very clear to me I've got to get out of this tower and into the communities of Southeast Michigan. And that means building relationships with restaurants and school systems and communities of shared heritage and with these outstanding radio stations that we have in the area. And, in particular, I found with WEMU a station that was all about community and all about types of music that weren't being highlighted by UMS. And then I meet this guy, Alberto Nacif, and you're right. We put Alberto on our board because we also needed to diversify our board, our staff, our audience. We needed to grow up, and we needed to realize that we, as an organization that's all about cultural expression. So, we had to grow up. We had learn. And who better to learn from than Alberto Nacif? And I'll never forget what he said to me, and I got it right here. "If UMS will bring live to this community what I feature on the radio, I can assure you great success!" And, boy, did we take that seriously! Because we started getting much more deeply engaged with WEMU, in fact, just deep in my connection and the connection of UMS, but it was our instruction by Alberto with Latin jazz, with world music, with jazz in general as we woke up to what it is that WEMU is and has been offering to this community for years.
David Fair: Once again, we're talking with Ken Fischer and Alberto Nacif as WEMU celebrates its 60th anniversary. The partnership and expansion of service to community was kind of out of the box thinking. How did you put that together, Alberto?
Dr. Alberto Nacif: Well, first of all, I just did a lot of name-dropping. When I presented this to these guys, I brought in some recordings of Celia Cruz, Los Muñequitos, Tito Puente. And I remember there were people sitting around, looking at each other. And then, they were sort of moving in their seats. And then, they were kind of active and talking and smiling. And it just increased, how can I say, the energy in the room. You know, I explained to them the importance of Celia Cruz. I explained them the important of Tito Puente. I explained the importance of Muñequitos de Matanzas, Cubanismo. And they took this to heart and made it happen. And they were actually here. All these legendary groups were actually here in Ann Arbor and loved the energy of the people. And probably half of those people had never heard of them before that. So, the fact that we have this partnership where UMS brought them here and did beautiful write-ups and involved the media, it wasn't just me. It was Linda Yohn, Michael G., all the great hosts that you've had that are so open-minded to this type of music. It was like a nonstop blitz on the community to hear this music. And people came from all over the listening area and even from out of state to see these shows. So, we have packed houses pretty much every time.
Ken Fischer: Well, not only those guys that you mentioned, but Afro-Cuban All-Stars, Buena Vista Social Club.
Dr. Alberto Nacif: Yes.
Ken Fischer: Arturo Sandoval.
Dr. Alberto Nacif: Yes.
Ken Fischer: Jerry Gonzalez, Ford Apache Band. It was just amazing! I mean, you can imagine what this did to kind of improve our image.
Dr. Alberto Nacif: Yeah!
Ken Fischer: It was so much more a cool organization. And it just brought joyful music and people. Let's talk about Celia Cruz for a minute because we presented her twice. Let's talk about that first time when she came to Hill Auditorium -- absolutely packed a 4200-seat hall!
Dr. Alberto Nacif: Yeah!
Ken Fischer: Talk about that.
David Fair: Was that a surprise to either of you?
Dr. Alberto Nacif: No, no, no. But I'll tell you what was funny is I hadn't seen her for about 12 years prior. And she was much younger at the time. So, I knew her. We kept in touch. And I interviewed her before. And I talked to her on the phone. And she said, "Come to the hotel." So, I went to the Bell Tower Hotel, right sort of behind Hill Auditorium. And when I went there, I was shocked with how much she'd aged. And I was shocked how she was complaining. She knew I was a doctor. She started complaining about all these ailments. And she had shrunk in size. She just looked visibly older. So, she was getting the makeup put on by her niece. Her niece was in her 50s at the time, okay? And Celia was in like 70s, probably late 70s. And I'm thinking my heart sunk because I was talking about her like she was the greatest. She was this and that. And all of a sudden, this was a little old lady that was complaining about all her ailments. So, my heart sunk. So when I went out to do the intro to her show--oh, and by the way, she kicked me out after we talked for about 20 minutes because she had to have her makeup put on. And so, I waited in the lobby, and she said, "Just wait in the lobby. We'll go together." So, she comes out of the hotel. And there was a limo. I think it's written into her contract that she had to have a limo take her. She got in the limo. The limo did a U-turn, and she got off on the other side of the street. Okay, I mean, that's a real diva, right? And then, she walked in like an old lady. She was wearing this fur that went from her neck, and she was kind of shivering. She was a little cold, and it went down to the ground. It dragged on the ground. It was a beautiful fur. It must've cost 20-grand back in the day. So, she went in and then walked and shuffled like an old lady, and I just broke my heart. So, she went again into the backstage area, and I didn't see her to get her makeup just prepped. So, of course, the person that opened that show was El Canario, which is a wonderful, very charismatic, energetic, handsome man. I mean, my mom couldn't sit in her seat when she saw this guy, okay? And she was in her seventies at the time. And he put on a great show. So, I'm thinking, "Oh my God! The energy's going to go down because now this little old lady's going come out." So, I was supposed to say some words about her, and I tried to downplay everything I had said. "Well, she's a legendary singer from the golden age of music in Cuba," just so people wouldn't expect all the fireworks of El Canario. And I'll never, ever, ever to my dying day forget this. She walked out, and I'm supposed to say, "And now, let's give a big round of applause from Ann Arbor to Celia Cruz!" And people went crazy! And Celia walked out took off that fur, and she had this blazing blue sequined dress, her wig, her huge, two-inch fake eyelashes. And she grabbed the microphone.
David Fair: Chalked full of energy!
Dr. Alberto Nacif: She owned it! Her first note—it was, like, piercing. It was killer! And she performed like, what, two hours, Ken?
Ken Fischer: It was absolutely amazing!
Dr. Alberto Nacif: And her energy! I mean, it was like Clark Kent taking off the shirt and the glasses and turning into Superman.
David Fair: And this is 89.1 WEMU, and we continue our 60th anniversary conversation on the impact of community partnership. Our guests today are former WEMU Cuban Fantasy host and leader of the band, Aguanko, Alberto Nacif, and UMS President Emeritus Ken Fischer. Together, they forged the partnership between WEMU and UMS that continues to benefit the arts community in Washtenaw County.
Ken Fischer: So, you've got an audience of people that really know how to behave when Celia Cruz is there. And they know to get up on your feet and dance. Of course, there are the other University Musical Society people who were there to be seated in their seat and be entertained. And so, I got complaints from both sides.
David Fair: It was a culture clash.
Ken Fischer: And so, I got complaints from both sides. I wrote to everybody and said, "I own this problem. I need to do better the next time." And so, what did we do? Alberto, we came to the EMU Convocation Center.
Dr. Alberto Nacif: That was a great show!
Ken Fischer: Where we put thousands of people on the dance floor and how many? Maybe 15, 16 people were sitting in the stands.
Dr. Alberto Nacif: Yeah, very few people! Yeah, it was crazy! It was the opposite.
Ken Fischer: And talk about that event.
Dr. Alberto Nacif: Albita opened that show, who is a trova-type singer from Cuba that lives in Miami. And that was a wonderful show too! But all I remember is, at the Convocation Center, people crowding the stage. They had Cuban flags. They brought their LPs that they had had in their collection for thirty years. And she was signing and shaking hands and high-fiving everybody! And that show was every bit as good as the first one, but everybody was dancing, except for those eight people.
Ken Fischer: Well, that led to then Daniela Mercury coming from Brazil.
Dr. Alberto Nacif: Yes, yes.
Ken Fischer: That led to Wynton Marsalis. And just let me say a word. I was able to present him 19 times.
Dr. Alberto Nacif: Yes.
Ken Fischer: We became great friends. And of course, he was always willing to come on over here to be interviewed, as were the other jazz greats that we had. And every one of those just deepened our relationship with this station. So, the doors you were opening with your statement about, "you put on live, what I do on the radio," expanded to the other MCs and hosts of this station. And what a wonderful relationship it was!
Dr. Alberto Nacif: Ken, I got to interrupt you. I opened that door because you gave me the key.
Ken Fischer: As I said, it was time for us to get out of that tower.
Dr. Alberto Nacif: Yes.
Ken Fischer: And the more you connect with the people in this magnificent community, and I'm including the Detroit metropolitan area.
Dr. Alberto Nacif: Absolutely!
Ken Fischer: How much we learned from our colleagues and friends in all of these different communities of shared heritage. And of course, UMS grew. We became much more relevant to the people in this region. That led to all kinds of new opportunities for us.
Dr. Alberto Nacif: I think what tied us together was WEMU, the relationship that we both have with WEMU, and how important this station is.
David Fair: And the partnership that you two forged has taken care of this community in a number of ways, and I want to talk a little bit more about that. When organizations like WEMU and UMS come together, it adds to the culture and heritage of the community. And when assessing a level of success, you have to look at impact. So, Alberto, do you have a sense of the impact that you've made now that you have the years to reflect upon the start of the partnership?
Dr. Alberto Nacif: You know, I always have a warm feeling in my chest when I think about those times. I think of how wonderful it was, how collaborative it was. In my last musical release, and I don't want to brag about it, I wrote a tune called "Kintsuji," which is a Japanese art where if you break something useful, like a bowl or a cup, you put it together. Here in the U.S., we sweep it and throw it out. In Japan, they put it back together. And they use rice glue with water and all that, but they also use gold. So, when the product is finished, it has gold veins through it. And kintsuji is a very important concept. And I think that's what music and the arts do. The arts bring us together: all the different shaped pieces, what's happening in the U.S. and in the world right now. The arts are key to bringing us together, to collaborating, to appreciating each other and to fitting our unique parts into a useful whole.
David Fair: And what about you, Ken? Do you see the reverberations what you helped create some 30 years ago?
Ken Fischer: Well, absolutely! I mean, let's just think for a moment how our relationship with this station led to the deepening relationship with Eastern Michigan University. So, we did these additional events at the Convocation Center. And then, when Hill Auditorium was closed for a couple of years, we were doing events at Pease Auditorium. Thank you. And then. I want to give a shoutout of course to Michael Conjoka, to Ben Johnson.
Dr. Alberto Nacif: Geniuses, man!
Ken Fischer: To my successor, Matthew Van Biesen, who with his colleagues Cayenne Harris and others have started this series of events in the Freighthouse here in Ypsilanti. And that's been a great success, and that's deepened the connection with Ypsilanti. And it's going superbly well! And then, of course, we just love this station. Any chance we have to come in here and promote it, to talk about the impact that the station has had, I can't praise enough how you guys opened some doors, took us by the hand, and helped make us that much better an organization.
Dr. Alberto Nacif: Yeah!
Ken Fischer: It's just a huge impact!
David Fair: Well, gentlemen, thank you so much for making the time to reflect, ruminate, and share the story of WEMU and UMS! And thank you for your parts in making WEMU what it is today!
Ken Fischer: Thank you so much! It's great to be here!
Dr. Alberto Nacif: Thank you, Dave! It's great to see you! And it's great to be here again!
Dr. Alberto Nacif: That is Dr. Alberto Nacif, the percussionist and band leader of Aguanko and former host of the Cuban Fantasy program on WEMU, alongside UMS President Emeritus Ken Fischer. Together, they help us mark WEMU's 60th anniversary by sharing their part of our story. We'll be having these kinds of conversations throughout the year, and you can find all of the 60th Anniversary conversations at WEMU.org. I'm David Fair, and this is your community NPR station, 89.1 WEMU-FM, Ypsilanti!
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