Bossa Boss

Latin jazz diva Estaire Godinez asks fans to step off the dance floor and listen

by MATT PEIKEN
St. Paul Pioneer Press, November 1, 2002©

A few years ago, Ester Godinez changed the spelling of her first name to Estaire, so Americans would pronounce it in Spanish, with the accent on the second syllable.

"Then my Spanish friends say, 'Oh, now your name is es-TIE-ray,' " says Godinez, who pronounces her last name go-DEE-nez. "Oh, well, as long as people listen to my music, they can say my name however they want."

Latin jazz isn't new to the Twin Cities, but its reputation here as primarily dance music has changed largely through the steady performances of recent Minnesota migrants Nachito Herrera, a Cuban pianist, and Godinez, a percussionist with Mexican-born parents. Through imaginative arrangements and virtuosic soloing, they're lifting this music off the dance floor and establishing it alongside bop, big band and fusion in the fabric of local concert jazz.

A member of George Benson's touring band for the past 1-1/2 years, Godinez is releasing the first disc under her own name, "Live at the Dakota," launching the record with shows tonight and Saturday at the Dakota Bar and Grill.

"I try to avoid clubs where we're expected to be a dance band or background music," she says. "I've put myself in those situations before, and I won't again. We're not a salsa dance band; we're a concert band."

Godinez doesn't fit the image people might conjure of a Latin jazz diva. At 41, she stands a robust 5-foot-6. She speaks with a slight rasp and a hair-trigger giggle. At 4:30 in the afternoon, fresh from a show the night before, with another scheduled that evening, she showed up at a local cafe to discuss her music with a tangle of burnt-orange hair, baggy black sweatpants and a sweatshirt from local jazz radio station KBEM-FM, worn backwards.

Little about Godinez changes when she's onstage. Half the women in the crowd are likely to dress with more flash. With her eyebrows smiling, Godinez sits at her congas and sings with a soft, warm and sultry alto. There isn't an ounce of persona for the sake of performance and, for good reason, she's content to shine the spotlight on her crack band.

Godinez came to Minnesota through a romance with pianist Peter Schimke, a distinctive and powerful soloist who continues as the musical muscle of her band. Drummer Stokley Williams, a St. Paul native best known as a singer and drummer with R&B group Mint Condition; sax man Eric Leeds, who has been a member of Prince's band; and jazz-reggae bassist Serge Akou are also at the core of Godinez's band, with other musicians floating in and out from gig to gig.

"I remember asking Peter, 'Is there a Latino community?' " Godinez says. "He said yes, but you know what -- I don't think he told me there were so many players who know how to play Latin music."

Over Afro-Cuban romps and bossa novas with mambo beats, Godinez's lyrics leapfrog English to Spanish to Portuguese. She can't resist rearranging Latin standards into tunes that are hard to recognize, but her formula for a song rarely wavers -- she launches into a quick verse and chorus, opens the door for everyone to solo and then scats around the edges.

"My mama says 'Oh, mija, "Besame Mucho" is not done in 6/8,' " Godinez says. "I like to be spontaneous and break the rules without breaking them. But I was always a rebel -- I thought I had a cause."

Godinez is the seventh of nine children -- all delved into music to varying degrees -- of parents who moved to Oakland, Calif., from small towns in Northern Mexico.

Godinez grew up immersed in a swath of music, and she taught herself to be a musician by singing along to records from Sergio Mendez and Brazil 66, Marvin Gaye and the Motown catalog. She hewed more closely to male singers than to women, but her "all-time icon" was Lucille Ball.

"She always made people laugh," she says. "I figured if I can do that as an entertainer, that would be pretty good."

She began singing in salsa bands as a teenager and focused on moving to Europe to play music. For 14 years, she fronted a string of pop, flamenco and jazz bands in Amsterdam and Spain.

Through a contact in Hawaii, she auditioned and won a spot in Benson's band, with tours taking her all over the world. On Sunday, the morning after her shows at the Dakota, she leaves with Benson on a tour to Russia, Japan, China, North Korea, Australia and Tahiti.

In the Twin Cities, she has performed with an array of pop, jazz and R&B artists, including Prince. Her own band, she says, continues evolving on the collective momentum of the musicians.

"I can tell you one thing -- whatever is trendy, I don't want to do," she says. "The funk, the bossa, the fusion -- it's all coming together into something I don't even know, and we're flourishing."