Antonio Arnedo – Colombia – (Adventure Music 2005)

If Lucia Pulido is the doyen of the poetic vocal tradition of Colombian music, Antonio Arnedo is its instrumental ambassador. His cultural collision with the jazz tradition on this remarkable record, Colombia, throws a bright spotlight on his ability to bend, twirl and bubble his breath through saxophone and flute, mixing jazz with classical music and also with the vibrant Afro-Colombian folk music from the Caribbean coast of that country.

Arnedo is a first rate instrumentalist with an unbridled talent for expressing himself in an expansive way on instruments that require a sublime technique and an awesome degree of control. On saxophone and flute – which obviously require large volumes of air and breath control to play his long, loping lines and phrases – Arnedo negotiates complex musical notations with the delicate skill of a fencer. He is El Duende himself as he flits and twists through the melodies and harmonies magically and majestically. To reach this deepest level of the essence of “the song”, Arnedo must strip it of all frills and capture its purest tones and colors of its melodies and harmonies, and the rippling textures of its outer, more obvious rhythms and its inner, more secret ones that speak to the tablet of the heart. This he does, time and time again, by journeying through the universe of the music into the very core of its being – to unleash the spirit of its soul.

This is his viaje and it takes many twists and turns. Visually in “The Drawing” and in a flowing, narrative on ” Blanqueño River” and its confraternal twin, “Variation”. The music is somber on “Slow Pasillo” and dark and elementally mournful on “Sad Allegory”. Throughout, the record inspires a myriad ideas and notions of a cultural tradition that is beautiful and full of human richness. The record also features a group of musicians who have a symbiotic relationship with the music on this record. Ben Monder is exquisitely sympathetic on guitar, almost drone-like in an ascetic, Indian way on “Variation” and “Suspense”. And, of course percussionist, Satoshi Takeshi is deeply mystical as he conjures primeval rhythms that propel Arnedo onward, inward and outward with the fierce power of a vortex. This is jazz at its best, when it is music that surprises, and is in a state of constant evolution from phrase to glorious phrase and from story to epic story.

Tracks Listing: Alegre; The Goblin (El Duende); Drawing (Dibujo); Blanqueño River (Rio Blanqueño); Salu; The Journey (El Viaje); Sad Allegory (Triste Alegoria – {piano}); Slow Pasillo (Pasillo Lento); Variation (Variacion del rio Blanqueño); Cumbia Cienaguera; Suspense (Suspendido); The Journey (El Viaje); Drawing (Dibujo).

Personnel:
Antonio Arnedo: saxophone, gaita, Wooden flute and piano; Ben Monder: guitar; Jairo Moreno: double bass (except on “El Viaje” and La Cumbia Cienaguera”); Satoshi Takeishi: percussion and “chonta” xylophone; Chris Dalhgren: double bass on “El Viaje” and “La Cumbia Cienaguera”; Bruce Saunders: tiple on “Pasillo Lento”.

Review written by: Raul da Gama

Note from the Editor: Originally released independently in 2001, and then re-released in 2005 by Adventure Music, “Colombia” is a rare gem that shouldn’t be overlooked.