Gilson Schachnik and Mauricio Zottarelli – Mozik (2011)
It is amazing how it sometimes takes a foreign adventure to find one’s appreciation for the culture of home territory. Whereas the love of fusion, jazz and rock music originating in the United States is embraced with verve in the Southern Hemisphere, likewise I have never run into a native jazz musician in the Northern Hemisphere who isn’t fascinated by the rhythms of African influenced Brazilian music, particularly the region of Bahia. Keyboardist Gilson Schachnik and drummer Mauricio Zottarelli, both born in Brazil, admittedly were never steeped in the traditional cultural rhythms and instruments unique to their birthright. They did not know each other before meeting at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, where both have achieved associate professor positions. Growing up deeply influenced by a strong background in hard rock and fusion jazz, they each found themselves expected to be natural experts in samba and bossa nova by their peers and professors at Berklee. The resulting examination Schachnik and Zottarelli took of Brazilian music, seen through the lenses of their mutual backgrounds in such an entirely different musical art form resulted in winning a faculty grant from Berklee to produce MOZIK, a project for a quintet of very diverse international musicians who all are now based in the United States.
Web’s Samba, a composition by Schachnik reveals unrestrained influences from the music of his youth and the study of Brazilian influenced jazz. Although I don’t like to compare groups, I was happy to find the same sense of artful fusion I enjoyed in the heyday of Azymuth… a favorite band of mine from my own youth. Having found a way back to the music of South America, the composition includes rhythms from the musically lush Bahia, including Candombe and other Yoruban influenced sounds. The drums are indeed influenced by hard rock, and I thought them a little heavy for this composition in the beginning of the piece, although I grew fond of the heaviness by the end. The flute, deftly handled by Russian flautist Yulia Musayelyan has a rough, unrestrained edginess to it. The bass is the glue of the piece and confidently laid down by Fernando Huergo of Argentina.
A Felicidade, a Jobim composition is given a new treatment with breaks tightly led by Musayelyan’s cutting, percussive flute work and very nice guitar solos by Brazilian Gustavo Assis-Brasil. It is true, no bossa nova or soft samba recording can leave out a few gorgeous Jobim tunes, but here the arrangements take on new influences and turn this classic standard into a different expression. A Felicidade dances out percussively, freely interpreted and brand-new! Herbie Hancock’s Eye of the Hurricane saunters in with Schachnik’s melancholy, expressive piano work. It is a well blended piece carried by Assis-Brasil’s pretty guitar work and Zottarelli’s brushes and nice cymbal work. The flute has moved into a supportive position in this arrangement, well executed and still maintaining the tone previously admired in the first cut.
 |
O Amor em Paz -another tribute to Jobim- is also an updated treatment invested with each instrumentalist’s verve, with the rock history of Schachnik and Zottarelli most apparent. I enjoyed the crossover between the classic interpretation of this popular Jobim piece and the youthful drive and color of the rock/fusion influences.
A pulsing samba version of the beloved Monk tune Pannonica has solid bass work by Huergo, which in turn supports fluid piano work by Schachnik. Rightfully, the flute lays out on this piece. I would have liked to have the volume, but not the energy of the drum kit pulled back a little during the bass solo. Still, this is a very tasteful treatment of Pannonica.
Zelia brings the flute back in to the forefront. An original by Schachnik, it enters with a flourish and settles into some nice guitar work, supported by the keyboard’s violin sounds. If the players get the opportunity, real violins would add a vibrant richness to this fun composition. Zelia is a fiercely happy piece that also breathes. I hope to hear more compositions by this pianist. I hope he can use actual violins.
The third tribute to Jobim’s music is the classic beauty Desafinado, again worked into an extravagant, fun arrangement. It is a true percussionist’s piece. An ideal meter was put into place, making this version impossible to sit still to. Again, the flute is not overtly sweet, although that is traditionally what is heard when used as a voicing in this tune. Instead, it has a dark quality that suits the interpretation very well.
Canto das Tres Raças, a Duarte/Pinheiro tune brings the project to a tasteful and solid conclusion. A percussionist’s delight, with Musayelyan’s rich flute dancing over the top, it is a relaxed yet energetic samba that incorporates the breadth of the blending of diversity from all players’ backgrounds. It contains a lovely, extended piano solo supported by the drum kit, but evolving into a hand percussion and vocal samba that leads out the end of the piece. It is a fitting finale to this recording project.
Track Listing:
1. Web’s Samba
2. A Felicidade
3. O Amor Em Paz
4. Eye of the Hurricane
5. Pannonica
6. Zelia
7. Desafinado
8. Canto das Tres Raças
Personnel:
Keyboards: Gilson Schachnik
Flute: Yulia Musayelyan
Guitar: Gustavo Assis-Brasil
Bass: Fernando Huergo
Drums: Mauricio Zottarelli
Sample track:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Related links:
Gilson Schachnik on the web: www.gilsonmusic.com
Mauricio Zottarelli on the web: www.mzdrums.com
Rebecca Cline & Hilary Noble (Enclave) – Diaspora (2008)
|
|
In Diaspora, the quartet, Enclave, comprising the pianist Rebecca Cline, saxophonist and flutist, Hilary Noble, bassist, Fernando Huergo and percussionist, Steve Langone have a wonderful follow up to their eponymously titled first record. Cline and Noble specifically appear to be in good company – with the likes of Jane Bunnett and Larry Cramer, as a serious musical duo who had so completely absorbed the deeply ebullient spirit of South America that they simply exude inner ritmo, a most magical sense of clave and unbelievably authentic chorinho. It is almost as if they were born with it. Moreover, in the company of a bassist such as Huergo and so accomplished a percussionist as Langone, they soar above the pale with wonderfully complex songs that reverberate with authentic ritual and a hypnotic sense of spiritual energy.
This is not something planned or cultivated. It certainly comes from within. This is obvious from the polyrhythmic meters hidden in the melody of the songs and also the manner in which Rebecca Cline orders her hands to strike the ebony and ivory of the piano. Her dynamics are spot on and beautifully controlled. She has complete mastery of son, bolero and – more than that – at times Yoruba rhythm. It is almost possible to feel the ghostly sense of orishas inhabiting the pulse of her music. Hilary Noble adds wonderful floating vertical lines to the melodies enriching these sometimes beyond belief, as in his flights of fantasy on ”Blue Cross.”
Of course this feast of music and its celebrations of life echo throughout the record. Tracks such as “Iya Modupue,” “Suite for Yemaya” and “Moab” go deep into the heart of Afro-Caribbean ritmo and reverberate with a transcendent pulse. The ensemble drives deepest into Yoruba ritual with “Iyá Modupué”, and here Cline and Noble with Huergo and Langone almost become Santeria celebrants as they weave their voices in swirling and pulsating harmony in an almost magical, speech-like manner. This ocean of sound gushes mightily through “Suite for Yemaya” and “Moab,” both of which also dance with interminable grace.
“Crossroads” and “Blue Cross” are rhythmically clever as are the challenging beats of “Mars Bars” and the diabolical, “Rue de Buci”. Perhaps the most memorable composition, however, is “Nameless,” an elementally sad piece that pierces the heart like a Lenten saeta. Cline shows a particularly chameleon-like skill – an ability to bend and shape notes almost at will and with great power and in a meaningful manner. Noble adds alternately the gruff, muscular tone of the tenor and the fluttering grace of the flute to every conversation he enters into. Both are extremely gifted percussionists as well and prove this time and time again on the record. Huergo is absolutely magical throughout, at times so sonorous and rhythmically powerful that he almost becomes an additional percussionist with his bass. And of course Langone is a one man percussion section at times.
How Enclave will top this superlative gathering of the Diaspora will probably be another magical mystery expedition when it is finally documented, sooner or later.
Tracks: Crossroads; Rue de Buci; Iyá Modupué; A-Frayed; Improvisaciones sobre Yemayá; Chorinho pra Iemãnjá; Ocean Mother; Nameless; Moab; Mars Bars; Blue Cross.
Personnel: Hilary Noble: tenor saxophone, flute, congas, djembe, cajon, cowbell; Rebecca Cline: acoustic grand piano, Fender Rhodes, bombo, claves, cowbell; Fernando Huergo: electric bass; Steve Langone: drums, chocalho, and pandeiro.
Rebecca Cline and Hilary Noble: Enclave on the web: www.enclavejazz.com
Review written by: Raul da Gama
Joel LaRue Smith Trio – September’s Child (Independent 2008)
|
|
There is indeed a deep connection between Africa, the Americas, the Caribbean and Europe. As September’s Child unfolds the sweeping musical journey begins as well, as does the harmonic and rhythmic connection that enjoins continents. It is the remarkable nature of Joel LaRue Smith’s pianism that becomes the binding glue of it all.
Smith’s art celebrates the triumphant spirit. To that extent it would be safe to say that were he making a deep bluesy record, it would be superb for he is moved by the soul. Were he to be part of a symphonic interpretation he would read the music as perfectly as it was intended to be read. And so in making this tribute to the Latin side of his soul LaRue Smith is never off the mark. An inner rhythmic clave guides LaRue Smith’s expedition. His music on this his debut record is sinewy, spectacularly sensual and joyfully spirited. Not just his interpretations of the Latin classics “Barandanga” by Armando Peraza, “Mambo Inn,” by Mario Bauzá “Obsesión,” by Pedro Flores, but more especially the music that he has written specially for this date.
“El Mensajero,” features some glorious, contrapuntal playing with Fernando Huergo, who is superbly inventive throughout the record. Huergo is a fine bassist, who can lead when he has to and also play a supportive role with inspired interplay – as he exhibits on the track in question. The soloist in Huergo is superbly on display, for instance, on “Que Preciosa,” where Huergo appears to find an unlimited source of ideas to drive the harmonics of the track. Drummer, Renato Malavasi, for his part, is able to keep the clave grounded when the need arises and disengage from the obvious with subtle changes in rhythmic coloring. The trio pushes even a traditional sort of Latin form – as in “Mambo Inn” into a truly contemporary context.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of this record is the writing. Joel LaRue Smith is able to compose with delightful complexity. And at the end of the day he brings surprising ideas into his music, but taking creative leaps with harmonic changes. His use of diminished measures in “Narrow Escape” is a fine example. This is something Wayne Shorter would do with remarkable results. It appears that LaRue Smith has some fine antecedents and may be indicating a clear influence of Shorter himself. Co-incidentally, his uncovering “Fall,” a real gem from Wayne Shorter himself is one of the high points of the record.
September’s Child is a guileless foray into the complex world of Latin rhythms. And it is this very spiritual journey that makes it an enduring musical document, something that is likely to stay in the mind and heart long after the echo of the last notes fade into the air.
Tracks: Barandanga; El Mensajero; Narrow Escape; Time Out Of Love; Miramar; Fall; Obsesión; Mambo Inn; Common Ground; Que Preciosa; September’s Child.
Personnel: Joel LaRue Smith: piano; Fernando Huergo: bass; Renato Malavasi: drums.
Joel LaRue Smith on the web: www.joellaruesmith.com
Review written by: Raul da Gama
Fernando Huergo – Provinciano (Sunnyside Records 2008)
|
|
This is not just another record of music by an Argentinean musician. Provinciano is a brave attempt to create a new metaphor based on traditional harmonics and rhythms that inhabit the Argentinean Tango and folkloric music. Fernando Huergo, bassist extraordinaire makes a huge leap of faith as he – first explains – and then demonstrates the depth of his creativity and staggering virtuosity in his musical sojourn and his organically evolving bass playing.
Alejo Carpentier once wrote, fictionally of course, of a journey that he once undertook to find the origin of sound. That mythical journey took him into the Amazon and where he lost himself among a very primitive, yet sophisticated people and discovered the magical elixir of sound – a pure sound itself. On Provinciano, Huergo makes a similar journey; only his is one that can no longer traverse a primitive sound scape. But his is a journey that takes place in the interior landscape of the musical mind. Here the musician has imbued the many magical rhythmic impulses that ignite creativity. Amazingly, these parallel the same impulses that have driven jazz music through the ages. The impulse to create continually through time and space – to improvise. Then there is the element of swing and the joyful heartache of the blues.
The music on Provinciano in many respects is a Latin refraction of jazzical modes, but daubed in the lush tones of the provincial. The rhythms are sometimes challenging and may appear to be a tad clever, which they are not… simply accurately describing a tradition that is given new meaning in the modern context. “One in Ten” a track written in 10/8 time is a case in point as is “A Mil,” where a Piazzolla tango might go musically if he were to play it today. Here Huergo is not only proficient technically, but also displays a wonderfully puckish sense of humor. There are two tracks written in Chacarera modes and others in the form of aire de milonga and aire de vidala – folkloric wonders that are completely modern in statement and form. Amazingly, even programmatic pieces such as “The Cost of War” and Coltrane’s lesser masterpiece, “Lonnie’s Lament” also work as folk forms. (Mingus did this many half a Century ago with Thad Jones on his own album, appropriately entitled Folk Forms). These two tracks may unconsciously hark back to that masterly excursion as well.
Finally, a word about the musicians. Huergo is a fine technician, but he plays his bass with great feeling and expression as well. The musicians who honor the compositions have also given a fine account of themselves. Andrew Rathbun and Yulia Musayelyan on saxophones and flute, respectively, have an uncanny sense of empathy for the music, which it would appear, is written with them in mind. Mika Pohjola and Franco Pinna are also artists of enormous rhythmic skill. Together these musicians have all the makings of a long-term partnership, which is to say more music of greater, import sooner rather than later.
Tracks: Provinciano; La Luz del Norte; One in Ten; Vida; A Mil; Chacarera Boogaloo; The Cost of War; El Chupacabras; Lonnie’s Lament; Instinto Matero; Bochis; Chacarera del Carancho; El Dia que me Quieras.
Personnel: Yulia Musayelyan: flute; Andrew Rathbun: tenor and soprano saxophones; Mika Pohjola: piano; Fernando Huergo: bass; Franco Pinna: drums.
Fernando Huergo on the web: www.fernandohuergo.com
Review written by: Raul da Gama
