Yuri Juarez – Afroperuano (Saponegro Records 2009)

It may not happen from the first note, but soon the music on Afroperuano begins to magically evoke the sound of the wind rushing through the rarified air of the Peruvian Andes. It is also possible to feel the swishing of skirts and the infectious gaiety of dancers as the fleet fingers of Yuri Juarez glide and fly across the neck of his guitar. They tingle and crash upon strings sharing the passion of the music with a group of fine artists. Juarez is able to conjure up the air of carnival as it dances down happy streets. Mystery and magic abounds on this fine tribute to the gorgeous mixture of African and native melody and rhythm that is rife on this record.

Yuri Juarez has a unique “vocal” style of playing. He spits and rolls out his notes as if he were employing tongue and lips and palette as well as fingers and thumbs on both hands. As a happy result, his festejo and huayno skip and bustle with sun-kissed brightness and excitement. His valse glides and pirouettes with extraordinary grace. The polka swings with mad abandon and the lando might just elicit a flood of emotions as its harmony trembles with elemental sadness, sometimes.

“Cantelo Usted” and “Rosa Del Mar” are extraordinary in both their adherence to the classical rhythms and a bow towards the contemporary interpretation of an otherwise old art form. Melodically these are superbly rendered and with dynamics and phrasing that could only come from an instrumental imitation of a romantically imagined vocal rendition. Similar praise can be sung of Juarez’s interpretation of the valse in a wonderful ballad, “Guisella” that does favorably with a later one – “Insistire” – composed by the legendary Carlos Hayre. Here Juarez shines with particular brightness as he is moody and brilliantly alone, unaccompanied by the rest of the musicians as he picks his way through the labyrinthine melody of the song.

There is never a dull moment on this record that features several other folk forms. The panalivio, that is entitled “Acuariana” transcends the simplistic with an unusual measure of atonality and a surprising reference to the Brasilian samba as the music picks up the pace. Chucho Valdes’ beautiful and popular “Mambo Influenciado” is respectfully rendered as a brilliant and lively zamacueca and evokes the fun of the coastal festivities, while still harking back to the “mambo.” And of course “Carnival de Arequipa” brings the set to a close with Enderson Herencia playing superbly on quena, zampoña and charango as the group makes a spectacular reference to the binary rhythm of the huayno – the heart of Andean dance bases in pentatonica.

The musicians on this session excel in all departments. Drummer, Hugo Alcázar is characteristically self-effacing, but he is busy rattling the snares and rumbling at the tom-toms. His shimmering cymbal splashes are melodically potent. The various percussionists are right on the money every time they caress or slap the skin. Theirs is an almost spiritual connection with the art of twanging the music out of the quijada and coaxing the cajon to thunder ecstatically. The string quartet brings other worldly grace to the music they interpret and improvise upon. Enderson Herencia appears to be omnipresent and always just where he has to be harmonically for Juarez to escape on his solo expeditions. And it is always a joy to hear Pilar de la Hoz interpret the vocal parts of the music with Jorge Pardo and others in the chorus when called for.

Afroperuano is further proof that the music of Peru is fast occupying a prominent part of the world stage and Yuri Juarez can take comfort for playing his part in bring attention to it where it matters.

Tracks: Cantelo Usted; Astorpolka; Guisella; Una Noche Sin Ti; Arroz Con Concolon; Acuariana; Insistire; Rosa Del Mar; Gracia; Festejando; Mambo Influenciado; Carnaval de Agrequipa.

Personnel: Yuri Juarez: guitars, percussion; Enderson Herencia: electric bass; Josha Oetz: acoustic bass; Mariano Liy: electric bass, keyboards; Abel Garcia: tenor saxophone solo (8); Pepe Villanueva: trumpet (11); Jorge Luis Cardenas “El Bola”: keyboards; Pepe Cespedes: keyboards; Maria Elena Pacheco: violin; Raphael Nuñez: viola; Miguel Reina: cello; Marcos Mosquera: percussion; Laura Robles: percussion; Juan Medrano Cotito: percussion; Dick Minano: percussion; Junior Pecora: flute (10), percussion; Hugo Alcázar: drums; Alex Sarrin: drums (2) Pilar de la Hoz: voice; Jorge Pardo: voice.

Yuri Juarez on the web: www.myspace.com/yurijuarez

Review written by: Raul da Gama

Gabriel Alegria – Nuevo Mundo (Saponegro Records 2008)

Every once in awhile there comes a musician who, when playing his or her chosen instrument, seems to carry within a vital life-force that is irrepressible, no matter what the circumstances of his or her playing. At the height of his powers, Charles Mingus was one such musician. Whether he was playing hot or cool, beautiful or ugly, he seemed to be fired up with a raw unparalleled force that appeared to spring from a vortex. Many musicians ever since have come close to literally bursting with this energy. But there are few—very few musicians—that come even close to exuding the intensity of trumpet and flugelhorn player, Gabriel Alegria.

This record, Nuevo Mundo, is a classic testament to creativity of the highest order. In the music contained within it we have a volcanic confluence of modern American music, Peruvian folk motifs and the all-pervasive African roots of both musics. And what Alegria does is funnel the musical lava through his horn whereby he makes a statement that is raw and harking to an ancient future so new that although there are touchstones of the historic past there is also something elementally new, unheard before… and altogether breathtaking.

The recording opens with a wonderful surprise. “Buscando a Huevito,” a three-part suite that swings wildly with trumpets (Alegria and Bobby Shew) and trombone (Bill Watrous) cavorting madly with the various percussion excursions of Freddy “Huevito” Lobaton. The track melds jazz and folk rhythms with dance forms, swinging, that is, from festejo to lando and back to festejo again. This veritable carnival sets the irrepressible tone for the record. It appears that Alegria can twist his rhythmic ingenuity around classic American song as well. “Summertime” gets the Afro-Peruvian treatment and here Alegria shows how cleverly he melds the old New Orleans style—making brilliant use of the plunger mute—while the gentle swing of the original is replaced by the infinitely hotter Latin rhythm, spurred on by the cajon and other percussion played by both Lobaton and Hugo Alcazar.

“El Norte,” takes the chord changes of Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five” and crosses them with the Afro-Peruvian festejo to turn in another unique new song. Tierney Sutton’s vocals add to the wonderful elasticity of Alegria’s new composition. The interplay between Lobaton and Alcazar is exhilarating. “Las Hijas del Sol,” is a beautiful, elegiac impression of the innocence of children, seemingly against a sepia backdrop and plenty of atmosphere created by Russell Ferrante’s keyboards. Alegria’s glissandos and acrobatic leaps abound throughout as the trumpet begins to describe the skittering of the subject of the song. “El Sur” is another of Alegria’s sketches—this one a mirror of the sea in harness with woodwinds and horn. “Piano de Patio (y Bongo)” could very well describe a bar in the old quarter of a Peruvian town where—in the squeezed notes of Alegria’s trumpet—the spirit of Louis Armstrong cavorts with local percussionists. On this and also “El Mar” there is a wonderful interplay between Gabriel Alegria and Laurandrea Leguia’s tenor saxophone. Acoustic guitarist Walter “Jocho” Velasquez also excels here.

But the stellar performances come largely from the horn of Gabriel Alegria. This record, abounding in energy and innovation could very well be one of the most memorable musical testaments to the meeting of jazz and its seeming alter-ego Afro-Peruvian music.

Tracks: Buscando a Huevito; Summertime; El Norte; Las Hijas del Sol; El Sur; Piano del Patio; El Mar.

Personnel: Gabriel Alegria: trumpet, flugelhorn; Freddy “Huevito” Lobaton: percussion (cajon, cajita, quijita de burro), zapateo dancing; Laurandrea Leguia: tenor saxophone; Hugo Alcazar: drums, percussion; Joscha Ortiz: acoustic bass; Walter “Jocho” Velasquez: acoustic guitar; Bobby Shew: trumpet (1); Bill Watrous: trombone (1); Lisa Harrington: vocals (1, 4, 6); Tierney Sutton: vocals (3); Russell Ferrante: keyboards (1, 4, 6, 7).

Gabriel Alegria on the web: www.gabrielalegria.com

Review written by: Raul da Gama

Geoffrey Keezer – Aurea (ArtistShare 2008)

Geoffrey Keezer is a pianist of immense technical ability. As a musician and composer he is able to express himself in different idioms and settings. On Aurea, for instance, he makes a remarkable foray into the realm of Afro-Peruvian music. And he emerges from this colorful expedition with such a high degree of excellence that you wonder why more practitioners of jazz on the piano, for all its use as a primary rhythmic instrument in modern ensembles, have not made the journey into the ever-inviting musical realm of Afro Latin America earlier. Now it appears that so many musicians – especially New York based artists – playing in the jazz idiom seem to be besotted with the music of Latin America, especially Colombia and Peru.

It certainly appears, from the music on this record, that Keezer has not only imbued almost every aspect of Afro-Peruvian idioms and the rhythmic phrasing, but that he has also made it his own, emerging here with a virtually original musical avatar. So much so that it is almost impossible to tell “Cayendo Para Arriba” and (especially) “Una Bruja Buena” and “Leucadia” from say “”La Flor Azul” and “La Nostalgiosa”. But more than character Keezer may have also stretched even further the textures of a very elastic rhythmic culture. “Miraflores” with its layers of dark-to-light Afro-Peruvian rhythms under Keezer’s soaring piano improvisations, is a resounding classic. What this suggests is that, at least in terms of charts alone, Keezer may certainly have added to the contemporary catalogue.

He is doubtless, successful in this endeavor in no small measure because of the presence of his musical cohorts. Firstly, the Peruvian percussionist, Hugo Alcázar brings a wild, yet sophisticated reading of both, Keezer’s as well as the Latin standards and traditional songs. Jon Wilkan is the other percussionist and when they are together, they work up a dynamic storm. Also noteworthy are exquisite solos by Ron Blake (“La Nostalgiosa”) also Steve Wilson especially on “Araña Amarilla”. And then there is the majestic reading of all the bass parts by Essiet Okun Essiet and the stylish plucking on acoustic guitar by Peter Sprague. However by far the revealed star on this recording may be vocalist Sophia Rei Koutsovitis, who brings a raw, primal quality to the gut-wrenching readings of the vocal parts and is specially memorable on “Una Bruja Buena,” “La Flor Azul” and “La Nostalgiosa,” where she conjures the spirit of heartland of Peru. The elemental sadness of “Vidala De Lucho” is all too memorable thanks to the vocalist’s reading of the emotional phrasing of the song. Keezer of course set the mood with a spectacular introduction to the song.

In Aurea, Geoffrey Keezer has created a record of unforgettable grace and power. And the artist tells us that he has also made an extra-artistic commitment to the people of Peru. In going with ArtistShare, Keezer has committed to making a contribution to social projects in that country to alleviate some of the economic distress there. In this regard he has broken fresh ground in commitment to the artists whose traditions he shares here on this record.

Tracks Listing: Cayendo Para Arriba; Una Bruja Buena; La Flor Azul; Araña Amarilla; Leucadia; La Nostalgiosa; Miraflores; Vidala de Lucho.

Personnel: Geoffrey Keezer: piano, Rhodes; Steve Wilson: alto saxophone; Ron Blake: alto saxophone, flute; Phil O’Connor: bass clarinet; Sophia Rei Koutsovitis: voice; Mike Moreno: guitars; Peter Sprague: acoustic guitar; Hugo Alcázar: drums, percussion; Jon Wilkan: drums percussion; Essiet Okon Essiet: acoustic and electric bass; Susan Wulff: acoustic bass.

Geoffrey Keezer on the web: www.geoffreykeezer.com

Review written by: Raul da Gama