Danilo Pérez – Providencia (Mack Avenue Records – 2010)
Danilo Pérez’s extraordinary album, Providencia is more than a delightful suite. It is a love story… a love story between a father and his daughters, between a native son and his country. Above all, it is a love story between an artist and his music. And this latter facet of the album means that conceptually, it transcends borders. The music bears out this thought: It is bold, global and almost galactic. It is always in motion as it traverses many continents, even time and space. Rhythmically it pulses with the heartbeat of the earth. It is harmonically enriched by tonal palettes that include shades and colors from a myriad cultures; a melding of Afro-centric, European and mostly a liberal dash of American ones. Above all, because the music is so personal, it exudes gushing warmth that seems to alight upon the heart, where it dances the interminable dance of the private joy of life itself.
Pérez is a pianist of enormous talent. He does not play as much as caress the notes of the piano, infusing them with such vivid dynamics and expression that not only characters, but a whole life of pageantry might come to life. As a composer he hears music with a wide spectrum of tonalities and rhythms. However they are fused together in a wonderful musical fabric that is swathed in color and rich in timbral values. Music thus enriched can only be both, mysterious and magical, familiar and exotic and so seductive that it is like a vortex that draws in both casual fans as well as serious followers. Providencia is just that kind of record. Although it begins with an intensely personal song, “Daniela’s Chronicle,” the music soon widens out to induct the intergalactic nature of Panama. “Galactic Panama” takes a gigantic leap of musical faith. Driven by the dry and wailing of the alto saxophone of Rudresh Mahanthappa, the music traverses continents echoing dance forms that include festejo and joropo and these are festooned with the wild and celebratory saxophone of Mahanthappa and the pirouetting piano of Pérez.
Pérez displays great emotional sensitivity as he explores themes of love and tenderness in charts such as “Historia de un Amor” and the magnificently gushing “Irremediablemente Solo”. His treatment of these themes comes to life with dramatic arpeggios, darting runs and also meandering lines that might begin somewhere in the middle of a line, wander off like a burbling tributary in the melodic river of song, then somehow find its way back to the formal melody again. Pérez’s power of storytelling is also quite memorable. His “Bridge of Life, Part I” infuses the philosophical aspect of the song with a myriad colors and rhythmic inventions. The brooding bassoon, fluttering oboe and French Horn are led into an almost sacred realm by Pérez’s piano. Dense textures lead into darkness only to emerge into a gorgeous and bright aspect of the abstraction of life on the other side.
“Providencia” is a sensuous piece that begins with the floating lyricism of the ever-seductive Sara Serpa, who dances, fairy-like into the ebb and flow of the song, entwined with the fey flute and the skipping skittering of the piano. The music is also thoughtful—almost brooding. This begins with the beautiful “Irremediablemente Solo,” a piece with diaphanous harmonics, and does not end until the last hammering notes of “Cobilla”. But not before the music traverses across “Bridge of Life, Part II,” the cathartic energy of “The Oracle” and two exquisite parts of “The Maze,” both sequences that Pérez has composed with Mahanthappa, each piece acting as a beguiling bookend to the thunderous drive of “Cobilla”.
This is a remarkable album and it seems to document the life journey of a remarkable musician. In it, its principle character, like a heroic Homeric mythic character, continues to journey far and away in search of adventure, and the variety of life as a wandering artist.
Track Listing: Daniela’s Chronicles; Galactic Panama; Historia de un Amor; Bridge of Life, Part I; Providencia; Irremediablemente Solo; The Oracle; Bridge of Life, Part II; The Maze: The Beginning; Cobilla; The Maze: The End.
Personnel: Danilo Pérez: acoustic piano, Fender Rhodes (10), percussion (2), Melodica (5); Ben Street: bass; Adam Cruz: drums and steel pans (1); Jamey Haddad: percussion; Ernesto Diaz: congas; Rudresh Mahanthappa: alto saxophone; Sara Serpa: voice; Matt Marvuglio: flute; Barbara Laffitte: oboe; Amparo Edo Biol: French horn; Margaret Phillips: bassoon; José Benito Meza Torres: clarinet.
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Danilo Pérez on the web: www.daniloperez.com
Review written by: Raul da Gama
Hilario Durán Trio – Motion (Alma Records – 2010)
In his much-anticipated follow-up to the Grammy-nominated and Juno Award-winning Latin Big Band recording, From The Heart (Alma Records,2008) the piano master, Hilario Durán brings together a power trio comprising bassist, Roberto Occhipinti and drummer, Mark Kelso. In the process he has created Motion, a memorable, new canvas of sound, unveiled through a palette of vivid tonal colors throughout the album’s eight tracks. The record bustles and breathes with myriad rhythms that are so unique to Hilario Durán’s music. He is a unique pianist, quite without peer in the realm of tumbao, the melodic bass lines that burst out of Durán’s music. This killer tumbao, as it is often called, propels Durán’s piano playing throughout brilliantly crafted ensemble passages where his right hand promotes a gentle simpatico weaving melody into the musical souls of his bandmates, Occhipinti and Kelso. His harmonics are stunning and he enrobes the melodies with these rich tapestries of sound often, with surprising color, to make the songs pirouette like dancers. His solos are always inventive, turning melodies inside out and often coming at them with a sliding, angular attack replete with single notes and ferocious chord clusters, so that they are freshened every time he touches the song.
This memorable set begins with “It’s Only Seven,” a song featuring a complex rhythmic structure that sets the pulse racing with a 7/4 beat. Its melody is alluring and, with bassist Roberto Occhipinti and drummer Mark Kelso in fine form, the song proves to be a true kicker. Occhipinti is sensational as he navigates through the fine rhythms with some propulsive and yet nuanced melodic playing. “Conversation with a Lunatic,” a puckish song vividly suggests a jitterbug-like encounter. Here too, Durán creates whorls of sound with contrapuntal figures that turn this track into one that burns with a bright blue flame. Next, Hilario Durán probes a seemingly familiar melody with refreshing and vigorous new ideas: “Havana City,” is a track filled with a sense of languidness that captures the lilting swagger of the rhythms of that city. The song is long and meandering and meditative. The feeling of emotional longing is heightened by the short opening featuring delicate strings, fluttering percussion and aching vocals atop resonant batás by the incomparable Joaquín Hidalgo. Hilario Durán’s playing here is soft and luscious as it appears to caress an almost feminine persona of Havana. The timely accented splashes of Mark Kelso and Roberto Occhipinti’s remarkable bass playing provide a superb rhythmic backdrop that keeps the song swaying and sashaying throughout.
“For Emiliano,” is an emotional tribute to Durán’s compatriot, pianist, Emiliano Salvador. This burgeoning arrangement has a distinct underpinning of sadness. The elegiac mood has some very thoughtful expansive piano playing and compelling bass work by Occhipinti as they seem to recall the spirit of Emiliano Salvador in a gentle wake full of clave. Kelso enjoys an explosive break here, while Durán comps effortlessly and later takes the song home. The album continues to surprise with “Tango Moruno,” which—as the title suggests—is a proverbial doffing of the hat to a form of music that came from nearby Argentina. Jamey Haddad excels as he manipulates the rhythm with remarkable percussive colorations. “Danza Negra” is a deeper excavation of the African side of Hilario Durán’s music and even though nothing is sung there is a bright mélange of danzón and earthy tones of the conjuring up of Yoruba spirituality as it fades with a flourish.
“Motion” is what the entire new experience of Hilario Durán’s music is all about. The musical roars from out of the starting blocks. Durán drives a labyrinthine rhythm in yet another complex figure of swing and clave. In his sensational and abrupt changes in rhythm Durán displays a new maturity of musicianship. He cajoles Roberto Occhipinti and Mark Kelso to reach deep into themselves to emerge with uniquely expressive ideas. The set ends with “Timba en Trampa,” a new dancing song that puts the proverbial sting of this delightful new record in its tail. This track is based on an angular 6/8 figure. The chopped rhythm—highlighted and enhanced by some excellent conga work by Luis Orbegoso offsets Durán’s flying fingers across the ivory and ebony. Here Durán also shows a fond affection for Thelonious Monk with his creative and architectural compositional style and displays complete mastery over every aspect of the musical process adorning this sublime, unforgettable album.
Tracks: It’s Only Seven; Conversation with a Lunatic; Havana City; For Emiliano; Danza Negra; Timba en Trampa.
Personnel: Hilario Durán: piano; Roberto Occhipinti: bass; Mark Kelso: drums; Joaquín Hidalgo: batá drums and vocal (3); Luis Orbegoso: congas (8); Jamey Haddad: percussion (5); The Pandemonium Strings (3).
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Hilario Durán on the web: www.hilarioduran.com
Review written by: Raul da Gama
