Maybe it was a slow news day. One can only read (or write) so much about the global economic catastrophe, Tea Partiers, or elections that only put different people to protect the same interests. Whatever the case may be, El País, Spain’s most important national newspaper, on Sunday run a piece headlined “El Jazz Latino en Pie de Guerra,” roughly, Latin Jazz on the warpath. (for your Spanish language reading pleasure: http://www.elpais.com/articulo/revista/agosto/jazz/latino/pie/guerra/elpten/20110807elpepirdv_8/Tes )
In it, critic Diego Manrique discusses the class action lawsuit brought by percussionist Bobby Sanabria, guitarist Ben Lapidus, pianist Mark Levine, and composer Eugene Marlow against the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) which awards the GRAMMYs, in response for the elimination of the Latin Jazz category. While not quoted in this story, Roger Maldonado, attorney for the plaintiffs, has told the Associated Press that “Not only does it devalues the category of music and the work these musicians do. It makes it much harder for them to gain recognition.”
At the very least, NARAS seems to have mismanaged both the process and the announcement of its decision. But making a Federal case out of it (literally) hardly seems the best way to address it. A thoughtful discussion is needed.
But in a perverse turn, both sides have succeeded in getting press for a music often overlooked.
I know that it’s not quite the point, but now that we got your attention, can we offer you some Latin Jazz?.
I’ll take a page of the shop owner standing on the sidewalk, passing off fliers and inviting people in to check the merchandise – we have Mario Bauzá!, Dizzy Gillespie!, Danilo Pérez!, Guillermo Klein!, Chano Domínguez!, Come and check us out!. Come in and hear! Chucho Valdés!, Jerry González!, Perico Sambeat!, Adrian Iaies!, Silvano Monasterios!, Edward Simon! … come and try us out!

August, 2011 Jazz With An Accent

Unconditional
Silvano Monasterios
(Savant)

Sometimes, the brilliance of certain inventions can be measured by how common place they seem. The music of Venezuelan pianist Silvano Monasterios is so easy-on-the-ear, so elegantly structured, and has such a casual, lived-in feel that it might take a bit to catch on to how sophisticated his work is. It’s only after awhile that one  notices the harmonic turns, the storytelling soloing, or the rhythmic vocabulary, specially his discreet use of traditional Venezuelan styles.

For starters, Unconditional, is Monasterios’ fourth album and he clearly feels no need to accommodate any conventional expectations about how Latin jazz should sound like. Whatever someone might argue to be some essence of “Latin,” is here integrated into the overall sound. To list the parts is to miss the whole – and one suspects, its intention.

Leading a limber, efficient quintet — Troy Roberts, sax; Jon Dadurka, bass; Rodolfo Zuñiga, drums; and José Gregorio Hernández, percussion – Monasterios offers in Unconditional fusion with an accent, lyrical, and remarkably cliché-free.

And when Monasterios explicitly uses Venezuelan folk rhythms as the basis of a piece — as in “Sno’ Peas” where he uses gaita zuliana, a rhythm original  of the Zulia state which, Monasterios explains, is danced at Christmas time, or the slow swinging  “Black Saint,”  in which he draws from the traditional drumming for San Benito, a black saint  — he also feels free to use a passage of straight ahead, driving swing for release and contrast or use a Fender Rhodes to evoke a certain feel. Or he can also set up a muscular, straight ahead hard-driving blowing vehicle such “Forgotten Gods.” Or, as in the title track, design a classic ballad in which the melody unfurls unhurriedly before the soloists take over and elaborate, telling their own stories.

The eight pieces in Unconditional are originals by Monasterios and, throughout, there is attention to detail, be it regarding song forms, the structuring of the soloing or the use of unexpected rhythmic shifts, some of which suggest a sort of rhythm quoting.
In Monasterios’ music, fun and beauty unfold with a purpose – and jazz becomes an inch wider and deeper.

http://silvanomonasterios.com/

* * *
From the Better-late-than–never bin …
(Music we didn’t want to miss)

Released in the United States in April, Norwegian trumpeter Mathias Eick’s Skala (ECM) is a follow up of sorts to The Door (ECM, 2008). It’s a larger ensemble and a broader palette, but size is not the point. What’s striking here is Eick’s pop approach in his writing (the sing-songy, catchy melodies often reinforce the notion of instrumental songs waiting for lyrics), the overall, often aggressive, driving energy, and the production (he gets co-producer credits). The musical references in Skala are quite disparate. The beautiful, expansive title track, a wordless song that builds on short elegiac trumpet phrases and a muscular Tore Brunborg’s Jan Garbarek-influenced tenor solo, turns out to have been influenced by Sting’s “Shape of My Heart.” And “Oslo,” which features two drummers churning a dense storm underneath, suggests Radiohead or late 70s Brian Eno exploding to a (sort of) go-go beat. And then Eick openly tips his hat to Joni Mitchell in the very un-Mitchell-like “Joni.”
Skala blurs the lines between jazz, the austere esthetics of ECM, and avant-pop — and each in its own way, is better off for it.

August 2011 The International Review of Music/ Jazz With An Accent