Jazz has long become a global language, and Jazz With an Accent ®, on the radio and as a blog, is a way to find out and explore the ways musicians around the world have cross-referenced jazz and their traditions to tell their stories.
It wasn’t planned, but as I put the playlist together, tonight became an evening of string theory, showcasing guitars, both electric and acoustic, an oud, and a bassist and cellist. And, as it has become the norm here, in the time we have we are traveling pretty far and wide, geographically, and stylistically. Step right in.
We’ll start with back-to-back pieces by French Vietnamese guitarist Nguyen Lê: We’ll hear the title track from Lê’s Bakida, a recording with his trio featuring French bassist Renaud Garcia-Fons and Spanish drummer and percussionist Tino Di Geraldo, and we’ll follow with “Byzance,” Lê’s collaboration with Tunisian oud player and vocalist Dhafer Youssef from Homescape, an album of duos with Youssef and Italian trumpeter Paolo Fresu.
Not surprisingly, Lê’s story reveals an intriguing figure. No one wanders by chance into the collaborations he has explored throughout his career. After graduating in visual arts, Lê majored in philosophy, writing a thesis on exoticism before turning to music. He’s a self-taught musician, and it seems he set out to play across and ignore stylistic borders from the beginning, including rock, funk, and jazz but also contemporary European classical music, and African, Caribbean, Turkish, and Vietnamese-rooted music. We’ll hear more from him in future programs.
Tonight, we’ll take a turn in a different direction here and check on two exceptional acoustic guitar trios: the Paco de Lucia, John McLaughlin, and Al DiMeola trio and their Friday Night in San Francisco; and then we’ll hear “Um dia de Chuva” by the Brazilian trio D’Alma featuring Andre Geraissati, Ulisses Rocha and Rui Saleme.
From Friday Night in San Francisco, we’ll hear “Guardian Angel” by McLaughlin and (this was not intentional; I chose it by the solos and their balance) the one track on the album recorded in a studio.
The second half opens with Argentine guitarist and singer Luis Salinas and “Funky Tango,” a track from Salinas, his debut album in the States. A self-taught player, Luis Salinas had developed an interesting, personal blend of tango, Argentine folk music, bossa nova, boleros, and jazz by the time he signed with GRP. In this album, produced by Tommy Lipuma, he leans at times into smooth jazz, but there is more to Salinas than that.
The next track is by Swedish guitarist Ulf Wakenius, reimagining “The Windup,” from his album Notes from the Heart (2005), a tribute to Keith Jarrett featuring bassist, cellist, and pianist Lars Danielsson, to whom we will return later, and drummer Morten Lund. “The Windup” appears in the album Belonging by Jarrett’s “European” quartet. Wakenius was a member of Oscar Peterson’s last quartet, appearing on Summer Night in Munich and then as a guest artist on Trail of Dreams: A Canadian Suite. He also played and recorded with Ray Brown and his trio on Summertime and Seven Steps to Heaven.
And we’ll close tonight’s program with “Lobos” a track from New York-based Uruguayan guitarist and pianist Beledo from his album Lejanas Serranias, and we’ll follow that with “Asta” a piece from Swedish cellist and bassist Lars Danielsson’s album Libera Me.
Jose Pedro Beledo has had a remarkable career that stretches from English-Invasion-influenced rock and candombe in Uruguay to working with Tito Puente and Celia Cruz (Tropical Tribute to The Beatles), jazz-rock with his own band The Avengers (featuring Adam Holzman on keyboards, Lincoln Goines on bass, and Kim Plainfield on drums), touring with Soft Machine and recording his album Flotando en el Vacio with Carles Benavent on bass, Jorge Pardo on flute.
Classically trained Lars Danielsson notes on his site that he turned to the bass and jazz after listening to Nils-Henning Ǿrsted Pedersen. Reflecting his substantial collaborations on both sides of that imaginary musical line, Danielsson’s own music often suggests an organic fusion of jazz and European classical music elements. Libera Me, which features Nils Petter Molvaer on trumpet and electronics and Jon Christensen on drums, is a good entry point to his work.
To my taste, there is not enough time to talk and play the music I’d like to share with you — and I prefer you hear the music. So if you want more information about the music and the artists you heard (or will hear), please come back and check here or at WDNA.org
Join us tonight at 7 p.m. EST at
There is a world of jazz to discover.
If you’d like to reach me, please write to me at fernando@jazzwithanaccent.com
Playlist
- Nguyen Lê Bakida
- Nguyen Lê & Dhafer Youssef Byzance
- Paco de Lucia, John McLaughlin & Al DiMeola Guardian Angel
- Andre Geraissati, Ulisses Rocha & Rui Saleme Um Dia de Chuva
- Romero Lubambo Time After Time
- Luis Salinas Funky Tango
- Ulf Wakenius The Windup
- Beledo Lobos
- Lars Danielsson Asta
Jazz With an Accent 