The idea has never been to offer a play-by-play of the evening’s program but some information and commentary that perhaps will deepen your enjoyment of the music you will hear and intrigue you into looking for more of it. As a host, I prefer you hear the music, not me talking.
We say that jazz has become a global language that artists around the world use to tell their stories. Sometimes that means reinterpreting the jazz tradition with the tools and ways of their musical traditions, something that continues to expand the jazz vocabulary. Sometimes they use the approach and syntax of jazz to re-imagine, perhaps re-energize, those traditions.
We’ll hear a bit of both tonight.
Thelonious Monk’s approach to rhythm and swing as a pianist and composer has been an inspiration for many Ibero-American and Caribbean artists. We’ll hear Spanish pianist Chano Domínguez turn “Bemsha Swing” into a Flamenco dance, accompanied only by taconeo (footwork) and palmas (clapping). Monk might have gotten up from the piano for that. And we’ll hear Trinidadian trumpeter and composer Etienne Charles give “Green Chimneys” a Calypso strut. It’s a track from his album Creole Soul, Charles’ celebration of folk and pop Caribbean musical traditions. Check the work on “Green Chimney” by Charles, pianist Kris Bowers and saxophonist Brian Hogans.
The next segment has a distinct Cuban accent. Panamanian pianist Danilo Perez and his trio, featuring bassist Ben Street and drummer Adam Cruz, heard live at the Jazz Showcase in 2015, reframe Cuban singer-songwriter Silvio Rodriguez’s standard “Rabo de Nube.” Meanwhile, singer and songwriter Daymé Arocena, one of the most compelling young vocalists to emerge from Cuba in recent years, sets “Cry Me a River” as a rumba guaguancó that flows naturally into the rumba “Xiomara,” sung in Spanish, in her 2015 EP Havana Cultura Sessions.
(Daymé Arocena performing at the Miami Beach Bandshell. Photo by Tony Martinez, Fundarte)
We’ll follow “Cry Me a River” with a sly version of Consuelo Velázquez’s classic “Besame Mucho” by Afro-Argentine guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, and singer Oscar Alemán, a contemporary of Django Reinhardt and a figure in Josephine Baker’s ensemble and show. While researching for the recent String Theory program, I rediscovered tracks I hadn´t heard in some time. This features not only Alemán’s playing but a bit of cheeky singing (in Spanish) in which he curiously tweaks the lyrics. “Kiss me, kiss me a lot, as if this afternoon (instead of the original “Tonight”) were the last time,” he sings. So much for nighttime drama. (I wish I knew more about the context of this version.)
The program then picks up right on Alemán’s irreverent take on a beloved standard as British pianist, composer, and arranger Django Bates does “My Way” his way. This song has been interpreted with great gusto by artists as disparate as Frank Sinatra, Nina Simone, the Gipsy Kings, and Sid Vicious — but Bates’ take is one of a kind. He has a special talent to, at the same time, pay homage to the piece at hand, stretch it this way and that to check for new possibilities, and mock it as needed.
There is no joking around by Venezuelan pianist Edward Simon. His urgent post-bop version of “Libertango” honors the energy of one of New Tango master Astor Piazzolla’s most popular pieces. The track is from his trio album Latin American Songbook.
As a bookend for a program that started with probings of the music of Thelonious Monk, we’ll visit Duke Ellington’s legacy: “Mood Indigo” in a slow-paced, brooding version by Spanish pianist Albert Sanz and his trio, and a tango reimagining of “In a Sentimental Mood” by Argentine pianist and composer Gustavo Beytelmann, a former Piazzolla sideman and long-time Paris resident. This track is from the album Tango a la Duke, featuring a program of tango versions of Ellington’s classics by Beytelmann and his trio comprising the late Juan Jose Mosalini, bandoneón, and Roberto Tormo, double bass.
Bill Evans once said “Jazz is not a what; it’s a how,” and it’s a central idea of Jazz With an Accent.
We close with Chano Domínguez´s Flamenco-accented “Turn out the Stars.”
If you have any questions, suggestions, corrections, or requests, and you’d like to reach me, feel free to write to me at fernando@jazzwithanaccent.com
Until then, thank you for listening.
Playlist
- Etienne Charles “Green Chimneys” Creole Soul
- Chano Domínguez “Bemsha Swing” Hecho a Mano
- Danilo Pérez “Rabo de Nube” Live at the Jazz Showcase
- Dayme Arocena “Cry Me A River” The Havana Culture Sessions
- Oscar Alemán “Bésame Mucho” Grandes Exitos Vol.2
- Django Bates “My Way” You Live & Learn…(Apparently)
- Edward Simon “Libertango” Latin American Songbook
- Albert Sanz Trio “Mood Indigo” Metamorfosis
- Gustavo Beytelmann Trio “In a Sentimental Mood” Tango A La Duke
- Chano Domínguez “Tu Enciendes Las Estrellas” (Turn Out the Stars) Hecho A Mano
Jazz With an Accent 