Record Reviews: Homages and the Future

29 Thursday Mar 2018

Posted by in Home, Jazz, On Music

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OmarSosaPiano
Omar Sosa

In a curious coincidence, the theme of recent big band releases by drummer Dafnis Prieto, and pianists Chucho Valdés, Arturo O’Farrill and Omar Sosa,  is to pay tribute to some seminal figures in Latin jazz, creators such as Mario Bauzá, Dizzy Gillespie, Chano Pozo, Frank “Machito” Grillo, Chico O´Farrill, and Bebo Valdés.

Tributes have long become a lazy, ready-made narrative in jazz. What sets these releases apart is that rather than evoking the past, they celebrate the spirit of adventure and discovery that made these creators and their music immortal.

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Program Notes Carnegie Hall: Andalusian Voices: Tempo of Light

27 Tuesday Mar 2018

Posted by in Home, In Other Words, On Music

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carnegie02003

 

Andalusian Voices: Carmen Linares, Marina Heredia, and Arcángel

With
Miguel Ángel Cortés, Guitar
José Quevedo “Bolita,” Guitar
Paquito González, Percussion
Ana Morales, Dancer
Isidro Muñoz, Music Director

Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
Saturday, March 17 at 8 PM

Like the blues  (its counterpart in the United States) flamenco was born out of need, as an expression of a desperately poor underclass struggling for survival in a place not his own. It was music constructed from memories, but also bits and pieces borrowed from the new home. It was, like the blues, an elusive alchemy of pain into beauty. It spoke of loss and hard times but also hope. And much like the blues, flamenco told the stories of the people who created it.

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Brilliance And The Spirits at Global Cuba Fest

21 Wednesday Mar 2018

Posted by in Home, Jazz, Latin Jazz, On Music

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Dafnis Prieto, drums, leading his Sextet at the Light Box, Miami, Friday
Photo by Elvis Suarez, Glassworks Multimedia/ Miami Light Project @ The Light Box

Drummer Dafnis Prieto and pianist Omar Sosa closed this year’s Global Cuba Fest at the Light Box in Wynwood, Miami, with shows on Friday and Saturday, respectively, that suggested a sort of musical yin and yang. For an annual festival that celebrates the music of Cuba and its diaspora, the weekend was a perfectly tuned statement — artistically ambitious, global in its vision and brilliantly executed.

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