Last Tango for Gato Barbieri

02 Saturday Apr 2016

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

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Saxophonist and composer Leandro “Gato” Barbieri before running the press gauntlet at the Special Awards ceremony hosted by the Latin Recording Academy at the 16th Annual Latin Grammy Awards in Las Vegas, November, 2015. That morning, Barbieri received a Lifetime Achievement Award. Photo by Christian Barbieri

Saxophonist and composer Leandro “Gato” Barbieri died Saturday at a New York hospital from pneumonia. He was 83.

For many, Gato will forever be that guy with the hat who wrote that tune from “Last Tango in Paris.” Others will remember his free jazz playing days, his association, early on in his career, with Don Cherry (check Cherry’s extraordinary Symphony for Improvisers, on Blue Note, 1966), or his work with the Jazz Composer’s Orchestra (Escalator Over the Hill, 1971) or perhaps pop jazz hits such as his version of Carlos Santana’s “Europa.” But some of us who grew up in a place far, far away from jazz called Argentina, will remember Gato as the man who opened a world of possibilities.

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Miami City Ballet re-imagines Shakespeare, Balanchine and Miami

14 Monday Mar 2016

Posted by in Home, In Other Words

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Miami City Ballet dancers Jennifer Lauren and Chase Swatosh as Hermia and Lysander in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Photo © Alberto Oviedo.

This piece was posted on the Knight Foundation blog  in March 2016

That the centerpiece in the 30th anniversary season of the Miami City Ballet is an ambitious re-imagining of George Balanchine’s interpretation of  Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is only fitting. It has a rich history — but it looks forward.

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is not just one of Balanchine´s masterworks; it’s also his first original, full-length ballet, a piece to which he dedicated more than two decades to select the music and develop. It premiered on Jan. 17, 1962. This is the first time The George Balanchine Trust agreed to have one of his works reimagined. Also, this production is an unprecedented collaboration that brings together Cuba-born, Miami-raised Lourdes Lopez, the ballet’s artistic director, and two Miami natives, artist Michele Oka Doner, charged with costumes and set design, and playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney, the project’s dramaturge.

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Life on The Road of the Souls

13 Sunday Mar 2016

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Pavel Urkiza and his Road of the Souls band at Miami Dade County Auditorium, Miami. Photo by @tatychio

Pavel Urkiza and his Road of the Souls band presented music from the project La Ruta de las Almas (The Road of the Souls) as part of Global Cuba Fest 2016 at Miami Dade County Auditorium, Miami, Saturday, March 12th. The event was presented by FUNDArte and Miami Light Project.

Urkiza´s set was an at times messy but also often wondrous affair built on ancient traditions re-imagined. 

The ten piece ensemble, featuring musicians from places as disparate as Iran, Cuba and Moldavia via Israel, kept reconfiguring on stage almost from piece to piece. In a given song, the batá drums or an Urdu drum would unexpectedly engage in conversation with the oud, the electric guitar or the bansouri. At one point, the waters parted and there was solo feature of voice and pandero cuadrado (square, hand-held drum) by the astonishing Eliseo Parra. An accordion had its say, but so did a cuatro and a violin and sometimes a cello. The terrific Spanish singer/songwriter Javier Ruibal was another luxury treat, contributing his voice on one song. The violinist, as we learned, doubled as dancer. An electric bass offered a foundation to the swirling sounds.  

To list the musical influences on each song — an Afro-Cuban groove with a Middle Eastern melody and a hint of flamenco et. al. — would be to miss the point. This was not the place or occasion for purists. Sometimes in mid-song you found yourself doing a second take. Who played that? Can you do that with that rhythm?… and then, just as quickly, it was gone — but the sound, and the questions, stayed with you like a new, strange scent. Urkiza, an expressive singer and genial host/conductor, offered a calm center to the storm he conjured. A line kept coming to mind: “Make a joyful noise …. This is a Road worth traveling.  Search for it.

The evening also featured two smartly short sets. Pianist Iván “Melón” Lewis opened with a solo performance that coalesced at the end, as he deconstructed “Son de la Loma;” singer/songwriter Yadam has a warm voice, a soulful phrasing and a writing style that, Saturday, evoked both Jorge Drexler and Brazilian standout Ed Motta. His duet with Beatriz Luengo completed what turned out to be an effective sampler of his talents.

Original for Jazz With an Accent