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Felipe Salles
Ugandan Suite
TAPESTRY 76023
The unalloyed folkloric roots of
African music continue to yield
jazz riches. It’s always instructive
to go back to primary sources,
which is what the São Paulo-born
reedman, flutist and composer
Felipe Salles did in 2011 when,
supported by a research grant, he
visited Uganda. His five-movement
Ugandan Suite has programmatic themes and references. It begins with
flute birdcalls, and each section is named for a specific animal. But its real subject
is music, and Salles digs into specific traditions and regional styles not as pastiche
but as raw material for his own fertile musical imagination. East African
multi-instrumentalist Damascus Kafumbe nails genre sources, as well as rich
color and inexorable grooves, with a plethora of indigenous instruments, aided
by Brazilian percussionist Rogerio Boccato. Kafumbe and Boccato’s grooves
and Salles’ melodic gifts are the hooks that pull your ear from one movement
to the next. It helps that Salles’ partner on the front line is reedist Dave Liebman.
“Movement 4—The Rhinoceros” features a tenor “battle” between Salles and
Liebman that was inspired by Liebman’s experience in the two-horn bands of his
old boss, drummer Elvin Jones—another musician who incorporated African
rhythms into American jazz. With that, Ugandan Suite comes full circle.
—Jon Garelick
Ugandan Suite: Movement 1—The Buffalo; Movement 2—The Elephant; Movement 3—The Leopard;
Movement 4—The Rhinoceros; Movement 5—The Lion. (53:48)
Personnel: Felipe Salles, tenor, baritone saxophones, flutes, bass clarinet, handclaps; David Liebman,
wooden flute, soprano, tenor saxophones; Damascus Kafumbe; (o)mugalabe, (e)engom’enene, (e)nduumi,
kadodi, inemba, indonyi, mbuutu, mpuunyi, atin bull, min bull, ngalabi drums, ndingidi tube-fiddle, adungu
bow-harp, nsaasi gourd shakers, madinda xylophone; Rogerio Boccato, percussion, enduumi drums, handclaps;
Nando Michelin, piano, handclaps; Keala Kaumeheiwa, bass, handclaps; Betram Lehmann, drumset,
atin bull drums, handclaps; Lucas Apostoleris, handclaps.
Ordering info: felipesalles.com
Mark Weinstein
Latin Jazz Underground
ZOHO 201403
½
Merging the Afro-Cuban tradition within
a tribute to avant-garde titans Ornette
Coleman, Sam Rivers and Andrew
Hill, flutist Mark Weinstein’s Latin
Jazz Underground is a sprawling rhythmic
freeway within a dark-hued melodic
vision. Though Weinstein’s stellar cast
works the material from the outside-in—using a free-ish, churning rhythmic
bed as its springboard—the Afro-Cuban melodic tradition keeps a loose
lid on the churning pot of sounds. There’s a humid street feel to the music,
as if you’ve stumbled into a Spanish Harlem jam in the 1970s, and that’s no
coincidence. Pianist Aruán Ortiz suggested shaping the music as a tribute to the
loft jazz scene of the ’70s wherein the compositions of Coleman, Rivers and Hill
entered. Drummer Gerald Cleaver, who can groove à la his Detroit heritage and
also play gracefully within the free environment, was the logical choice; percussionist
Román Diaz provided subtle ambient firepower. Bassist Rashaan Carter
had the task of bridging the low end within these markedly different worlds.
Opener “Gregorio’s Mood” is the perfect template for this experiment, an odd,
ascending (yes, Andrew Hill-like) melody charging over a loose Afro-Cuban
pulse, giving way to a mysterious rubato section, then solos over the groove. The
album seeks to maintain this consistency of contrast throughout, and mostly
succeeds. Sometimes the grooves stutter, other times the solo sections teeter
between groove and free, the left and right feet unsure where to step next. But as
experiments go, Latin Jazz Underground is a serious brew. —Ken Micallef
Latin Jazz Underground: Gregorio’s Mood; Open Or Close; Dance Of The Tripedal; For Emilio; Tete’s
Blues; Nature Boy; Mellifluous Cacophony; Mark’s Last Tune. (55:24)
Personnel: Mark Weinstein, concert, alto, bass flutes; Aruán Ortiz, piano; Rashaan Carter, bass; Gerald
Cleaver, drums; Román Diaz, percussion.
Ordering info: zohomusic.com