Caribbean Beat — January/February 2017 (#143)

playlist
Double Take Elan Trotman’s Tropicality
(Island Muzik Productions)
“First impressions are the most
lasting” is a popular proverb
that makes the case for a grand
debut to cement a perfect
memory. Well, certainly not this
time, as Barbadian saxophonist
Elan Trotman has recast
a number of his previously
released songs from his many
years as a recording artist, and given them a second look
— a double take, if you will. He’s refreshed the sound
and arrangements of his Caribbean-rhythm-infused
smooth jazz to make them shine through — to Caribbean
ears at least — with the positioning of the steelpan in a
more forward position. His vocals on Bill Withers’s classic
“Lovely Day” are direct, and make you smile at the simple
charm of this song. “Tradewinds” is the antithesis to a dull
day in the tropics: lilting and easy to dance to. His band
of fellow Berklee College of Music alumni, Tropicality, has
the musical chops to make this new impression far from
diminished.
Family Tree Grégory Privat Trio
(ACT Music)
In his new album, Martiniquan
pianist Grégory Privat reveals
the subtle links between the
Caribbean trove of rhythms
and melodies and the grand
vocabulary of jazz. Supported
this time by bassist Linley Marthe,
originally from Mauritius, and
fellow Martiniquan Tilo Bertholo
on drums, Privat with his fluid playing centres the idea
that the roots of jazz are firmly planted in the Caribbean
creole culture that was present at its genesis. The music
finds inspiration in the beguine, bèlè, and gwoka of his
native Martinique and Guadeloupe. Bassist and drummer
Marthe and Bertholo, despite their creole backgrounds,
evince the African DNA of the New World rhythms that
a Caribbean perspective has produced. Privat is a fine
musician with solid classical and jazz training, who on
this album finds the core impulse of a iconoclast to
dynamically paint anew the heritage and beauty of jazz
that is found in these Antilles.
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