Piano Lovers' Celebration Interviews SUMMER ... - Jazz Singers.com

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“Mack the Knife.” The former finds Pilc taking
the familiar waltz-like pulse of the song and
playing two different themes in counterpoint
atop it. The latter is the pianist at his most
Monk-like. He plays around with the melody,
timing and tempo but always resolves back to
the main theme.
Jean-Michel Pilc is an amazing artist in the
way he can deconstruct a tune and rebuild it into
something completely new and fresh. And, he
does not alienate the listener but rather reintroduces
them to familiar terrain via a road less
traveled. Enjoy the journey!
Bobby Sanabria
& Manhattan School of Music
Afro Cuban Orhcestra
TITO PUENTE MASTERWORKS LIVE!! –
Jazzheaads. Intro/Elegua Chango; Picadillo;
Bohemia (Birdland) After Dark; Autumn Leaves;
Cuban Nightengale; Mambo Buddha; Ran Kan
Kan; Alegre Cha-Cha-Cha; Ritual Fire Dance;
Yambeque; Me Acuerdo de Ti; Mambo Beat;
Mambo Adonis.
PERSONNEL: Bobby Sanabria, conductor;
Manhattan School of Music Afro Cuban Orchestra.
By Bob Gish
Bobby Sanabria is a legendary Latin percussionist,
arranger, conductor, and teacher, and
all-around jazz artist. His career is that of an
autodidact, excelling as he does in all of these
areas, in addition to hard and fast mentoring,
collaborations, and friendships.
Sanabria, as is well known, directs the
Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra at the Manhattan
School of Music, and his students turn out highly
polished and indeed professional sounding concerts
and recording such as this live tribute to
Tito Puente.
Puente (1921-2000) remains iconic in
the jazz community and especially the Latin jazz
community, for his prowess on the timbales,
vibes, and marimba. Thus, this is a doublebarreled
blast of greatness; a triple blast if one
adequately acknowledges the accomplished
young musicians heard here, along with
Sanabria’s conducting and Puente’s jawdropping
compositions and arrangements, not to
mention his spirit, his duende.
It’s a well-deserved tribute in all respects,
resonating with excitement, energy, and
pride, insuring that the spirit of Tito Puente lives
on not just in the respect Sanabria holds for him
but in the engagement and dedication of the
orchestra.
It’s more than synchronicity that
“puente” means bridge in Spanish, for this CD
represents a bridge from one generation to another
and from the at times relegated tributary of
Latin jazz to the jazz mainstream, a concourse to
which it rightfully lays full claim. Moreover, the
bridge extends to include all kinds of rhythms,
cha-cha-cha, mambo, salsa, standards, you name
it.
Sanabria, a maestro of the clave in his own
right, provides listeners with a wonderful jour-
July 2011 � Jazz Inside Monthly � www.JazzInsideMagazine.com
ney through the phases of Puente’s career, and
reaffirms once again that jazz belongs to all--and
is as eternal as it is encompassing.
Sera Serpa
MOBILE—Inner Circle Music.
www.innercirclemusic.com. Sequoia Gigantis;
Ulysses’s Costume; Pilgrimage to Armanath;
Ahab’s Lament; If; Traveling with Kapuszinsky;
Sem Razao; Gold Digging Ants; Corto; City of
Light, City of Darlness.
PERSONNEL: Sara Serpa, voice; Andre Matos,
guitar; Kris Davis, Fender Rhodes; Ben Street,
bass; Ted Poor, drums.
By Bob Gish
One might think of this as a kind of musical
“books on CD” event. The writings of Steinbeck,
Homer, V.S. Naipaul, Melville, E.E. Cummings,
Herodotus, and other authors are the inspirational
bases for Serpa’s vocalizing-- the total
effect being much more successful than such a
description might sound.
Serpa’s voice is ubiquitous; however, the
guitar of Andre Matos and the Fender Rhodes of
Ben Street share precious moments, with and
without electronic effects—proof in totality that
the human voice is indeed a beautiful, spiritual
instrument.
Not all listeners will relate to either the
concept or the execution of Mobile, in its explained
definition of easy and free, flexible and
fluid movement. The listening experience involved
is indeed something like following the
movements of a sculptured, constructed mobile
suspended from some sequestered ceiling.
Yoga enthusiasts could well stretch and
meditate to all the tracks. Others might well
prefer to read the allusive texts themselves, sans
Serpa. Those purists, however, would be missing
out on what might best be described as a grouping
of transcendental moody and moving meditations.
Roseanna Vitro
THE MUSIC OF RANDY NEWMAN -
Motema Music MTM-63, Last Night I Had a
Dream; Sail Away; If I Didn’t Have You; Everytime
it Rains; Baltimore; In Germany Before the
War; Mama Told Me Not to Come; I Will Go
Sailing No More; Feels Like Home; Losing You.
PERSONNEL: Roseanna Vitro, vocals; Mark
Soskin, piano; Sara Caswell, violin; Dean Johnson,
bass; Tim Horner, drums; Special Guests:
Steve Cardenas, guitar; Jamey Haddad, drums.
By Eric Harabadian
Just like the composers from the earlier
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