As alto saxist and leader showed the audience at the Moss Theatre Saturday night, there is life beyond Dizzy Gillespie’s Afro Cuban jazz classic “Manteca” as Terry and his Quintet have taken the Afro Cuban sounds initially popularized by Gillespie and have brought them to the next plateau, melding them with intricate, sophisticated and torrid post bop rhythms and harmonies.
Terry joined together on a front line with long time teammate Michael Rodriguez/tp and created intricate volleys with the intricate rhythm team of Yunior Terry/b, Manuel Valera/p and Obed Calvaire/dr on “Looking Back in Retrospect” that created a fierce melody that veered between frantically unison to splattering loose. Valera then used some modern harmonics for an impressionistic intro to “Nuevo Jazz Latino” that had him pass the baton to Yunior Terry for a lithe bass solo lead in a trio format before Calvaire’s earthy drum groove set the stage for some warm alto sax and horn lines.
It was then Calvaire’s turn to open a piece, using his conversant drum style to create a traditional and tribal feel before the horns created a herky jerky “Susanne.” Just as the ride got most bumpy, the band seemed to turn off from the cluttered city street out into the open highway, where the band cruised to a sizzling swing speed, allowing Rodriguez’s sweet tone and Terry’s soft and puffy alto to dig into the rhythm teams rivulets. The team then entered a country road as Calvaire and Yunior Terry delivered delicate pulsations for the horns before returning to the urban streets.
The horns jabbed and punched like Teofilo Stevenson as the rhythm team galloped on “Harlem Matinee” before Yunior settled things down with a somber bass intro to his heartfelt ballad “The Wind of Sorrow.” The soft and melancholy bass lines combined with Valera’s intuitive bluesy spaces and Calvaiere’s water color brushes to create a fragile atmosphere before Rodriguez added an impassioned aria.
The team closed with the muscular “Subversive” which contrasted a cavalcade of multiple meters with restrained horns, mixing together like various herbs that added spice, heat and sweetness to the sizzling rice rhythms. Music like this that can combine such a high layer of both sophistication and yet appeal to the viscera is only achievable by a band that knows both its roots and future.
Upcoming shows sponsored by the Jazz Bakery include Alfredo Rodriguez Trio 09/15 and Fred Hersch Trio 09/23