“There are three things Cubans can’t hide: coffee, money and jazz.”
That was just a sample of the wise sayings that Paquito D’Rivera had to bestow on the audience during this night of musical education via lecture and sounds.
A panel of Jose’ Rizo, Danilo Lozano and illustrious guest star opened the evening discussing the history of Cuban music and how the new sound from the island will influence the future of jazz. Paquito took the audience back all the way to Jelly Roll Morton and the “Latin Tinge” through Mario Bauza, Chano Pozo and his days with Ikarere. “I remember when they invented the ‘cha cha’” he quipped, and while he has a deep respect for the traditional sounds of his home country, he doesn’t want to dwell on them. “It’s like being told, ‘I love your 90 year old girlfriend” he joked.
Lozano summed up the Cuban-American relationship by stating “Americans may have stopped listening to Cuban music, but Cubans still listen to jazz.”
And Paquito gave the audience at Zipper Hall a lot to listen to, as he delivered material from his ‘Jazz Meets The Classics’ with the adroit pianist Alex Brown. He performed rich pieces that he quipped were “composed by that famous Cuban Frederico Chopin” as his clarinet was a warm summer breeze with spry shifting moods on “Fantasie Impromptu” and a gloriously bel canto “Nocturne En La Celda.”
On alto sax, he mixed Old World sensuality with modern bop on Armando Manzanero’s “Voy A Apagar La Luz” while switching back to clarinet for a tribute to his hero and employer with a liltingly lovely bossa “I Remember Dizzy” that had had tall and tan, young and lovely lines that melded in unison with Brown’s piano like dance partners under a midnight moon.
Brown himself brought jazz back to its modern roots as he skipped like a stone on a vibrant “Bouncing With Bud.” D’Rivera then brought the jazz tradition back a few centuries reminding us that “Mozart was not from Austria, but from New Orleans” as he wailed with sweet sounds out of Café Du Monde with a steamy blues read from a delta ridden “Second Movement” of the famed clarinet concerto.
Proving his observation that “The Mambo is like a rich relative; everyone wants a part of it,” D’Rivera closed the set with a celebratory read of “Mambo Influenciado” that had Lozano jump up onstage with his flute to turn the concert into a street fest.
Paquito’s ability to mix traditions from various countries and centuries was an inspiration of what music in the right hands and minds is able to accomplish All that was missing was the coffee!
Upcoming shows from The Jazz Bakery include Raul Midon Sept 2, Thana Alexa Sept 10 and Alan Pasqua Sept 11.