Produced by Snarky Puppy’s Michael League, Harold Lopez-Nussa’s Blue Note debut is an exciting mix of intricate jazz and traditional sounds. The team of Gregoire Maret/harm, Luques Curtis/b, Barbaro Crespo/cong and Ray Lopez-Nussa/dr create a formidable unit to handle the leader’s clever and white knuckler of rides.
Maret and Lopez-Nussa form a formidable due on the romantically melancholic duet on “Mama” while the two are in a fiery mood in the ensemble read of “Conga a la Americana”. Lopez-Nussa saunters with the percolating rhythm team on the excitingly soulful “Funky” and saunter to “Cake a la Moda”. Crespo hammers the village tones on the upbeat “Afro en Toulouse” and is hand over fist with the leader on “Tierra Mia”. Complex in directions, but direct in drive.