Details

Field of Interest

Jazz

Content Type

Music recording

Duration

32 mins

Format

Audio

Sub Genre

Afro-Jazz, Contemporary Big Band

Label

Pablo

Page Count

4

Performer

Dizzy Gillespie, 1917-1993, Lewis Kahn, 1946-, Gerry Chamberlain, 1942-2007, Mario Rivera, Francisco Raúl Gutiérrez Grillo, 1908-1984, Ramón Gonzáles, Jack Jeffers, Mario Bauzá, 1911-1993, Mauricio Smith, Brooks Tillotson, Carlos Castillo, Jorge Dalto, Julito Collazo, 1925-2005, Jose Madera, Mickey Roker, 1932-

Date Recorded

1975-06-05

Release Date

1990

Review

Here we have a summit meeting late in the careers of the pioneering titans of Afro-Cuban jazz -- Dizzy Gillespie fronting the Machito orchestra on trumpet, with Mario Bauza as music director, alto saxophonist/clarinetist, and organizing force, and Chico O'Farrill contributing the compositions and arrangements. This could have been just a nostalgic retro gathering 25 years after the fact, but instead, these guys put forth an ambitious effort to push the boundaries of the idiom. The centerpiece is a 15-minute trumpet concerto for Dizzy called "Oro, Incienso Y Mirra," where O'Farrill melts dissonant clusters, electric piano comping, and synthesizer decorations together with hot Afro-Cuban rhythms into a coherent, multi-sectioned tour de force. Dizzy, who apparently had never been in the same room with synthesizers before, is magnificent as he peels off one patented bebop run after another over Machito's band and in the gaps between. There is also an equally sophisticated suite of O'Farrill pieces grouped under the title "Three Afro-Cuban Jazz Moods," which mixes rock elements into the rhythms. Parts of "Pensativo" sound as if O'Farrill had been carefully listening to Santana, the teacher learning from the student, as it were. It adds up to a paltry 32 minutes of music, yet one can forgive the short weight, this being all there is of a historic recording session. ~ Richard S. Ginell, All Music Guide

Subject

Jazz, Music & Performing Arts, Contemporary Big Band, Big Band Contemporânea, Big Band Contemporáneo

Keywords and Translated Subjects

Big Band Contemporânea, Big Band Contemporáneo