..:: audio-music dot info ::..


Main Page      The Desert Island      Copyright Notice
 Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz


Chucho Valdés: Jazz Batá 2

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Mack Avenue Music Group
Released: 2018.11.16
Time:
 56:05
Category: Jazz, Latin
Producer(s): Chucho Valdés
Rating:
Media type: CD
Web address: www.chucho-valdes.com
Appears with: Irakere
Purchase date: 2020
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Obatalá (Ch.Valdés) - 12:55
[2] Son XXI (Ch.Valdés/E.Ubieta ) - 7:35
[3] Luces (Ch.Valdés) - 4:52
[4] Ochún (Ch.Valdés) - 6:15
[5] Chucho's Mood (Ch.Valdés) - 7:12
[6] 100 Años de Bebo (Ch.Valdés/B.Valdés) - 6:56
[7] El Güije (Ch.Valdés) - 4:10
[8] The Clown (Ch.Valdés) - 6:10

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Chucho Valdés - Piano, Producer
Yelsy Heredia - Duble Bass
Dreiser Durruthy Bombalé - Batás, Vocals
Yaboldy Abreu Robles - Percussion

Regina Carter - Violin on [4,6]

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


2018 CD Mack Avenue Music Group - MAC 1146

Latin Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz/Jazz Album



With Jazz Bata 2, composer pianist and bandleader Chucho Valdes finally follows up on an experimental album he cut in Cuba in 1972. The subject matter of both records is the folklore and religious beliefs of the Yoruba slaves shipped to the Caribbean between 1770 and 1840.

On Jazz Bata 2 Valdés' piano is backed by Dreiser Darruthy Bombale, playing various batá, double-headed drums shaped like hourglasses with one end larger than the other, used in Yoruba religious rituals. The album opens with "Obatala," which Valdés describes as a mini-suite dedicated to the Yoruba god of wisdom and justice. Valdés says, "Yelsy Heredia's bowed-bass solo has a spiritual dimension, played as if calling the ancestors." Yelsy and Bombale both hail from the Guantánamo region of Cuba. They grew up together, went through music school together, graduated together, and have been playing music side-by-side ever since.

"Son XXI" is a peculiar mixture. It starts with a section Valdés calls "half Cecil Taylor, half Muhal Richard Abrams." This leads into a composition by the late Cuban composer Enrique Ubieta, which Valdés first performed in 1963. "Luces" (Lights), on the other hand, was composed only two weeks before the recording session. It lays claim to being the first-ever bolero to be played with congas and batá.

"Ochun" is a Yoruba deity representing feminine beauty and patron saint of the Osun River in Nigeria. Because of her love of sweet music, Valdés recruited Regina Carter to serenade the goddess on violin—a refreshing change of instrumentation. "Chucho's Mood" grew out of a Cuban jam session, or descarga. It contains an amusing quote from Billy Strayhorn's "Take The A-Train."

Valdés pays tribute to his father, Ramón "Bebo" Valdés, a towering figure in Cuban music, celebrating his centenary, with "100 Anos De Bebo" (100 Years Of Bebo). The song, largely written by Bebo, is played by Regina Carter. Valdés Junior says of it, "No one's heard this tune. I'm the only person who knows it. When I was a child, Bebo played it on the piano at home. Just a tune, very beautiful, and as many times as he played it, it always captured my attention."

Chris Mosey - November 7, 2018
© 2020 All About Jazz



With Jazz Batá 2, Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés returns to the small-group format that he used for his 1972 album Jazz Batá. Recorded with just piano, bass and batá drums, Jazz Batá heralded the later success of Valdés’ group Irakere, an Afro-Cuban big band that forwarded the evolution of Latin jazz, exponentially.

On Jazz Batá 2, Valdés pays a musical debt to his father, Ramón “Bebo” Valdés, one of the most influential Cuban big-band leaders of the 20th century. To honor what would have been his father’s 100th birthday, Valdés offers up his arrangement of “100 Años De Bebo,” a danzón mambo melody written by the elder Valdés, alluring in its movement and touching in its simplicity.

Elsewhere, Valdés draws inspiration from the jazz avant-garde, Cuban religious myths and European classical music. Against the dynamic rhythms of Cuban composer Enrique Ubieta’s “Son XXI,” he plays a kinetic, free solo line. On the mini-suite “Obatalá,” he invokes a Yoruban god through beseeching vocals and a rhythmic pattern connected to the deity. And on “The Clown,” a solo piano piece, he references the impressionistic works of French composer Maurice Ravel. Throughout all of the tunes on the album, though, the batá grounds Valdés’ playing in a specific cultural context, even as his jazz vocabulary speaks to a broader musical world.

Valdés’ band—bassist Yelsy Heredia, batá player and singer Dreiser Durruthy Bombalé, and percussionist Yaroldy Abreu Robles—provide unfailing support in the accomplishment of his latest creative vision, and violinist Regina Carter’s solos on two tracks are nothing short of dazzling.

Suzanne Lorge - January 2019
Copyright © 2020 DownBeat



Jazz Batá 2, das erste Album des Komponisten, Pianisten und Bandleaders Chucho Valdés' für Mack Avenue Records, markiert einen neuen Höhepunkt der Kreativität des Künstlers, auch wenn es das Konzept der Kleingruppe seines kubanischen Albums Jazz Batá von 1972 wieder aufgreift. Das ursprüngliche Album galt damals als experimentell, aber das Trio-Projekt – ohne Schlagzeug und mit zwei Virtuosen, die später Gründungsmitglieder von Irakere sein würden: Carlos del Puerto (Bass) und Oscar Valdés (batâ: die Sanduhrtrommel der Yoruba-Religion in Kuba) – gilt heute als zeitgemäß.

Jazz Batá 2 wurde in zweieinhalb Tagen in John Lees Studio in New Jersey aufgenommen und ist sowohl rhythmisch als auch lyrisch. Die sechshändige Komplexität des batá-Repertoires – der tiefen klassischen Musik Westafrikas – durchdringt Valdés' Klaviersolos während des gesamten Albums. »Ich habe auf meine Soli die verschiedenen Rhythmen der Batá angewendet«, sagt er. »Das Klavier ist natürlich ein harmonisches Instrument, aber es ist auch perkussiv und man kann damit Schlagzeug spielen.«

Valdés hat das batá-getriebene Kleingruppenformat nach der explosiven Popularität von Irakere 1973 beiseitegelegt, aber er wollte immer wieder darauf zurückkommen. Jetzt hat er es mit Jazz Batá 2 geschafft, »mit mehr Ressourcen, in jeder Hinsicht«, sagt er, »mit einem größeren Spektrum«.

Eine großartige Band! Alle drei begleitenden Musiker – Yaroldy Abreu Robles, Dreiser Durruthy Bombalé und Yelsy Heredia – kommen aus der Region Guantánamo, haben tiefe Wurzeln in der kubanischen Musikkultur und sind konservatorisch ausgebildet. Yelsy und Dreiser sind zusammen aufgewachsen, haben zusammen die Musikschule besucht, ihr Studium gemeinsam absolviert und ihr ganzes Leben lang zusammen Musik gespielt. Yaroldy, der eine Vielzahl von Drums spielt – Congas, Batá, Bongó, orchestrale Percussion – arbeitet seit zwanzig Jahren mit Valdés zusammen. »Er weiß immer, was ich tun will«, sagt Valdés.

Jazz Batá 2 feiert auch den hundertsten Geburtstag von Valdés' Vater und Lehrer Ramón »Bebo« Valdés (1918-2013). Diese beiden Größen der kubanischen Musik haben einen gemeinsamen Geburtstag – den 9. Oktober –, so dass Bebo's 100. der 77. von Chucho ist. Zwischen den beiden besteht seit den 1940er Jahren ein wechselseitiger musikalischer Einfluss. Bebo's 1952 entstandene, kommerziell gescheiterte, aber künstlerisch erfolgreiche Batanga, die Batá-Drums mit einer hochmodernen Jazzband kombinierte, war eine direkte Inspiration für den batá-getriebenen Jazz von Irakere, aber auch für Jazz Batá und seine 46 Jahre später veröffentlichte Fortsetzung.

jpc.de



This is pianist Chucho Valdés’ long-awaited followup to his landmark 1972 recording Jazz Batá, a trio album—piano, bass, and bata (a drum of Yoruba origin that’s a staple of Cuban Santería rituals)—then considered somewhat radical for its absence of a trap set. Here, Valdés’ compatriots include bassist Yelsy Heredia and two percussionists: Dreiser Durruthy Bombale, who also contributes vocals, and Yaroldy Abreu Robles. Regina Carter’s violin graces two selections, “100 Años de Bebo” and “Ochun.”

Although there are moments of introspection, especially during some of Valdés’ solo piano interludes, the overall mood is celebratory and welcoming. This music feels utterly contemporary, no matter how far into the past (or the future) it may probe. “100 Años de Bebo,” based on a theme that Valdés’s father, bandleader Bebo Valdés, used to play at home, invokes the suave urbanity—and mambo/swing fusion—of Havana’s old Tropicana Club, where Bebo held forth as bandleader and arranger for many years. “Chucho’s Mood” is a musical portmanteau, effortlessly melding genres, generations, and cultural motifs into a new and fully realized whole; there’s even a brief, witty reference to “Take the ‘A’ Train.”

Carter’s linear melodicism on “Ochun” lends the composition a feeling of almost folk-like simplicity. “El Guije” is a little harder-edged, more streetsy in feel, even as Bombale’s vocals, multitracked in a call-and-response pattern, invoke the music’s deepest origins, right down to his trickster-like guffaw at the end. Chucho Valdés may be a “roots man” at heart, but he and his compatriots understand that roots are meaningful only when they nourish something alive and growing.

DAVID WHITEIS - APRIL 25, 2019
JazzTimes — “America’s Jazz Magazine”



„Wenn ich Klavier spiele,“ so Chucho Valdés, „habe ich die Batá im Hinterkopf. Ihr Rhythmus ist mir stets gegenwärtig.“ Geschult an den Meistern, von Franz Liszt bis Oscar Peterson, bezieht der kubanische Tastenvirtuose sich auf Sound und Rhythmus der Sanduhrtrommel Batá, deren Ursprung in Nigeria liegt. Als rituelles Instrument der Yoruba gelangte sie mit dem Sklavenhandel nach Kuba und blieb in den Afro-Kulten der Insel das Instrument zur Beschwörung der Götter. So überlebten nicht nur ihre rhythmischen Formeln, sondern auch deren rituelle Funktion.

Chucho Valdés, Anhänger des Santería-Kults, spielt das Klavier rhythmisch wie eine Batá; seine Gruppen – etwa Kubas Vorzeigeband Irakere, die er fast 30 Jahre lang leitete – besetzt er in aller Regel mit Jazzdrums plus Perkussion, darunter auch die Batá. Mit „Jazz Batá 2“ knüpft er jetzt an ein Format an, das er schon vor der Gründung von Irakere ausprobierte, dann aber aus dem Auge verlor: „Jazz Batá“. So nannte er 1972 ein Trioalbum mit Klavier, Bass und Latin-Percussion, ohne Drumset.

Diesmal stellt er dem Perkussionisten (zumeist an der Conga) einen Batá-Spieler zur Seite, der auch rituelle Ruf-Antwort-Gesänge vorgibt, und verzichtet erneut aufs Drumset. Zusammen mit dem Bassisten legen die beiden Handtrommler ein dichtes rhythmisches Geflecht, dem gegenüber der Pianist sich fast querzustellen sucht – mit pointierten, freien Akzenten und sehr dissonanten Akkorden. Die gesamte Rhythm-Section stammt aus Guantanamo, das man ja heutzutage nicht zuallererst mit afrokubanischer Musiktradition in Verbindung bringt. Doch Valdés und Band halten die Beschwörung von Gottheiten hoch („Obatalá“, „Ochún“), lassen mit einer Reminiszenz an Chuchos Vater, Bebo Valdés, und „with a little help from“ Regina Carter aber auch die Tanzmusik der 1940er-Jahre aufleben.

Berthold Klostermann
Die FonoForum-Welt



The drums are making bass lines, the piano outlines the beat and the bass argues in reply. It’s an ensemble that seems to play together while they’re playing together. The small ensemble on the Afro-Cuban album Jazz Bata 2, released Nov. 16 by Mack Avenue, is led by the legendary Chucho Valdes. Valdes and his late father, Ramon “Bebo” Valdes, have been exploring what bata and Afro-Cuban drumming opens up for improvisation for more than 60 years. Chucho’s latest release can be read as something of celebration of all of this work—decades that pay off in a joyful, spontaneous-sounding hour of music.

Like a true virtuoso, Chuco Valdes doesn’t just play the piano well. The Cuban composer and bandleader plays the piano in a way that seems to expand what the instrument is capable of. On this new album, Valdes bounds up and down the keyboard, reminding all the world that the piano is a percussion instrument, and that all harmony and melody depend on the beat.


Of course that’s not to overshadow the bata—the sacred drums of the Afro-Cuban Yoruba religion. The more obvious choice of a jazz trio is piano, bass and drum kit, but Valdes and company dispense with the kit altogether. Dreiser Durruthy Bombale plays the batas and provides very occasional vocals, and Yaroldy Abreu Robles adds shakers and congas, and the absence of cymbals or anything else from the drum kit is pretty easy to overlook.

Chucho Valdes recorded the original Jazz Bata in 1972, the year before his group, Irakere, exploded in popularity with their mix of Latin jazz, Cuban folk melodies and occasional rock 'n' roll bombast. He has led big ensembles and released acclaimed solo albums. 

Jazz Bata 2 gives him a chance to showcase himself as a member of a small ensemble and an intuitive soloist. The album opens with a 12-minute “mini-suite” evoking Cuban Yoruba religious practice, a deep well from which many draw musical inspiration. Valdes storms up from the piano’s depths to sync up with his group and underpin a chant to the orisha Obatala, the god of wisdom and justice. 

Other orishas also get their due. The fourth track, “Ochun” opens with that descending, waving goodbye at the end of SNL sort of feel, only for Regina Carter’s sweeping violin melody to whisk us away. The beat is a Haitian merengue, and the melody fittingly recalls the Yoruba orisha Ochun, the goddess of feminine beauty, a lover of sweet music.

On “Chucho’s Mood,” Valdes demonstrates his range as a soloist, beginning with clusters of chords voiced in tight, dissonant intervals, hitting before then after the beat, only to burst into a Duke Ellington homage for a few bars before bounding off into a Cuban son for only slightly longer. Rhythmic consistency balances out melodic and harmonic chaos.

“100 Anos de Bebo” brings the violin back for a slippery mambo and homage to Chucho’s father and first teacher, Bebo Valdes, on what would be his 100th birthday.

I don’t know if I’m getting older or my ear is getting better at picking out nuance, but piano jazz has been hitting the sweet spot for me lately, and no matter what time of day or what I’m otherwise doing, or how much I can or can’t pay attention at the moment, putting on Jazz Bata 2 has been the right decision.

Recorded over just two days in New Jersey, the album reaps what Valdes has sown, a testament to when preparation gives way to effortlessness.

Ben Richmond - November 16, 2018
Afropop Worldwide
 

 L y r i c s


Currently no Lyrics available!

 M P 3   S a m p l e s


Currently no Samples available!