Gabriel Alegria
Diablo en BrooklynGabriel Alegria has dedicated his life to introducing
audiences to jazz-infused interpretations of traditional music from his
Peruvian homeland, Afro-Peruvian arrangements of works from the Great American
Songbook, and original compositions inspired by both styles. On Diablo en
Brooklyn, the sixth recording by Alegría's Afro-Peruvian Sextet, the ensemble
presents what is without a doubt their most fully realized and boldest album to
date. It is also the first to be made entirely in Peru and, most notably, at
Lima's legendary IEMPSA Studios-a landmark in the production and distribution
of Afro-Peruvian music that was founded in 1942. The new CD will be released by
Saponegro Records on September 22.
Trumpeter, composer, bandleader, and educator Alegría has
long committed himself to being the standard-bearer of Afro-Peruvian jazz in
the U.S. and, over the past 12 years, has brought this music to American
audiences through both recordings and concerts. Diablo en Brooklyn was loosely
inspired by the Peruvian "Son de los Diablos" tradition going back to
colonial days and featuring a parade of mock devils down the city streets of
Lima. Alegría, who has lived in Coney Island for the last decade, got the idea
to musically transport that tradition to his Brooklyn neighborhood after being
exposed to the diverse sounds emanating from the "speakers on wheels"
residents roll out to street corners every summer along with their barbecue
pits.
"You can't really hear anything but bass," he
says. "But over the months, on my way to pick up my daughter from daycare,
I would hear bass lines that I really liked." They show up integrated into
the Peruvian panalivio and festejo grooves at the heart of his fourt-part
"Brooklyn Suite."
In an intriguing departure from standard sequencing, the four
movements of the studio-recorded suite are interspersed among four live tracks:
three originals featured on previous albums and a 12-minute version of
"Summertime," the "hit single" from the band's 2008 debut
recording Nuevo Mundo.
That the musicians in
the Afro-Peruvian Sextet have been playing together for years is evident from
their finely-meshed performances and the facility with which the players blend
traditional Peruvian rhythms and American jazz. Saxophonist Laura Andrea
Leguía, master percussionist Freddy "Huevito" Lobatón, bassist Mario
Cuba, drummer Hugo Alcázar, and acoustic guitarist Yuri Juárez tackle the
challenges of the polyrhythmic grooves with an energy that is infectious.
Alegría and company celebrated their decade together in 2015
by inviting a stellar cast of guest artists including Ron Carter, Arturo
O'Farrill, and Yellowjacket Russell Ferrante to play on their last release, 10.
Alegría explains that on Diablo en Brooklyn "we went back to the essence
of the sextet. The six core members. This album represents what Afro-Peruvian
jazz music and a bicultural ensemble can contribute to the world."
Gabriel Alegria was born in Lima on June 11, 1970. His
grandfather, Ciro Alegría, was a famous, politically involved novelist (Broad
and Alien Is the World) who spent half his life in exile in Cuba and Chile
because of his political views. Gabriel's father, Alonso Alegría, is a
prominent playwright (Crossing Niagara) and theater director. Rebelling from
the predominantly classical music tastes of his father, Gabriel got into rock
and pop via albums by the likes of the Police and Genesis, but when it came time
to choose an instrument for the school band, he picked the trumpet. It was in
the band that he discovered jazz.
Alegría attended high school in Ohio, where his father was a
visiting professor at Kenyon College, and then studied at the National Conservatory
in Lima. He returned to Ohio to attend Kenyon College, after which he moved to
New York, earning an M.A. in jazz studies at City College under the tutelage of
Ron Carter. He subsequently moved back to Peru to play with the Lima
Philharmonic. During his five years with the orchestra, and in side gigs in
jazz and rock bands, Gabriel started to develop his concept of Afro-Peruvian
jazz. In 2005, while completing a PhD in jazz studies at USC, he formed his
sextet. Its first album, Nuevo Mundo (2008), recorded for his own label
Saponegro ("black frog"), was produced by one of his mentors, trumpet
great Bobby Shew.
Moving back to New York he got a major boost from Arturo
O'Farrill, who contacted him about writing for his Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra.
The Afro-Peruvian Sextet recorded its second album, Pucusana (2010), followed
by the live Afro-Peruvian Jazz Secrets (2012), Ciudad de Los Reyes (2013), and
then its tenth-anniversary disc 10 (2015). That year the band won Hot House
magazine's "New York City Ensemble of the Year" award.
Gabriel Alegria y Diablos
The Gabriel Alegría Afro-Peruvian Sextet is set to perform
an ambitious CD release concert (10/21-22) at Roulette in Brooklyn with special
guest Arturo O'Farrill and, direct from Lima, dancers Graciela Bramon, Javier
Barrera, and Wendy Cotito, with choreography by Antonio Vilchez. The sextet +
dancers will also perform two nights (10/25-26) at DePauw University,
Greencastle, IN. Sextet only appears Fri. 10/27, Merriman's Playhouse, South
Bend, IN; Sat. 10/28 at the Bop Stop, Cleveland; and Sun. 10/29 at Erie (PA)
Art Museum.
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