Gabriel Alegria 10 A decade of musical
innovation by Gabriel Alegría's Afro-Peruvian Sextet is something to celebrate,
and the ensemble marks this anniversary in glorious style with the release of
10, due for release August 7 by ZOHO Music. The program on the band's 5th CD is
richly infused with Alegría's trademark synthesis of folkloric Afro-Peruvian
rhythms, jazz, and other musical strains.
"It's a
concept album," Alegría says. "For our 10th anniversary, we wanted to
give special care to American and Peruvian standards. It all comes together in
the arrangements in the Afro-Peruvian style. We've incorporated many guest
artists, people who have helped us along the way. Most importantly, we've
brought together jazz musicians with eminent Peruvian musicians, and we're the
glue that holds it together."
The band's
unique blend of deep scholarship and playfulness is evident throughout, with
each piece serving as a statement about the delicate balance required to keep
one foot in New York and one in Lima: "My Favorite Things," Juan
Tizol's "Caravan," and Ornette Coleman's "Lonely Woman" set
to a sensuous festejo rhythm; Joe Zawinul's "Birdland" performed as a
tribute to the great Peruvian percussionist Alex Acuña, formerly of Weather
Report; ingenious renditions of the American and Peruvian national anthems.
Guests
including bass legend Ron Carter, Grammy Award-winning pianist Arturo
O'Farrill, Yellowjackets keyboardist Russell Ferrante, and tabla expert and
Miles Davis alumnus Badal Roy augment the sextet, half of whose players are
based in Alegría's native Lima and half in New York City, where he is a
Professor of Jazz Studies at New York University.
Freddy
"Huevito" Lobatón, a founding member of the sextet, is a master of
Afro-Peruvian percussion who grounds the band in the folkloric textures of the
box-like cajón, the cajita, and the quijada (made from the jaw bone of an ass).
Drummer Hugo Alcázar, also a founding member, incorporates the cajón into his drum
kit's polyrhythmic feel, while American-born drummer Shirazette Tinnin
gracefully navigates the predominantly 12/8 beats. Alegría shares the front
line with tenor saxophonist Laura Andrea Leguía, a tremendously expressive
player who helped found the band. Peruvian criollo guitarist Yuri Juárez
provides expertly calibrated rhythmic support and telegraphic solos. In New
York, bass duties are shared by two veteran masters, Puerto Rican-born John
Benitez and Nigerian-American Essiet Essiet.
Gabriel Alegria Born (1970) and raised in
Lima, Perú, Gabriel Alegría has divided his time between Perú and the United
States throughout his life. He attended high school in Gambier, Ohio, where his
famous playwright father, Alonso Alegría, was a visiting professor at Kenyon
College at the time. Playing an arrangement of "'Round Midnight" in
his high school band led him to purchase a Miles Davis recording of the tune.
The difference between the chart he was playing and the way Davis played it was
a revelation to the 16-year-old trumpeter. The realization that "You can
do your own thing with something and create your own ideas and identity"
would help him years later in merging the Afro-Peruvian sounds of his homeland
with American jazz music.
After
receiving his bachelor's degree at Kenyon, Alegría enrolled at City College of
New York and earned an M.A. under the tutelage of Ron Carter. He then returned
to Perú for seven years, five of them spent in the trumpet section of the Lima
Philharmonic while moonlighting as a jazz and rock musician around the capital
city. He relocated to Los Angeles and spent four and a half years at the
University of Southern California, where the Afro-Peruvian Sextet first came
together in 2005. While at USC (he earned his doctorate in 2007), Alegría
studied, worked, toured, and recorded with his mentor Bobby Shew, vocalist
Tierney Sutton, trombonist Bill Watrous, and keyboardist/composer Russell
Ferrante -- all of whom contributed to the sextet's debut CD, Nuevo Mundo
(Saponegro Records, 2008).
The band
released three more albums on Saponegro -- Pucusana (2010), El Secreto del Jazz
Afroperuano (2012), and Ciudad de Los Reyes (2013) -- in its crusade "to
spread Afro-Peruvian jazz music to the world," says the trumpeter.
"New
York is a place that's almost an orgy of people mixing things," Alegría
says. "You have to be careful to present things on their own terms. We
work very hard to make sure each of the traditions is employed correctly,
really knowing the background before we use it. That helped set the band apart
and get attention."
As part of
their anniversary festivities, Gabriel Alegría and his Afro-Peruvian Sextet
will be in residence at New York's Zinc Bar this fall, performing on two
Thursday nights each month beginning in August, through December (8/17, 8/20;
9/10, 9/17; 10/8, 10/15; 11/12, 11/19; 12/10, 12/17). Additional appearances --
in New York, Lima, and beyond -- will be announced soon.
