| Paul Carlon CD Release Party "La Rumba is a Lovesome Thing - Tribute to Billy Strayhorn" Thursday, Jul 11th 7-10 pm Concert 7-8:30 pm Reception / After Party 8:30-10 pm @ GREENWICH HOUSE
46 Barrow Street
in the West Village
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 "La Rumba Is A Lovesome Thing – Tribute To Billy Strayhorn"( Zoho ZM201309) Street Date: 07/09/2013 Paul Carlon: tenor and soprano saxophones, flute, arrangements, Anton Denner: alto saxophone, flute, piccolo, Alex Norris: trumpet, Mike Fahie: trombone (2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10), Mark Miller: trombone, Ryan Keberle: trombone (1, 6, 8), John Stenger: piano, Dave Ambrosio: acoustic bass, William “Beaver” Bausch: drumset, Christelle Durandy: vocals (1, 2, 4, 7, 9), Benjamin Lapidus: vocals and decima (1), tres (1, 2, 6, 10), Wilson “Chembo” Corniel: congas (3, 5, 10), Obanilu Ire: barriles and maraca (6), Pedrito Martinez: vocals (1, 2), congas (1, 2, 8) and batá (2)
Saxophonist
Paul Carlon's new album, "La Rumba Is a Lovesome Thing—Tribute to Billy
Strayhorn," opens with "Johnny Come Lately," the 1942 jazz standard
played as if the title were actually "Juan Come Lately." Apart from
playing the familiar melody in a Cuban "clave" rhythm (rather than the
expected swing-style straight four), Mr. Carlon reworks the piece from
top to bottom, as if it had been a staple of the Tito Puente bandbook
rather than that of Duke Ellington.
He spices
it up and makes it mucho caliente with Latin percussion and a quartet
of singers chanting en espanol—an especially inspired touch to a tune
that was always an instrumental. Often a songbook package is the most
basic, plain-vanilla way to perform the works of a given composer, but
Mr. Carlon's treatment is the best kind of fresh take on classic
material, rendered with a perfect balance of adoration and irreverence
that never misses the mark.There are musicians out there who are hostile
to the very idea of songbook albums. "There should be a moratorium on
songbook, 'concept,' and tribute albums," they cry. Still, nearly
anybody besides the musicians themselves welcomes the idea. Why not
organize the music with an idea that's larger than a single song? Why
not give an album some kind of idea or theme to distinguish it from
every other show out there?
The next
week is bringing launch events for three superior albums, two of which
are at Joe's Pub: Emily Asher's Hoagy Carmichael celebration (Saturday) and Marissa Mulder's Tom Waits package (July 15).
(Ms. Asher's album is called "Carnival of Joy"; Ms. Mulder's
well-conceived, highly moving show might be called "Carnival of
Despondency.")
Mr.
Carlon's project also follows a series of well-conceived "Latin Side"
albums by the trombonist Conrad Herwig, among them "The Latin Side of
John Coltrane" (1996), Miles Davis (2004), Wayne Shorter (2008), and
Herbie Hancock (2008). There have also been several "Latin side"
approaches to Ellington, notably a concert by Latin American trombonist
Steve Turre honoring Ellington's Puerto Rican trombonist Juan Tizol (an
event that was, unfortunately, not recorded), and "Afro-Cuban Suite for
Duke Ellington" on Bobby Sanabria's current album "Multiverse."
So how do
you turn a Strayhorn tune into a mambo or cha-cha? In Mr. Carlon's
arrangement, "Chelsea Bridge" becomes a bolero romantico, with that
iconic melody phrased on flutes; it's now a slow, erotic dance. As an
arranger Mr. Carlon sustains interest by phrasing the tune two ways,
with rubato, out of tempo phrases alternating with sections in a firm
clave dance beat. "Upper Manhattan Medical Group" is perhaps hardest to
recognize, but the Strayhorn tune is there in the mix. "Sweet and
Pungent" is the rarest tune in the stack, being a one-shot number from
the Ellington album "Blues in Orbit." Trombonist Britt Woodman moaned
like crazy on the 1959 original, as trombonist Ryan Keberle does here,
yet though it's in Latin tempo, it's no less bluesy.
In his
liner notes, Mr. Carlon describes "Tonk" as the "Holy Grail" of
Strayhorn works. Most famously heard as an infamously tricky four-handed
piano duet between Ellington and Strayhorn, it's a keyboard tour de
force somewhere inbetween Art Tatum and Rachmaninoff. Mr. Carlon
describes his reinterpretation as fitting the form of the Puerto Rican
bomba, but to my ears the piece has now become a choro in the best
Brazilian tradition, a close relative of the archetypical choro "Tico
Tico."
One of
the most successful of Mr. Carlon's transformations is actually
Strayhorn's single best known work, "Take The A Train': the Latinized
reading, which features a Spanglais choir including Christelle Durandy
and Pedrito Martinez, shifts the rhythm from 4/4 to 6/8. The only change
that Mr. Carlon neglected to instigate to make the piece any more
convincing would have been to re-title the piece "Take The Number Six
Train." After all, that's the quickest way to get to Spanish Harlem. - Will Friedwald Wall Street Journal July 5, 2013
Elingtonia and the music of the Afro-Latin diaspora through his group, an octet that has outgrown that designation with more members, from tres player to percussionists and vocalists. Carlon's study of Afro-Latin music led him to spend time in Brazil, Cuba and Colombia to widen his appreciation and perspective. He brings that to bear on La Rumba Is A Lovesome Thing: A Tribute to Billy Strayhorn (Zoho), for which this gig is a CD release party. It is a unique amalgam of Ellingtonian music and Afro-Latin rhythms and forms, gleefully combining montunos, chants and vamps with the sophistiated melodies and harmonies of Strayhorn, celebrating rather than blending the disparities. - George Kanzler Hot House July 2013 Artist Website: http://www. |
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Label Website: http://www.zohomusic.com/
ZOHO ® is distributed by Allegro Media Group, Portland, OR. |
For Interviews and Promos Contact:
Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services T: 845-986-1677 E-Mail: jim@jazzpromoservices.com http://www.jazzpromoservices. |
