November 15, 2018
THANKS, CHUCHO:
Dayramir Gonzalez: The Grand Concourse (Machat): Review of the pianist's ambitious suite linking Havana and New York (Michael J. west, 11/15, 18, Jazz Times)
The Grand Concourse is a major statement from pianist Dayramir Gonzalez. It makes the most of the increasingly endangered 70-plus-minute album format, featuring an overture, a thoughtful musical dialogue between turn-of-the-20th-century Havana and 2010s New York (the album's title is after the Bronx's main thoroughfare), and an escalating rhythmic aggression. It's quite an achievement.
Indeed, that "Sencillez," a delicate and remarkably authentic circa-1900 danza with string quartet and vocal chorus, can sit in close quarters with the fiercely percussive (thanks to guests Pedrito Martinez and Yosvany Terry) and contemporary "Iyesa Con Miel" in a way that makes any sense at all is an achievement in itself.
Posted by Orrin Judd at November 15, 2018 5:45 PM