Encuentro en la Habana (Havana Encounter)

Album review

After departing from Arturo Sandoval's employ, pianist Hilario Durán and the entire ensemble Perspectiva formed on their own to play crackling, exciting, original jazz-flavored Latin music based in tradition and stretching beyond. It's a core quartet with special guests -- most notably the ex-Irakere saxophonist Roman Feliu, drummer Ernesto Simpson, and percussionist Pedro Martinez -- that makes this fiery music, recorded in Havana, Cuba, at the legendary Egrem Studios. Durán's quirky Thelonious Monk-type piano identifies "Gandinga y Sazon" (for the late Frank Emilio Flynn), while Feliu's soulful alto sax on the feature track "Havana City" keeps the listener mindful that this band has heard its share of roots American rhythm & blues. A rearranged version of the Toots Thielemans evergreen "Bluesette" hints at jumpy anxiety with its staggered phrases, while the rocked-out "No More Cha Cha" and the very fast jam "Descarga en la Egrem" puts the ensemble through its paces, keeping up with Durán's flying fingers. The introductory track, "Perspectiva," is the most unusual in that it has Feliu's sax shadowing the pianist, percussionists, and Jorge Luis Chicoy's guitar as if in mock echoes, approaching electronic nuances. For those fans of Durán with Jane Bunnett's band or as a sideman, Encuentro en la Habana adds yet another page to this substantive, multifaceted musician's résumé, as fabulous a pianist as he is a music director.
© Michael G. Nastos /TiVo