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 Performance Review An Evening of Jazz Cubano at The Jazz Gallery With: Yosvany Terry, Osmany Paredes, Yunior Terry, Dafnis Prieto and Marvin Diz. Special Guest: Bobby Carcassés. By Tomas Peña
Jazz Guru Bobby Carcassés made a rare New York appearance on the evenings of March 24 and 25, at the Jazz Gallery, in what was billed as An Evening of Jazz Cubano. Carcassés was featured as a special invited guest, courtesy of Dafnis Prieto. According to Prieto: “I went to Cuba in 2005 and Bobby told me that he might be coming to America, so I had the idea to invite him to perform with us. What most people do not realize is that our relationship goes back fifteen years. All of us (in the band) have played with Bobby. We have a spiritual connection with him.” According to elder statesman, Bobby Carcassés, “I was born in the 1938 but I feel like these young men are my compañeros.” Lean, mean and clad in a white sport coat, glittery black shirt and black trousers, Carcassés hails from a long line multi-talented Caribbean artists whose music contains international influences - he scats, plays the flugelhorn, piano, percussion and, surprisingly, took a “time out,” to create a work-of-art while the band played on (see photo). And what a band it was! Drummer Dafnis Prieto, pianist Osmany Paredes, saxophonist Yosvany Terry, bass player Yunior Terry and percussionist Marvin Diz, are all at the forefront of jazz today. Carcassés, who was born in Kingston, Jamaica, began his career singing in various choruses and quartets and traveled to New York as part of the Tropicana Review in 1958. After a stint in Paris, he returned to Cuba and was instrumental in founding the Teatro Musical de la Habana (he is also an actor and dancer). In 1978/79 he led a jam session in the Casa de Cultura and came up with the idea of starting a jazz festival in Havana. Somehow, he convinced the (then) Minister of Culture that jazz was “the music of the poor and not the music of the enemy.” If all of that isn’t enough, Carcassés is the leader of AfroJazz and has performed with everyone who is anyone in the world of music: Chucho Valdés, El Gran Fellove, Eddie Palmieri, Tito Puente, Mario Bauzá and the list goes on. During the course of the evening Carcassés and the band breezed through tunes such as Summertime, Blues Guanaco, Claudia, Blues for Chano and Veronica. As Carcasses tells it, “I have come to realize that sometimes we create something bigger than ourselves. That’s what happened at the Jazz Gallery over the last two evenings.” His daughter, Veronica, mentioned the fact that the Jazz Gallery reminded her, “of the way things used to be,” and compared it to the nightclubs in Paris. On March 26th, I had the honor of attending an all-night recording session, where much of the material that was performed over the weekend was recorded for posterity. All in all, it was an evening of great music. Moreover, it proved beyond the shadow of a doubt, that Bobby Carcassés is a citizen of the world who speaks a musical language that knows no boundaries. Let’s hope that it’s not another ten years before New York sees Bobby Carcassés again. Palante, Jazz Timbero! Tomas Pena
For additional information on the artists and the Jazz Gallery visit: Dafnis Prieto: www.dafnisprieto.com Yosvany Terry: www.yosvanyterry.com Yunior Terry: www.enigmaterial.com/jazz/sjjf2005/sjjf05_yuterry.html Marvin Diz: www.congahead.com/On_The_Scene/marvindiz Osmany Paredes: www.latinjazznet.com/interviews/osmany_paredes.htm The Jazz Gallery: www.jazzgallery.org
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