By Miguel Bronfman
For the Herald
BARCELONA HORA CERO – GUILLERMO CALLIERO (Blue Art Records). Guillermo Calliero was born in the Province of Santa Fe in 1973, and after just a few years in the local scene he moved to Spain, where he has lived and worked since 2005. After six years, Calliero has become one of the most in-demand trumpet players in the Spanish jazz world, and in recent times he has been playing in saxophonist Perico Sambeat’s big band, in the Barcelona Jazz Orquesta and in other projects as well. He also plays regularly with another Argentine expatriate, Horacio Fumero.
In this new album, recorded in Barcelona in 2010, Calliero walks down a path that many others have followed before him, bringing together jazz with tango, folk music and even candombe. From the album’s cover we already receive a warning: “Jazz and Tango fusion”. An always dicey proposition, in Calliero’s hands what we get as a result is just great music, wonderfully rendered, with passion, honesty and true musicianship totally ridden of mannerisms or clichés. Calliero is a jazz musician, and this is a jazz album, and from that perspective he plays tangos like Por una cabeza (Gardel-Lepera) and Buenos Aires Hora Cero (Piazzolla), folk tunes like La nochera (Jaime Dávalos) or La arenosa (Cuchi Leguizamón), and songs like Montevideo (Ruben Rada) or Sólo se trata de vivir (Nebbia).
Thus, Calliero’s fusion vocabulary is stripped of the need for superficiality, and is lightened instead by a profound lyricism, and a heartfelt search of each song’s inner essence. When he renders Por una cabeza, for instance, he plays it like a ballad, and though he gets support from Marcelo Mercadante on bandoneon (as in Buenos Aires Hora Cero) the tango rhythm (the classic two by two) here is only a vague reference, while the melody and its reverberations are amply developed.
Calliero has a clear, robust, even classic sound and a solid technique, and he counts with the guest presence in the album of Perico Sambeat, pianist José Reinoso (who contributed with the title track) and tenor saxophonist Enrique Oliver, among other top-notch Spanish jazzmen. Great modern jazz, built on familiar foundations.
TRIAS – JUAN CRUZ DE URQUIZA (Independent release). Another great album by another trumpet player. One of the most important Argentine jazz musicians, founder of the remembered Quinteto Urbano, Juan Cruz de Urquiza is accompanied in this album by a powerful quartet of relatively younger talents, completed by Hernán Jacinto on piano and keyboards, Carlos Álvarez on double-bass and Carto Brandán on drums; together they render six original compositions by De Urquiza and a sensitive version of Charly García’s melancholic, beautiful song Llorando en el espejo.
As in his previous work, Vigilia, De Urquiza just goes after what he likes the most: long compositions (between nine and ten minutes each) where he and his men can immerse in intricate and complex improvisations, delivering flights of intense creativity over high-brow harmonies. Just like his companions, De Urquiza has struck a beguiling balance between technique, feeling, insight and imagination, all imbued by a proficient knowledge of the contemporary jazz idiom. The group’s sound is powerful yet sensitive, in a way that enables them to make a record of difficult and brainy music so crystalline and poised. Few jazz groups here can swing hard and play with emotional immediacy. Juan Cruz de Urquiza’s quartet is certainly one of them.
OTRO JARDíN – CARLOS ALVAREZ TRIO (Independent release). This is young double-bass player Carlos Álvarez’ first output as a leader, indeed a very auspicious work in which he takes all the composing and arranging credits. The trio is completed by Hernán Mandelman on drums and multi-saxophones player Rodrigo Domínguez.
While this kind of trio format is undoubtedly a difficult one, these musicians really know how to do their job, both to unfold a cohesive sound and to develop the composer’s original ideas with precision and uncanny sympathy, creating mysterious sounds in a rather dark temper. Domínguez carries on with the melodic responsibility throughout, and he does a splendid job, searching for new resources and avoiding repetition, even when his saxophones are always on the spot. The music has an understated swing and develops over restrained grooves, at times giving place to abstract incursions that always show another, interesting edge. Álvarez finds room for soloing, and when he improvises, with imagination, feeling and self-confidence in his own musical ideas, it is easy to understand why he has been so much in demand in the local scene in recent years.
SóLO LOS DOS – LORENA ASTUDILLO and DANIEL MAZA (Acqua Records). A delightful album from beginning to end, this set features singer Lorena Astudillo (usually more linked to the new local folk wave) and Uruguayan bassist Daniel Maza, rendering together, with no extra company, a collection of songs of what could be labeled as a rioplatense repertoire.
In the intimate climax of just voice and bass (and a light percussion played by both of them) Astudillo and Maza deliver these cherished tunes with grace, elegance and a relaxed, at home-like and lively spirit. Their mutual empathy highlights not only their performances and the songs themselves, but their plain and noticeable joy in dealing with them. Doña Soledad (Alfredo Zitarrosa), Zamba del Carnaval (Leguizamón), Te parece (Rubén Rada), Vete de mí (Homero and Virgilio Expósito) among others, are precious gems revitalized by this fresh and sincere performance, which flow one after another as parts of an organic whole.