Filiations: the choice of “Jazz and salsa” #5

Each month, « jazz and salsa » presents three albums of music from the Caribbean. The selection of the day, which takes us from New Orleans to Martinique via Cuba, is placed under the sign of filiation.

TROMBONE SHORTY: THE SOUL OF SOUL, THE POWER OF ROCK

Trombone Shorty: “Lifted” – Sintesís: “Ancestros Sinfónico” – Sélène Saint-Aimé: “Potomitan” BLUE NOTE, FACMUSIC, KOMOS

At first listen, we say to ourselves that Trombone Shorty’s new disc suffers from a glaring proximity to its predecessor, the flashy « Parking Lot Symphony« , like a sequel that is struggling to get rid of its model. At first listen, we say to ourselves that Trombone Shorty’s new disc suffers from a glaring proximity to its predecessor, the flashy « Parking Lot Symphony », like a sequel that is struggling to get rid of its model. We then say that Trombone Shorty is part of this very select club of musicians who have forged a sound so unique that it could constitute a genre on its own.

The Torch of New Orleans Shorty’s trademark is this raw energy borrowed from rock with guitars and drums. But beware, it’s still black music, which has its roots in soul and rhythm and blues. A musical gumbo, what! Because the music of Troy Andrews comes from New Orleans, with its brass, its soul, its sweat. Preceding Jon Batiste who shone last year with « We Are« , Trombone Shorty carries the colors of the birthplace of jazz high on the international scene.

He takes his nickname from having performed at the height of his four years with Bo Diddley on the Jazz Fest stage. From an early age, Troy Andrews followed his mother, Lois Andrews Nelson, a popular cultural figure in the Treme, the emblematic neighborhood of New Orleans, everywhere. Matriarch of a family of musicians, Lois included among her feats of arms, the rebirth of the Baby Dolls, characters of Mardi Gras who slum the carnival with their negligees and their bawdy songs. When her mother died last November, Troy danced on her coffin, as she herself had done during the tragic disappearance of her son Darnell. Lois didn’t educate Troy, she raised him, pushed him to go higher. “Lifted”, in French “Elevated”, is the title of the album.

THE SYMPHONIC DIMENSION OF SÍNTESIS

Another musical family. In 1975, Carlos Alfonso and Ele Valdès founded Síntesis, the first Cuban group to fuse rock with Afro-Cuban religious music. In 1989, their album « Ancestros » became cult in Cuba and around the world before experiencing two new versions in 1994 and 2003.For guitarist Leo Brower, an eminent Cuban composer and conductor, Síntesis has appropriated Afro-Cuban ritual music, desacralized it to extract its dramaturgical potential. With “Ancestros”, Síntesis wrote his own cosmology.

The Alfonso Valdes, an important musical family in Cuba It is easy to imagine the incredible musical abundance in which the Alfonso Valdès children bathed. X (Equis) Alfonso is a renowned rock and hip-hop musician, founder of the Fabrica de Arte Cubano, a high place of art, music and encounters in Havana. `For her part, her sister Eme successfully pursues her career as a singer while working at the head of the Habana World Music festival.

So, when musicians with unbridled creativity find themselves stuck in the unimaginable parenthesis that was the pandemic, there is no doubt that they end up tapping into their DNA to free their imagination. Helped by his sister and Leo Brower, X Alfonso revisited the work of his parents, rewriting ten pieces, ten odes to the Orishas to integrate a symphony orchestra. The result is a mystical, epic, cinematic sequel. « Ancestros Sinfónico » is a gift from Equis for his parents, a gift for the public, the opportunity to discover or rediscover a major album augmented by new perspectives.

SÉLÈNE SAINT-AIMÉ, NEW PILLAR OF CARIBBEAN JAZZ

During the first confinement, Sélène Saint-Aimé found refuge in Martinique. During long conversations with her grandmother, the musician explores “family history, childhood memories, life. »This dive into herself inspired her to create a record that she called “Potomitan”, mother courage, figure of West Indian culture, pillar of the family which takes its name from the Haitian voodoo temple.

An imposed creative process that reconnects with the spirit of jazz Struck by a long covid, the double bass player had to adapt her way of working. If she composed a lot before arriving in the studio, fatigue made it impossible for her to provide scores. So everything was done on the spot, without rehearsal. She arrived with her melodies, giving directions. A collegiate creation that revives the tradition of legendary jazz recordings. For that, you need talent. Sélène and her musicians have no shortage of them. The two vectors of expression of the artist intertwine in the image of the musician and his instrument: the song, incantatory, carried by a dreamlike language, and the double bass, which draws the drums of Martinique and Guadeloupe ( Boris Reine-Adélaïde and Sonny Troupé).Cuban saxophonist Irving Acao and American trumpeter Hermon Mehari, inspired, bring us back to the jazz quintet. As is often found in Cuba, this jazz incorporates classical elements such as Mathias Lévy’s violin and Guillaume Latil’s cello, which quickly turn out to be indispensable.

In this « Potomitan« , we will find pell-mell, ka, bèlè, songs, prayers, poems and improvisations. But also Pelléas and Mélisandre. And again Charlie Parker’s The Bird. As well as a conclusion half-story half-sung in English. « Potomitan » is an inspiring record whose reach goes far beyond the French West Indies. He embraces the Caribbean arc, pushing vice to New Orleans, prefiguring, perhaps without knowing it, the residency that the musician was soon to begin at the Villa Albertine. « Potomitan » is a pillar planted in the Caribbean with universal reach.