Salsa kings

¡Cubanismo! play Latin in all languages

by Ed Hazell

In a year already heavy with superior Afro-Cuban jazz releases, two (both on Hannibal) stand out: Cuba Linda, by pianist Alfredo Rodríguez, and Malembe, the second album by trumpeter Jesús Alemañy's all-star ¡Cubanismo! (which features Rodríguez). Both leaders are expatriate Cubans -- Rodríguez lives in Paris, Alemañy in London. Each returned to Cuba to record his albums with the country's very best musicians, including percussion legend Tata Güines, and upstarts like former Irakere flutist Orlando "Maracas" Valle and singer Jorge Luis "Rojitas" Rojas, a rising star of Cuban salsa formerly with one of the island's most popular bands, Adalberto Álvarez y Su Son. The results are stunning. ¡Cubanismo! come to the Roxy on May 4, and their appearance is not to be missed.

Rarely has jazz meshed so powerfully with Afro-Cuban folk and popular musics as on Cuba Linda. Classically trained in Havana, Rodríguez absorbed important lessons from his friend and mentor, the great Cuban pianist Peruchín (to whom "Tumbao a Peruchín" is dedicated). Rodríguez haunted jazz clubs after moving to New York as a young man in the '60s, and he commands an impressive jazz vocabulary, from dark Bud Powell chords to tart Monkish dissonances to florid Art Tatum embellishments. More important, he understands the subtleties of Afro-Cuban rhythms, using his left-hand chords like drum accents. He insinuates himself into the elegantly restrained cha-cha of "Cuando Vuelvo a Tu Lado" (better known as "What a Difference a Day Makes"); he corkscrews through the fast and furious conga "Para Francia Flores."

"With Cuba Linda I wanted to go to the roots of the music," Rodríguez explains over the phone from Paris, where he's lived since 1982, "and I wanted to play some forms that are not widely heard." He tackles the rarely heard Haitian-influenced tumba francesa on "Tumba, Mi Tumba," and a chant from the Palo Monte religious cult on "Canto de Palo." Pan-stylistic albums are commonplace among Latin releases, but they are rarely as invigorating as this brilliant compendium of traditional and modern dance numbers. This release is as vital, innovative, and just plain fun as music -- any kind of music -- gets.

Malembe leans heavily on the classic '50s brass-and-percussion conjunto sound of son montuno stars like Arsenio Rodríguez. The prominence of trumpets in the arrangements and the distinctive presence of the Cuban guitar called a tres in the rhythm section evoke the past strongly on the title track and "Mulence." But post-Castro musical innovations rest solidly and easily on this bedrock of tradition. One of the revelations of the album is "Salsa Pilón," which is based on a fast, spiraling dance rhythm that rarely gets by the US blockade of Cuba. "Now in Marinao" generates a fascinating dialogue between old and new by plunking edgy jazz harmonies and a complex, fragmented melody down on a very rootsy, folkloric rumba. "Jesús had the idea of going back to the sound of the '50s, when more and more the trumpet became the main soloist in Cuban bands," Rodríguez points out. "He wanted it to be danceable -- and at the same time listenable -- from top to bottom. That's the main idea."

Just as Alemañy's revival of older Cuban dance forms sets him apart from most contemporary Latin dance music, his soloing runs counter to the exhausting pyrotechnics popularized by the Cuban jazz band Irakere. Alemañy has clearly inherited the mantle of the great Cuban trumpeters of Havana's '50s heyday like Felix Chapotín and Chocolate Armenteros. His tone is bright and full, powerful but rounded by a romantic vibrato. It is never harsh or inelegant, even in the highest register. On "El Preguntón" he displays his mastery of the boldly drawn opening statement and an architectural command of development, building his solo into a pleasing structure by varying and elaborating short, memorable melodies.

"At this time," Rodríguez says, "when everything is electronic or just this bland, supermarket type of thing, I look at it as almost a moral duty to record music with this kind of electricity and spontaneity -- we need it more than ever. It's magic."

Jesús Alemañy with ¡Cubanismo!, featuring Alfredo Rodríguez and an all-star Cuban line-up, will be at the Roxy on May 4 at 8 p.m. For information or to charge tickets, call World Music at 876-4275.