Label: Intakt Records, 2020
Personnel - Aruán Ortiz: piano, voice; Andrew Cyrille: drums; Mauricio Herrera: percussion + guests Emeline Michel and Marlène Ramírez-Cancio: vocals.
New York-based pianist/composer Aruán Ortiz doesn’t forget his Afro-Cuban roots each time he attempts to create new art-jazz sculptures. He has released several jazz albums under his own name, but the Cuban tradition got significant proportions on the excellent solo effort Cubanism (Intakt, 2017). Now, with Inside Rhythmic Falls, he further explores percussive Afro-Cuban delights, twisting them with modern creative wisdom in the company of a mighty rhythm duo composed of Grammy-nominee Cuban percussionist Mauricio Herrera and acclaimed American drummer Andrew Cyrille, an iconic figure of the avant-garde and free jazz currents. For this work, the pianist, born in the very musical southeastern Cuban province of Oriente, borrows inspiration from the changui, a style of Cuban music created by slaves working in the sugar cane refineries in the early 19th century.
“Lucero Mundo” is exclusively made of voices and percussion, with Marlene Ramirez-Cancio reciting the poem. Ortiz himself and Haitian singer Emeline Michel complete the cycle of words that serves as a homage to ancestors. In the same line, “Inside Rhythmic Falls Pt.I (Sacred Codes)” might not speak through words but does it beautifully and rawly with pure percussion. Surprisingly different and exciting is “Inside Rhythmic Falls Pt.II (Echoes)”, where the piano plays an important role in the process. While simultaneously operating in the lower registers - where he extracts sometimes intricate, well measured cadences - Ortiz outlines euphoric circuits of notes with the left hand. In connection with what’s going on, the percussionists probe new beats with a quick sense of understanding and integration.
Despite the angularity that stems from powerful tone clusters and whirling melodic chromaticism, “Conversations With The Oaks” displays the trio of performers fully immersed in a profound musical intimacy. The wide sense of risk-taking is general and expands to “Argelier’s Disciple”, where the pianist travels across several registers with agility, and “De Cantos Y Ñañigos”, where Cyrille’s simmering brushwork, together with Ortiz’s methodical execution, finds space to breathe. The latter piece makes reference to the Abakuá (also known as Ñañigo), an Afro-Cuban men’s secret society launched in 1836.
Equally intriguing, “Marimbula’s Mood” features Herrera on the Caribbean plucked box instrument called marimbula. It copes with this unostentatious finesse, contrasting with the more extroverted posture of “Para Ti Nengon”, a popular Cuban song subjected to a polyrhythmic treatment.
“Golden Voice (changui)” is a highlight, presenting fragmented piano lines in the form of patterned mosaics etched into the stretchy percussive flux. The left-hand jabs provided by Ortiz wildly stimulate, causing an impression. This piece alludes to changui singer Carlos Borromeo Planche.
Even if not as thrilling as Cubanism, the music on this record is always passionately delivered, regardless the pace and the rhythm of the pieces.
Grade B
Favorite Tracks:
02 - Conversations With The Oaks ► 04 - Golden Voice (changui) ► 08 - Inside Rhythmic Falls Pt.II (Echoes)