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From left, Chuchito Valdes, Rafael Monteagudo, Steve Sachse, Jose Espino , and Chuchito

This past Sunday, April 1st, KUVO listeners were treated to a very special edition of Salsa Con Jazz, hosted by Jimmy Trujillo. The great Cuban jazz pianist Chuchito Valdes and his trio of bassist Steve Sachse and drummer Rafael Monteagudo, with special guest Denver’s own Jose Espino on congas, donated their time to KUVO’s Spring Membership Drive with a live performance in the Phyllis A. Greer Performance Studio on their way back to DIA following a couple nights performing in Aspen.

Valdes comes from a bit of a musical dynasty back in Cuba (to borrow a phrase KUVO CEO Alfredo Cruz used to describe him on air); his father, Chucho Valdes, is a great Latin jazz pianist and his grandfather is influential pianist/bandleader Bebo Valdes. He incorporates his background and knowledge of the jazz tradition into the innovative music he creates. He also spoke very briefly between numbers about the importance of both preserving the jazz tradition that arose from the cotton fields in the southern United States around the turn of the 20th Century and elevating this music into the highly respected world-class genre it is today, as Alfredo translated. In addition to exploring the dichotomy of preservation and pioneering progression, Valdes’s music engages both North American styles and styles originating in his island home, continuing to cover new ground in a conversation between Latin music and jazz that has been going on since the 1910s with Jelly Roll Morton’s incorporation of the ubiquitous “Spanish tinge” in his jazz.

From the very start, Valdes captured and held the room’s attention.
The sheer physicality of his playing was the first thing most audience members noticed. The excitement of watching him kept the audience enthralled for the entire set. The group’s first piece was based on a simple mambo bass figure and chord progression that allowed Valdes a lot of room to move around the piano and truly shine. Valdes’s percussive approach to the piano is notable, showcased when he spent a few bars playing polyrhythms on a single note – proving his understanding of the piano as a member of the percussion family first and foremost. He also exhibited some impressive runs, somewhat reminiscent of Art Tatum. The following piece maintained the Latin rhythmic feel, this time with a more subdued attitude, which inspired Valdes to show the softer side of his touch. He ended this piece with a short unaccompanied piano section, featuring delicate, fluttering runs. Another highlight was Sachse’s expressive bass solo in this second number.

The third selection was a swinging twelve-bar blues, with began with some explosive crashes from Monteagudo, who was also featured trading fours with Valdes. Valdes showed his versatility during his solo, utilizing both heavy, syncopated phrases at times and a touch as light as a kitten running down the uppermost octaves of the piano at other times. The group closed their set with their exuberant, bouncy rendition of Billy Strayhorn/Duke Ellington classic “Take the A Train,” in which Valdes used rolling crescendos to transform his piano into the train itself, barreling uptown into 125th Street Station in Harlem.

Overall, the group confirmed for that audience that they are doing what they do for the right reason: to have a great time, making great music. Despite their having had a tremendous week of performances and travel with very little time to rest, one could tell the musicians were really enjoying themselves and glad to be helping out KUVO. And when the band has as much fun as the Chuchito Valdes Quartet did Sunday afternoon, the audience always does, too.

Prior to its nomination for the 2012 Oscar® for Best Animated Feature Film, Chico & Rita won several awards for best film at several European Film Festivals and garnered 4 stars reviews by the New York Times, and the Telluride, Miami, Toronto and Boulder Film Festivals. Although music is an integral part of the movie, both for its principal characters and storyline, the film is basically a love story between a Cuban pianist, Chico, and Cuban singer, Rita. Beginning in 1948 Havana, they travel individually and collectively to New York, Hollywood, Paris, Las Vegas and back to 2008 Cuba. The animation has a unique slant in its depictions of people and places, yet they remain authentic, the streets of Havana, both 1948 and 2008 are very real as are the characterizations of personalities e.g. Dizzy Gillespie, Chano Pozo, Thelonious Monk, Tito Puente, Nat Cole, Charlie Parker, Woody Herman and others. Although a fictional plot, the events surrounding Chico and Rita actually occurred. Circumstances in New York force Chico and Rita to go their separate ways, each achieving success but then Chico gets caught in the wrong place at the wrong time and is deported back to Cuba after the change in government took place in 1959. Will Chico and Rita reunite?

One of the filmmakers, Fernando Trueba, is an avid Cuban music and Latin jazz aficionado. His film, Calle 54, is considered among the best music movies ever released. For Chico & Rita, Trueba selected nonagenarian Cuban bandleader Ramón “Bebo” Valdés, a 5-time Grammy® winner to record the soundtrack and use his orchestra to be the music of the on screen musicians. This was an outstanding choice because Bebo lived the eras of the movie’s time frame and his music reflects it perfectly. Moreover, Bebo handpicked the best New York and Cuban musicians to duplicate the sound of the artists they portrayed. The soundtrack will be a welcome addition to any library; it’s on the Calle54/Sony Music label. I highly recommend this film, you’ll laugh a little, your eyes may moisten, the music will captivate you, perhaps you might learn some Latin jazz history while being thoroughly entertained, but don’t blame me if you begin dancing in the aisles while Chico & Rita is screening.

Chico & Rita screens for one week only starting Friday March 9th at Landmark Theatres’ Chez Artiste.
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Sophie Milman

Sophie Milman
Dazzle, Denver
November 27, 2011 First Set

Jazz is and always has been an amalgam of styles and influences. In fact, that’s what keeps it interesting and vital and always moving forward. Musicians from different backgrounds and cultures bring different sensibilities to the music and add new sounds and attitudes. Like the search for a beautiful melody that hasn’t yet been discovered, sometimes finding a new combination of experiences or influences can be tough. Vocalist Sophie Milman brings a background to jazz that won’t be duplicated. Born in Russia, she moved to Israel at age 7 and then on to Toronto at 16. Now at 28, she’s an international jazz star with four CDs, a Canadian Juno award and numerous international tours under her belt.

In spite of, or maybe because of, the fact she spent her formative years in lands far from the birthplace of jazz, her style is fairly conventional straight ahead jazz. Her selection of material tends to concentrate on mid-20th Century jazz standards. In that sense, she is similar to Roberta Gambarini, a vocalist born and raised in Italy, who also concentrates on the jazz classics. At her concert Sunday night, Milman explained she first heard American jazz from her father’s record collection that he accumulated while in Russia and brought to Israel. One of her favorites was Mahalia Jackson. She liked to sing along even though she didn’t know who this “Jesus” was that Jackson kept singing about. For Milman, jazz was exotic, something not found easily (or at all) in Russia or Israel.

This unlikely and circuitous route has led Milman to land solidly in the upper tier of female jazz vocalists on the scene today. Her powerful, yet sensuous and sultry voice seems custom made for standing in front of a jazz quartet interpreting timeless classics. Sunday night, she was completely at home on stage with a casual and effortless delivery.

While Milman’s style was nothing but tasteful, her backing band ratcheted the intensity meter up several notches when allowed to solo. Perry Smith on guitar and Paul Shrofel each took several hyperactive solos that contrasted nicely with Milman’s laid back vocals. In yet another contrast, Smith used a slide on several of his guitar solos, something commonly heard in the blues arena, but much less often in a straight ahead jazz context.

Not all of Milman’s repertoire consists of the standard jazz canon. Sunday night she performed a song by fellow Canadian Leslie Feist, “So Sorry.” As a singer/songwriter/rocker, Feist is a long way from jazz, but Milman’s adaptation of her song fit right in with the evening. Another offbeat choice was Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire.” Milman explained that a song’s lyric must speak to her before she can properly perform it and this one fit the bill.

Milman drew the majority of the material for Sunday’s set from her latest album In the Moonlight (2011 Eone) including “No More Blues” which received the bossa nova treatment. Her international experience shone through on “Ces Petites Riens” which she sang in French and she made it sound like it was straight out of a Parisian café. She cut her latest album with some of New York City’s best jazz musicians. That CD also uses strings on several tracks, a first for her. For the most part, the strings on the CD are not too obtrusive or overly lush. And the live versions of those tunes Sunday night got along just fine without them.

http://sophiemilman.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3vlfC33g7s&feature=related

Set List
Speak Low
Let Me Love You
Moonlight
Look at Me Now
I Concentrate on You
Take Love Easy
So Sorry (Feist)
Til There Was You
Ces Petites Riens
I Can’t Give You Anything But Love
Day In Day Out
No More Blues
I’m on Fire (Springsteen)

The Band
Sophie Milman, vocals
Perry Smith, guitar
Paul Shrofel, piano
Morgan Moore, bass
Jim Doxas, drums

Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks

Tedeschi Trucks Band
November 18, 2011
Fillmore Auditorium, Denver

           Fate demanded the Tedeschi Trucks Band. It’s been an inexorable march over the last decade and now it's paid off. Susan Tedeschi released her first album, Just Won’t Burn in 1998. She sported girl-next-door good looks and a contrasting take-no-prisoners voice. Over the years she released four more albums under her name. Derek Trucks, meanwhile, became co-lead guitarist in the Allman Brothers Band in 1999, after jamming with the band starting at age 12. He landed those gigs with his child-prodigy talent and the fact that his uncle is Butch Trucks, an original drummer of the Allman Brothers. Since the Allman Brothers Band is really only a part time gig, he formed the Derek Trucks Band in 2002. Tedeschi and Trucks first met during an Allman Brothers tour in 1999 and they married in 2001. Since that time, they’ve appeared on each other’s albums and toured together with Tedeschi joining the Allman Brothers in concert for a few tunes many nights. She’s known for standing between Trucks and Warren Haynes on stage, fearlessly strapping on a guitar and going toe to toe with two of the best blues/rock guitarists on the scene today. The Tedeschi Trucks Band was inevitable. The only question is why it took so long.

            Friday night at the Fillmore in Denver, the band deployed eleven band members: bass, keyboards, two drummers, two backing vocalists, three horns, Tedeschi on vocals and guitar and Trucks on guitar. The band sounds like a soulful version of the Allman Brothers with a horn section, some rippin’ female vocals and sweet vocal harmonies. The similarity goes far beyond the mere fact that Trucks is in both bands. Bassist Oteil Burbidge is in both bands as well. Like the Allman Brothers, the family connection is strong with Burbidge’s brother Kofi playing keyboards in TTB. Trucks himself looks a little like Gregg Allman from a couple decades ago with a long blonde ponytail.

            As befits the band’s name and their talents, Tedeschi and Trucks were the focal point of the band with Tedeschi front and center and Trucks slightly to the left. Although the band left plenty of space for instrumental breaks, all the songs had vocals keeping the spotlight on Tedeschi most of the time. She usually had a Telecaster or Les Paul strapped on and generally played rhythm, but stepped out for several solos. Trucks, of course, handled most of the guitar solos. More often than not, he played slide with an almost machine-like precision. He didn’t use a pick but, instead appeared to use most or all of the fingers on his right hand. He built many of his solos to dramatic climaxes starting so quietly, he could barely be heard above the ambient Fillmore din. Several minutes later, the volume was at the other end of the spectrum as the anguished cries furiously leapt from his guitar.

            Tedeschi’s vocal style was occasionally sweet and pure on the ballads, but more often took on an earthier, down and dirty quality perfectly suited for the blues. A highlight was the slow blues cooker “That Did It” in which she detailed all the stupid and selfish stunts pulled by her ex-lover. She poured out her pain in such force and agonizing detail that by the end of the tune about half of the male members of the audience were ready to go find the son-of-gun that done her wrong and school him on how to treat a woman right. Apparently she wasn’t singing about Trucks. They got along much better; at one point trading licks and although they never played the kind of twin guitar lines made famous by the Allman Brothers, it still gave new meaning to the phrase “marital harmony.”

            Being an 11 piece band allowed for plenty of opportunity to mix and match musicians and soloists. The Burbidge brothers got together for some bass/keyboard interludes featuring interplay by two musicians who knew exactly what the other was doing and where he was going. All the horns had a chance to solo once or twice throughout the evening. And the drums had a turn toward the end of the evening. All the different soloists kept the sound consistently fresh.

            The majority of Friday night’s program was drawn from the band’s only album to date, Revelator, released earlier this year. However, the band threw in a number of covers, almost all of which were hits before either band leader was born. (Tedeschi 1970, Trucks 1979) “Everybody’s Talkin’,” written by Fred Neil, was a hit for Harry Nilsson in 1969. TTB’s version was much more energetic than the folkier hit version from over 40 years ago. “Darling be Home Soon” was originally a hit for the Lovin’ Spoonful in 1967, but was later covered by Joe Cocker in 1969. Toward the end of the show, the band’s soul roots would not be denied as they delivered Stevie Wonder’s “Uptight,” a hit in 1966. They followed that with the original “Love Has Something Else to Say” which merged with Bill Withers’ 1973 hit “When I’m Kissing My Love” sung by Trombonist Saunders Sermons to close the set. The encore went further back still, starting with the traditional gospel tune “Wade in the Water” with the two backing vocalists coming right down front for some sweet three part harmonies with Tedeschi. The evening ended with a funky mini Sly Stone medley of “Sing a Simple Song” (1968) and “I Want to Take You Higher” (1969).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=y1p-2IC58IU 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vtkwwc00jWU

Set List

Don’t Let Me Slide

Everybody's Talkin’

Little Martha interlude

Midnight in Harlem

Learn How to Love

Until You Remember

Bound for Glory

Rollin' and Tumblin’

Darling be Home Soon

Nobody's Free 

That Did It

Uptight

Love Has Something Else to Say/When I’m Kissing My Love (Put Your Foot on the Rock!)

Encore

Wade in the Water

Sing a Simple Song

I Wanna Take You Higher

The Band

Susan Tedeschi, vocals, guitar

Derek Trucks, guitar

Oteil Burbidge, bass

Kofi Burbidge, keyboards

Tyler Greenwell, drums

J. J. Johnson, drums

Mike Mattison, backing vocals

Mark Rivers, backing vocals

Kebbi Williams, saxophone

Maurice Brown, trumpet

Saunders Sermons, trombone, backing vocals

Warren Haynes

Warren Haynes Band
Halloween, 2011
Ogden Theatre, Denver

Being Warren Haynes means being able to do whatever you want. At least musically anyway. And if you feel like being James Brown for an evening, you can do that. And so it was that the Warren Haynes Band played nearly an hour and a half of James Brown’s funk and soul during their second set on Halloween at a packed and sweaty Ogden Theatre in Denver. For this show, Haynes billed himself as The Godfather of Soulshine.

This was the Warren Haynes Band’s third show in Denver this year and Haynes isn’t one to play the same old thing all the time. The fact the calendar said October 31 seemed to call for something special too. And on top of all that, the whole concept of the Warren Haynes Band has been to get down with a more soulful and funky sound than any of Haynes’ other bands which include Gov’t Mule, the Allman Brothers and The Dead. So if R&B and Soul are the goal, why not go all in and pay an extended tribute to the Godfather of Soul himself?

In its roughly six months of existence as a touring band, the Warren Haynes Band has been concentrating on the music of its CD from earlier this year, Man in Motion, which consists mainly of Haynes’ original compositions, but which channels that R&B and soul feel from yesteryear. In concert, the band has been throwing in some funk covers such as “What is Hip?” and “Spanish Moon” so moving directly into James Brown territory is a very small step. The biggest problem, however, is the fact that the Warren Haynes Band only has one horn: Ron Holloway on saxophone. Brown’s music unequivocally calls for an entire horn section. For this gig, Haynes recruited Rashawn Ross on trumpet and Big Sam on trombone. Ross may be best known for spending some time with the Dave Matthews Band. He’s also played with funksters Soulive and Lettuce. Big Sam Williams, of course, has his own Funky Nation, a New Orleans based jam-funk band. He knows a little something about playing some funk as well as putting on a show.

The big question before the show was just how tight a pick-up horn section could be. After all, horn parts tighter than a wood tic’s hind end were a hallmark of Brown’s band. Legend has it that Brown, well known as an autocratic leader, would fine his band members for missing any of their assigned parts. That and playing together for extended periods turned his bands into a single throbbing, syncopated unit. So how did the Warren Haynes Band’s horn section stand up to this inevitable comparison? Overall: pretty good. The horn parts on the more well known Brown tunes such as “Cold Sweat,” “I Feel Good” and “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” sounded like Maceo, Peewee and Fred were back together again. Most likely, this is because the three horn players in Haynes’ band, with their obvious interest and enthusiasm for this type of music, probably have had those horn parts burned into their DNA since they were about four years old. On some of the less well known tunes like “Papa Don’t Take No Mess” and “I Got a Bag of My Own” things got a little looser, but still serviceable.

Obviously, it takes more than some hot horns to pull off James Brown. Vocals come to mind. It’s pretty hard to recreate the kind of vocal pyrotechnics Brown launched on a regular basis during his prime. Haynes’ vocals are more suited to growling some blues and/or lamenting another woman who did him wrong. Nevertheless, he belted some soul of his own minus the anguished screeches and wails Brown used as punctuation, although he did throw in “hit me” now and again. Haynes, however, isn’t the only vocalist in the Warren Haynes Band. Alecia Chakour, usually on backing vocals, got a few turns out front including “Think,” not Aretha’s, but a different song with the same name that was a hit for Brown in 1960. Keyboard player, Nigel Hall was the one that came closest to putting Brown back on stage with a similar vocal style and going so far as to come out from behind his keyboards during “Please, Please, Please,” dropping some splits onto the stage and getting wrapped in a Brownesque cape by one of the roadies. Good campy fun. Hall’s black and white houndstooth suit didn’t hurt either. Haynes, being Haynes, put his own stamp on the Brown sound. In fact, the Haynes guitar solo in the midst of “It’s a Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World” was very nearly worth the price of admission all by itself.

The Brown set wasn’t an unadulterated funk-fest. Haynes chose a couple tunes from early in Brown’s career when he was playing more or less the standard Rhythm and Blues of the time. “Please, Please, Please” was Brown’s first hit from 1956 and “Try Me” followed two years later. “Down and Out in New York City” was from later in Brown’s career (1973) and is a tune Haynes has covered before with Gov’t. Mule. On that one, Haynes played a counterpoint horn part on his guitar against the well-oiled horn section. In another brief respite from the funk, Haynes threw in “Georgia On My Mind.”

The first set of the evening set the stage for the fun to come. The band started with “Tear Me Down,” a funky tune Haynes wrote and recorded with Gov’t Mule with the flamboyant Bootsie Collins from Parliament/Funkadelic on bass and vocals. The four tunes from Man in Motion had a more syncopated edge than when the band last played them in Denver in May. Perhaps they’ve just been evolving that way or maybe it was the James Brown influence seeping though. Most of the first set tunes ended with extended jams and lick trading all around. Ross and Big Sam joined the band about half way through the first set. A highlight was the first set closer, “Man in Motion” which had the horn section breaking down into a New Orleans style Dixieland jam. The final tune of the night, after all the funky, sweaty soul of James Brown, was Haynes’ biggest hit, “Soulshine,” not exactly a funk staple, but certainly a crowd pleaser.

Set List

First Set
Tear Me Down
River's Going to Rise
Sick of My Shadow
On a Real Lonely Night
Tit for Tat (instrumental jam)
Invisible
Man in Motion

Second Set

Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag
Papa Don’t Take No Mess
I Got a Bag of My Own
Ain’t That a Groove
Talkin' Loud and Sayin’ Nothin’
Georgia On My Mind
Out of Sight
Down and Out in New York City
Super Bad
It's a Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World
Think
Cold Sweat
Try Me
Pass the Peas
Please, Please, Please
I Got You (I Feel Good)

Encore
Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag
Soulshine

The Band:

Warren Haynes, guitar, vocals
Alecia Chakour, vocals
Nigel Hall, keyboards, vocals
Terrence Higgins, drums
Ron Holloway, sax
Ron Johnson, bass
Big Sam, trombone
Rasheed Ross, trumpet

Joshua Trinidad
Weighing In for Pole Vaulting
Bocumast
By Tom Murphy Tuesday, Oct 18 2011

The songs on this album conjure the sensation of something unexpected in the weather — unseasonably cold nights in summer or uncommonly warm nights in winter — that makes the mind both nostalgic and able to function with the kind of clarity that makes subtleties easier to notice. Joshua Trinidad's treated trumpet, paradoxically organic electronic percussion and minimal piano figures soulfully evoke an introspective mood, a notably reflective melancholy, particularly on tracks like "Meters." On "Static Moons," meanwhile, the doleful trumpet is ringed with the buzzing of electronic insects and a disembodied voice from a distance — like something in a holographic multiplex of the future, after hours, with only the hint of a janitorial staff somewhere out of sight. Languid future jazz noir through and through.