The Calle 54 concert was off the hook.
Treating the Royce audience to music from the Fernando Trueba
documentary, the concert did just what the movie project intended
by offering a tour of Latin music’s broad, stylistic
spectrum.
The musicians didn’t perform just jazz music. The show was
a mixture of jazz, Bossa Nova and flamenco.
The concert began softly, kicked it up a notch, and then quieted
back down. That’s when Dave Valentin’s flute took over;
he went off in a solo with his flute wailing.
During his solo, Valentin produced fast, high and low sounds
with his flute and on the microphone, acting more like a street
rapper than a flutist.
Valentin’s flute glistened as his body and lips swayed to
the jazz music. The light from his flute showed people’s
heads bopping to his energetic sounds.
Valentin invited his jazz friends on stage as comfortably as if
he had invited them to his house for an informal jazz session.
While percussionist Giovanni Hidalgo performed his solo, the
musicians’ faces and bodies were intently fixed on him. From
all the way in the back of Royce, spectators could hear the echo of
the songs: loud, vibrant and rhythmic.
The last song of the night for Valentin’s band was
“Obsession” which started strong with the drummer,
cellist, pianist and flutist Valentin performing all at once.
Then the Eliane Eliasa Trio took the stage.
Clapping hands and Brazilian jazz tunes filled Royce as the Trio
performed jazz with a twist.
Elias’ hands flowed on the piano as cellist Marc Johnson
and drummer Satoshi Takeishi followed her lead. They performed two
songs from the catalogue of legendary Brazilian musician Antonio
Carlos Jobim.
The Eliane Elias Trio was also accompanied by the electric
trumpet player Jerry Gonzalez. His face was hidden underneath a hat
and dark glasses, but as soon as he got to a mic, pleasing, mellow,
long notes flowed from his mouth with ease and great presence.
Everyone focused on his melodic music.
The concert closed with the Chano Dominguez Sestet making their
first Los Angeles appearance.
The dancer and singer sat on the side of the stage but joined
the jazz session with gitano sounds and claps. The musicians’
shoulders, hands and feet reflected the sounds flowing from the
drums, cello and piano.
The gitano voice and vibrant clapping energized the audience.
The high, short sounds of the piano mixed with the low, coarse
voice of the gitano.
The singer began to clap louder in between the pauses and moved
the audience from slow to faster beats. Everyone picked up the
pace. The claps, the piano, the drums and the cello all vibed on
stage.
Then just the piano played and Dominguez’s hands waited
for each soft, slow note to fully end and begin again.
Dominguez finished the song softly with flamenco singing; his
voice was melodic and harsh.
Dominguez’s fingers moved along the piano keys as the
fingers of the accompanying dancer twisted and his hands waved in
the air and around his body.
The dancer moved like a bird with arms extended out above his
shoulders, swaying to the piano notes.
The concert catered to a new jazz audience.
The musicians improvised and masterfully added Spanish and
Brazilian elements to their classical jazz songs.