Saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera, who never seems to be at a loss for words, doesn’t know what to say, if only for a moment. Just after his performance in last weekend’s Jazz at the Lincoln Center benefit for the victims of Hurricane Katrina (with Wynton Marsalis, Diana Krall and others – a CD of highlights is due out soon on Blue Note), D’Rivera is moved by the outpouring of emotion that came from his fellow musicians.
“I just can’t put it into words,” he says of the evening. “My father used to play Louis Armstrong records (while D’Rivera was growing up in his native Cuba). The culture of New Orleans is so important. It needs to be preserved.”
And D’Rivera, who will perform at DU’s Gates Concert Hall on Friday, knows something about preservation. He’s something of a walking, horn- playing embodiment of Cuban and Afro-Cuban musical history from the ’50s on, when he began appearing onstage, sax in tow, at the age of 6. His young life was immersed in performance with the esteemed Orquesta Cubana de Musica Moderna and the Cuban fusion group Irakere, in which he shared the stage with another artist who would leave Cuba for the U.S., trumpeter Arturo Sandoval.
After defecting from Cuba in 1981, D’Rivera was part of a heavily promoted (for jazz anyway) roster for Columbia Records, alongside Wynton and Branford Marsalis. The relationship with the label dissolved in the late ’80s (D’Rivera records for the independent Chesky label now), but the Columbia recordings still sound as optimistic and energetic as any jazz made during that decade of the so-called “young lions” in jazz.
Lately D’Rivera has come full circle, back to his beginnings as a classical performer, albeit one who fuses composed music with sharp improvisational skills. Friday night’s performance with the boundary-pushing quintet Imani Winds, will include a few partially scored/partially improvised works that D’Rivera composed.
“Since they’re called the Imani Winds, I wanted to write about the wind,” he said of one piece, “Kites Over Havana.”
“My father (an orchestra conductor in Cuba) used to make kites. Making your own kite was a rite, a tradition in Cuba. Now you can just buy them (here in America) at Kmart.”
D’Rivera hopes the piece will evoke images of a festive day in his native Havana. “It makes me think of my home,” he said.
At this point he has no plans to return to Cuba for a visit or to perform, and he doesn’t support other musicians who travel there to play while Fidel Castro remains in charge.
But D’Rivera would rather talk philosophy and music than politics. “Life’s complicated, and then you die. I’d rather fly kites and write music,” he said.
Paquito D’Rivera and the Imani Winds perform at Gates Concert Hall, The Newman Center for the Arts, East Iliff Avenue and South University Boulevard, Friday at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $25-55. Call 303-871-7720 and press Option 2 for information.
Ray Charles box set
The first box set for the 2005 holiday season has arrived, and it’s an appropriately monumental tribute to an artist whose best work stands as the most charismatic and inventive in all of American music.
“Pure Genius – The Complete Atlantic Recordings (1952-1959)” (Atlantic/Rhino) collects Ray Charles’ joyous collision of jazz, blues and gospel.
Charles, who would have turned 75 this past Friday, has been anthologized countless times, but everything he recorded for Atlantic is obsessively (and lovingly) compiled here by his original producer, Ahmet Ertegun. Completists will want to hear the disc of rehearsals and studio chatter, which is listenable if not revelatory (Charles was workmanlike in the studio) and see the DVD of a live 1960 performance.
But the real reason for acquiring this inevitably expensive set is the inclusion of all his stunning ’50s albums, including the collaborations with vibraphonist Milt Jackson and David “Fathead” Newman.
Set list
The Pat Metheny Trio visits the Boulder Theater on Tuesday. … Flutist Ali Ryerson performs live on KUVO, 89.3 FM Wednesday at 6 p.m. … The Jeff Jenkins/Peter Somer Quartet presents the music of John Coltrane at Dazzle on Friday. … Summit Jazz includes The Jim Cullum Jazz Band and the Titan Hot Seven at Four Points by Sheraton Denver Southeast Sept. 30-Oct. 2.
Bret Saunders’ column on jazz appears every other Sunday in A&E. Saunders is host of the “KBCO Morning Show,” 5:30-10 a.m. weekdays at 97.3-FM. His e-mail address is bret_saunders@hotmail.com.
