Backing Sandoval on the project is a crew of top-shelf jazz artists: vibraphonist Gary Burton, Yellowjacket’s leader saxophonist Bob Mintzer, organist Joey DeFrancesco, clarinetist Eddie Daniels, saxophonist Ed Calle, drummer/co-producer Gregg Field and several others. Also along for the ride are a couple of unlikely but well-placed surprises – actors Andy Garcia on percussion and vocalist Manolo Gimenez. The resulting set is, as Field puts it, is Sandoval’s “love letter to an old friend.”

The set opens with Gillespie’s voice, introducing a young Arturo Sandoval as “one of the young grand masters of the trumpet” during a live performance in the late ‘80s. What follows is a contemporary re-construction of Gillespie’s signature “Bebop,” arranged by 2012 Grammy-winner Gordon Goodwin. Goodwin, whom Field calls “The most interesting voice in contemporary big band writing,” is also responsible for the fiery arrangement of “Salt Peanuts!,” which features Bob Mintzer on tenor sax, Gary Burton on vibes and if you listen closely you’ll hear Sandoval friend Joe Pesci joining in the band vocal. “This is such a perfect example of Gordon’s genius,” says Field, “of his ability to take something that is so familiar to jazz musicians and fans and completely rework it.”

Dizzy’s “Birks Works” is rechristened here with the tag “a la Mancini,” thanks to the contributions of saxophonist Plas Johnson, who famously recorded Henry Mancini’s iconic Pink Panther theme nearly 50 years ago. Album pianist Shelly Berg’s arrangement utilizes alto flute, trumpet, tenor sax and strings – all of which further evoke the Mancini sensibility.

“Con Alma,” arranged by Grammy-winner Nan Schwartz, includes a classical-string quartet arrangement that’s a very beautiful thing,” says Sandoval. “This tune has been recorded many times, but I don’t think it’s been recorded quite this way before. The string quartet gives the song such a fine, elegant sound.”

The exotic and impassioned “Tin Tin Deo” features vocalist Manolo Gimenez , supported by Mintzer on tenor sax, by actor Andy Garcia on percussion, Wally Minko on piano and Joey DeFrancesco on organ – all carefully balanced in an arrangement by Dan Higgins. The album closes with an eleventh track, “Every Day I Think of You” a poignant, string-infused ballad by Sandoval that serves as the coda to this heartfelt tribute recording. Propelled by Sandoval’s stirring vocals, the track veers completely away from the big band vibe that precedes it, opting instead for something much more intimate, understated and personal. “I really mean every word of that song,” says Sandoval. “Dizzy encouraged me so much. He opened so many doors for me and showed me so many opportunities that I would not have had otherwise.”

At the heart of Dear Diz (Every Day I Think of You) is the bebop groove that Gillespie spent a lifetime exploring and refining, says Sandoval. “When it comes to bebop, you either know it or you don’t,” he says. “There’s no halfway. If you’re going to be a good bebop player, you really need to be a hell of a musician with a lot of skill and a great education and a great command of your instrument. This is what Dizzy was all about. He wasn’t just a trumpet player. He was an innovator and a creator. That sense of innovation and creativity that he brought to every note he played is what inspires this recording and everyone who plays on it. In that sense, he’s still very much with all of us. I do think of Dizzy every day.”

Tracklisting:

1. Be Bop – featuring Shelly Berg & Zane Musa

2. Salt Peanuts! (Mani Salado) – featuring Bob Mintzer & Gary Burton

3. And Then She Stopped – featuring Joey DeFrancesco

4. Birks Works (ala Mancini) – featuring Plas Johnson & Joey DeFrancesco

5. Things To Come – featuring Bob Mintzer, Bob Sheppard & Joey DeFrancesco

6. Fiesta Mojo – featuring Eddie Daniels

7. Con Alma (With Soul) – featuring The Ralph Morrison String Quartet

8. Tin Tin Deo – featuring Manolo Gimenez & Wally Minko

9. Algo Bueno (Woody and Me) – featuring Dan Higgins & Andy Martin

10. A Night in Tunisia – (actually an entire weekend!) – featuring Bob McChesney & Ed Calle

ENCORE

11. Every Day I Think Of You – featuring Arturo Sandoval, vocal

Arturo Sandoval Pays Tribute to Dizzy Gillespie with Dear Diz (Every Day I Think of You)

Phone: 212 650 6900
Location: Aaron Davis Hall Marian Anderson Theatre
Admission: $35, Mezz and Balcony; $50, Orchestra Seating
URL: http://adhatccny.org/shows/show-three/

Event Details

Arturo O’Farrill and others celebrate “El Maestro” of the mambo sound, Ray Santos, and his enormous contribution to Latin music.  Santos has played, composed and arranged for the premiere orchestras in Latin music.

The City College of New York’s faculty and staff have always represented world achievement and academic excellence.  This is evident in the success and accomplishments of our incredible family of alumni and friends.  We often celebrate the brilliance and successes of our faculty and staff.  I’d like to invite you to such a celebration.

On Monday, May 21, 2012 City College’s very own Aaron Davis Hall will honor Professor Ray Santos.  For the past 50 years Ray Santos also known as “El Maestro” of the mambo sound, has played, composed and arranged for the premiere orchestras in Latin music including Tito Puente, Tito Rodriguez, Mario Bauzá and Machito, to name a few.  Professor Santos is also widely recognized for composing and arranging music for Grammy Award-winning projects by musical giants including Eddie Palmeri and Paquito D’Rivera.  In 1992, Professor Santos received critical acclaim for his arrangements for The Mambo Kings movie soundtrack, including the Oscar-nominated song, “Beautiful Maria of My Soul.”  Ray Santos has been an esteemed music educator at City College for nearly 25 years and was awarded last year The Latin Recording Academy’s (Latin Grammy) 2011 Trustees Award.

Please join the college, Arturo O’Farrill, Candido Camero, Ziomara Laugart and others in celebrating his contributions to Latin Music on May 21st at 7pm in Aaron Davis Hall.  Tickets start at $35, proceeds from ticket sales will go towards a newly created Ray Santos Scholarship Fund that will support students studying music at CCNY.

Photographs by Atael Weissman

Saturday night was a night dedicated to the trumpet, starting with the sound of Edwin Gutierrez & Jazz Project that included another jazz legend from Puerto Rico, drummer Jimmy Rivera. The two Grammy nominee and internationally recognized jazz trumpeter Charlie Sepúlveda was the second act of the night. Sepúlveda is one of those rare musicians that can play any jazz style, straight ahead or Latin jazz, with conviction and feeling.

Ponce local jazz hero, trumpeter Julito Alvarado, to whom this first edition of the Ponce International Jazz Festival was dedicated, closed the night with his contagious Latin jazz sound. Alvarado is a musician with vast experience playing in Latin jazz bands and salsa orchestras.

The good musical offering continued on Sunday night with the music of Eugenio Torres and Sol Creciente, followed by Carlos Juan Colon & Manus, and the Ponce Municipal Band. Closing the festival, the always interesting and eclectic sound of master trombonist and international musician, William Cepeda. Cepeda, who played with the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band, is an excellent composer and arranger who fuses jazz with traditional Puerto Rican rhythms like Bomba and Plena.

Review and Photos by Wilbert Sostre

There is now a welcome and absolutely beautiful addition to the two Songbooks that Lucía Pulido recorded with Fernando Tarrés. It is Songbook III – Myths, a terrific companion to Songbook I – Beliefs (BAU Records, 2005) and Songbook II – Prayers (BAU Records, 2006), both of which related to the mystical aspect of the Latin music repertoire. The songs on Songbook III – Myths look less at the preternatural and more at the earthy more folk end of the Latin repertoire. The record is an extension of the palimpsest of the series and further proof that Lucía Pulido is by far the most extraordinary interpreter of traditional music. Not only is she probably the greatest narrator of old and new songs; there is no singer barring the griots of Africa who tell stories of time gone by and who can heal the faint heart with song as Pulido can. Though tiny in stature (was not Edith Piaf small as well?) Pulido has power beyond what would be physically possible given her size. Moreover she becomes the characters in the songs swaying and seducing as she sings, piercing the heart and soul with musical arrows that ache and hurt, or bring joy, depending on what the song is supposed to do. And that is simply astounding for like Abbey Lincoln who used to use a more laconic poetic, Pulido is more aligned to the poetics of the melody, leaving the overtones and the harmonies to an inner voice that flies out in the narrative every once in awhile.

There is something altogether new in this record that is not present in many of Lucía Pulido’s other records. And this has to do with orchestration. This is clearly the hand of Fernando Tarrés. This is it: Tarrés, far ahead of his time in this type of folk music is unafraid to use dissonant musical harmonics that slash across the melody, dueling with Pulido. This he does in the form of devices that he probably learnt from Stravinsky and the late classicists. For instance he has used a string quartet in the statuesque version of Dino Saluzzi’s magnificent “Carta a Perdiguero”. On the forlorn “Esperanza” (and elsewhere) he uses the horns and reeds and woodwinds to swoosh across Pulido’s beautifully linear lyric. Then there is Tarrés enormously powerful use of the flatly tuned acoustic guitar, with which he and the ensemble duel mightily with Pulido on “Domingo ‘i chaya” a magnificent Argentinian folk song. All this is reminiscent of the dueling of soloist and symphonic orchestra in a classical concerto.

No praise is also high enough Jerónimo Carmona, the bassist who adds so much tone and color to the proceedings; with nary a root note in his brilliantly laid out changes. The presence of the extraordinary Colombian soprano saxophonist, Antonio Arnedo on “Carmelita adiós” is a stroke of genius on the part of Tarrés as is his inclusion of Donny MaCaslin in a spectacular duet with Lucía Pulido on “Cantos de vaquería”. It would also be remiss if it were not mentioned here that one of the most beautiful songs to come from the southern half of the Americas “Alfonsina y el mar” is rendered here as a spectacular rhythmic version of the aching ballad.

This (Songbook III – Myths) is brilliantly produced and together with the two earlier productions must rank as one of the most powerful series of records to come out of South America; and Colombia/Argentina. It is also a wonderfully engineered and mastered album which speaks volumes of the state of the art in Latin America, and Argentina in particular.

Tracks: Carmelita adiós; Carta a Perdiguero; Coplas sin luna; A Doña Rosa Toledo; Mi mirada; Canción de cuna; Canto de Guabina; Canto en la rama; Esperanza; Domingo ‘i chaya; Alfonsina y el mar; Cantos de vaquería; Corazón maldito; Soy de Salta y hago falta; Pensar; Corazón.

Personnel: Lucía Pulido: voice; Antonio Arnedo: soprano saxophone (1, 6); Juan Pablo di Leone; flutes (1, 8, 14, 16) ; Ricardo Cavalli: clarinets (1, 8, 14), soprano saxophone (1, 8); Emiliano Alvarez: bass clarinet (1, 8, 14); Martin Pantyrer: clarinet and bass clarinet (16); Rodrigo Dominguez: tenor saxophone(1, 3, 8, 9, 12, 14, 17), soprano saxophone (2), clarinet (17); Luis Nacht: tenor saxophone (1, 8, 14), alto saxophone (17); Donny MaCaslin: tenor saxophone (13); Juileta de Fede: fagot (16); Enrique Norris: piano (4, 7, 10); Fernando Tarrés: acoustic guitar (1, 9, 11, 14), Spanish guitar (2, 3, 11, 12, 14), campanas, palos sobre metales (5), piano, platos frotados, procesamiento electronico, collage (6), guitars, caja chayera (7), cuerdas frotadas (8, 9), acoustic and electric guitars (9), caya (9), percussion (9, 16); Juan Pablo Aredondo: acoustic guitar (1, 2), electric guitar (3, 12), effects, (9); Jerónimo Carmona: acoustic bass (1 – 3, 5, 8, 9, 12, 14, 16, 17); Carto Brandan: drums (1 – 3, 9, 11, 12, 15; Richard Nant: bombo (5), trumpet (14), percussion (16); (Jorge Sepulveda: percussion (1, 5, 9, 16); Ricardo Gomez: percussion (1, 5, 9, 16); Urian Sarmiento: percussion(1, 5, 9, 16); Grace Medina: violin (2, 6, 17); Cormac Browne: violin (2, 6, 17); Claudio Medina: viola (2, 6, 17); Patricio Villarejo: cello (2, 6, 17); Juan Pablo Navarro: acoustic bass (2).

Lucía Pulido – Official website: www.luciapulido.com

Label: BAU Records

Release date: January 2012

Reviewed by: Raul da Gama

It is most appropriate for Zoho Music to celebrate their 100th recording with harmonica-player Hendrik Meurkens and, among others, bassist Gabriel Espinosa, reeds and woodwinds maestro and indeed master of the Choro, Anat Cohen, drummers Antonio Sanchez and Mauricio Zottarelli and others. It is also appropriate that the celebrations should take place amid the invisible emotional zone of Brasil, a country so mysterious and magical that it seduces more than half the world and more with its art; certainly with its music that is now a beguiling feature of more than half the world and more. This is what makes Celebrando so timely, appropriate and poignant. Moreover, of all the musicians who have a “feel” for the music of Brasil, few breathe in the waters of its soul as much as Hendrik Meurkens and Anat Cohen. The former is a son-in-law of that country and the latter has such a genuine love for Brasil that she fronts one of the few authentic Choro ensembles outside Brasil.

At first blush the album may seem much too smooth; almost glib; because of the ease with which bass and harmonica meld with each other and with the other instruments. But then the music reaches the soul. Played the way it is—with such emotion and, indeed, soul—it is hard to prevent the music from reaching the deepest parts of the soul and the mind’s mind, refreshing it as would a deep tidal wave from the beaches of Rio to the exciting shuffling, stuttering rhythms of the northeast and in the Saudades of the plaintive Choro—one of which is composed by Meurkens and played with a sigh and a wail by the harmonica player in a bashful, loving dialogue with the clarinet of Anat Cohen. This, in fact, may be the highest point of this fantastic album, especially as it doubles in time in its final verses—challenging both Cohen and Meurkens, who play flawlessly throughout.

Another outstanding feature of the album is the exquisite wordless vocals of Alison Wedding, whose voice seems to float above the music like a swallow that swoops in and out of the melodies as if they were gossamer waiting to be pierced. Even Espinosa, who also sings wordlessly, has a crack at a lyrical piece that he penned himself, “Maya Roots” and does a fine job of the vocals. The other master stroke is asking drummers of the stature of Antonio Sanchez and Mauricio Zottarelli to sit behind the drums. Sanchez truly has a feel for Brasilian rhythms, but it is Zottarelli who steals the show with his emotive approach that seems to meld extremely work not only with Meurkens, but with the other players—especially the clarinet of Anat Cohen. These encounters form the peaks of an album that is already destined for great things not only in South America, but elsewhere in the world as well.

Tracks: La Esperanza; Slow Breeze; Frenzelosa (Choro No. 2); Odessa in April; Pa Rio; Out of Reach; La Puerta; She Lives in Brasil; Maya Roots; Mountain Drive; Celebrando.

Personnel: Hendrik Meurkens: harmonica; Gabriel Espinosa: bass, vocals (5 – 9, 11); Anat Cohen: clarinet (3, 5, 9), tenor saxophone (6); Jim Seeley: trumpet, flugelhorn; Alison Wedding: vocals; Molly Blythe: background vocals (5, 7, 11); Misha Tsiganov: piano, Fender Rhodes; Antonio: drums (2, 3, 5 – 7, 9); Mauricio Zottarelli: drums (1, 4, 8, 10, 11), percussion.

Hendrik Meurkens – Official website: www.hendrikmeurkens.com

Label: Zoho Music

Release date: April 2012

Reviewed by: Raul da Gama

His father was a fine musician, who composed some of the most memorable music of Brasil and was one of the finest guitarists that country has ever produced, but now is the time for the son, Phillipe Baden Powell, a musician who brings great artistry to that other romantic instrument, the concert grand. How appropriate then, that Adventure Music should honor him with an album of practically all his own music in Adventure Music Piano Masters Series Vol 2. It is truly a thrill to discover the intricate musicality of the young Baden Powell’s pianism. Not only is he a virtuoso of the instrument, but he is a tremendous stylist. In this aspect of his musical character he resembles a powerful vortex through which hundreds of years of traditions of European music swirl powerfully with the traditions of Brasilian music of similar vintage and emerge in a manner that is bright, contemporary and sophisticated, spiraling with power and meaningful drama.

In every sense Phillipe Baden Powell is one of those musicians who reminds the rest of the world that there is a new musical force emanating from Brasil that is powerful, less insular than Musica Popular Brasileira (MPB); more worldly and infinitely more powerful; a branch of the same root that produced the Bossa Nova music that so seduced the world from the 50s unto this day: Musica Brasileira would be an appropriate term, but treated with the same respect as late classical style of musicians such as the Hungarian, Bela Bartok and the Armenian, Aram Khachaturian, both of whom melded folk and troubadour traditions of their respective countries with the more formal, broader European idioms. Phillipe Baden Powell shows that he is one of the more mature Brasilian musicians to emerge in this vein.

The poetics of his music is informed equally by Chôro and Frêvo as well as Maracatú, Samba and of course the intimations of a new Romantic style that has come to be the classical Brasilian music of today. Baden Powell’s ingenuity is formed out of an approach that is expansive, airy and one that is loaded with the dynamics of pianism that is so sophisticated that it seems he—that other piano genius, Andre Mehmari—is far ahead of his time. His compositions are beautifully architectured and combine the gracefulness of older edifices with modern material—an almost programmatic approach to melody, yet improvised with devastatingly exquisite harmonic invention. Technically brilliant Baden Powell plays these as if he were manipulating that invisible vortex at the center of which he resides in all his majesty. He is also one of the most astounding interpreters of classic standards and imbibes two great ones—“Round About Midnight” and “Giant Steps”—with remarkably integrated Brasilian rhythm and emotion; the former played with the aching balladry of a Chôro and the latter tinged with the kinetics and heat of a Frêvo.

Tracks: Prologue; Frêvo de Sorte; Consolação; Round About Midnight; Chôro Para Metronomo; Lôro; The Meantime; Canto Triste; Sou Você; Garfield; Giant Steps; Vista Chinesa; Ending.

Personnel: Phillipe Baden Powell.

Phillipe Baden Powell – Official website: www.philippebadenpowell.com

Label: Adventure Music

Release date: April 2012

Reviewed by: Raul da Gama

Clarice Assad is quite simply a phenomenon who has streaked across the world’s musical landscape like one of those comets that appears just once in a lifetime. Fortuitously, this comet has decided to stay although she continues to streak this way and that, covering a musical topography that stretches from Brasil to the Europe of impressionist France through emotional and folksy Portugal; and best of all, Assad zigzags across the Mediterranean, from the Levant of her ancestors… all of this on her brilliant record, Home. The title is loaded with meaning for it is clear that Assad’s music is informed not only with exquisite touch, expression and sophisticated pianistic dynamics, but under the surface of her music lies drama and emotion, as well as a spirituality that enables her music to emerge from deep within a soul that seems to have roamed the world bringing back experiences and emotions that have enriched the communication of her repertoire.

Assad is like a musical dryad who seems to tip-toe on the ebony and ivory keys; only she uses hand and fingers instead of toes and feet. Assad is clearly influenced by the classical idiom, but she melds this technique with the shuffle of Brasilian samba and Maracatú, which is to say that while her pianism may be filled with soaring arpeggios, it is also affected with remarkable rhythms that mimic the binary rhythms of early and folky Brasilian ones. She is also unafraid to leap from one idiom to the other. She does not solo much, but when she does she can play with singular style and genius. Her lines may be short or long; they may be inverted, begin at the start of a melody or in the middle of one. Somehow she makes the rhyme make sense. She uses great sweeping gestures in her music that seem to leap at different elevations, or sometimes they may be soft edged like parabolas whirling in seemingly endless space. Assad is the same with her vocals. She is nymph-like; her voice is just as spritely, but here she traverses several octaves and there is not a singer alive who can scat like her. There is a taste of this delicious aspect of her music on “Ad Lib”. Feminine sensuality also emerges in her singing and she is absolutely alluring on “Dora”. Her version of Ary Barroso’s “Aquarela do Brasil,” which also pays deep tribute to Elis Regina as it closely resembles Cesar Carmago Mariano’s arrangement that Elis sang on her legendary live album, Saudades do Brasil (WEA, 1980) is also one of the defining moments on the record.

Although she is deeply traditional, Clarice Assad takes wild chances with her own music, sometimes relying on wordless vocals to mimic various percussion instruments. Here Assad displays rare mastery over tone and color, and vocal timbre. Moreover, as she morphs her voice into several instruments at once, she turns her music into a mélange of timbres. Here she is much like another Assad, Badi Assad—although the latter Assad can sing using her throat, palette and various parts of the larynx all at once. Still, Clarice Assad uses singular vocalastics which bring together emotion, drama, pantomime and operatic arias to make listening to the song’s narrative a rare and unique experience. On this record, Assad is joined by two percussionists, Keita Ogawa and Yousif Sheronick who perform with absolute brilliance in the manner in which they respond to the vocalist and pianist as well as in terms of their own technique and expression. All of this makes Home an album to die for.

Tracks: For Elis (Medley): Menino das Laranjas/Aruanda/O Morro Não Tem Vez/Upa Neguinha; 20 Anos Blues; Cajuina; Ad Lib; The Last Song; Dora; Estamos Ai; Aquarela do Brasil; Electrified!; Patuscada de Ghandi; Falsa Bahiana.

Personnel: Clarice Assad: vocals and acoustic piano; Keita Ogawa: djembe with broom, pandeiro, bomba leguero, repique, tamborim, ocean drum, agogo, mixed percussion, toys and effects (1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 10, 11); Yousif Sheronick: cajon, dumbek, bodhran, riq, djembe, caxixi, cymbal and tan tan (1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 10).

Clarice Assad – Official website: www.clariceassad.com

Label: Adventure Music

Release date: April 2012

Reviewed by: Raul da Gama

Co-produced by Latin Grammy “Producer of the Year” Gregg Field who also performs as a guest artist; Features vibraphonist Gary Burton, Yellowjackets saxophonist Bob Mintzer, organist Joey DeFrancesco, clarinetist Eddie Daniels as well as some well-placed surprises including – actor Andy Garcia on percussion and vocalist Manolo Gimene.

On May 8^th, Arturo Sandoval will release his second album on Concord Jazz, Dear Diz (Every Day I Think of You).  Dear Diz (Every Day I Think of You) is Sandoval’s tribute to Dizzy Gillespie, the mentor and friend who literally rescued him and his family from an oppressive existence and gave them a chance at an entirely new and better life. The album is a collection of classics from Gillespie’s massive body of work, each framed in big-band arrangements that throw the spotlight squarely on the elements of bebop that underscore so much of the iconic trumpeter’s work and set the tone for the music of his era.

Backing Sandoval on the project is a crew of top-shelf jazz artists: vibraphonist Gary Burton, Yellowjacket’s leader saxophonist Bob Mintzer, organist Joey DeFrancesco, clarinetist Eddie Daniels, saxophonist Ed Calle, drummer/co-producer Gregg Field and several others. Also along for the ride are a couple of unlikely but well-placed surprises – actors Andy Garcia on percussion and vocalist Manolo Gimenez. The resulting set is, as Field puts it, is Sandoval’s “love letter to an old friend.”

The set opens with Gillespie’s voice, introducing a young Arturo Sandoval as “one of the young grand masters of the trumpet” during a live performance in the late ‘80s. What follows is a contemporary re-construction of Gillespie’s signature “Bebop,” arranged by 2012 Grammy-winner Gordon Goodwin.  Goodwin, whom Field calls “The most interesting voice in contemporary big band writing,” is also responsible for the fiery arrangement of “Salt Peanuts!,” which features Bob Mintzer on tenor sax, Gary Burton on vibes and if you listen closely you’ll hear Sandoval friend Joe Pesci joining in the band vocal. “This is such a perfect example of Gordon’s genius,” says Field, “of his ability to take something that is so familiar to jazz musicians and fans and completely rework it.”

Dizzy’s “Birks Works” is rechristened here with the tag “a la Mancini,” thanks to the contributions of saxophonist Plas Johnson, who famously recorded Henry Mancini’s iconic Pink Panther theme nearly 50 years ago. Album pianist Shelly Berg’s arrangement utilizes alto flute, trumpet, tenor sax and strings – all of which further evoke the Mancini sensibility.

Arturo Sandoval Pays Tribute to Dizzy Gillespie with Dear Diz (Every Day I Think of You)

“Con Alma,” arranged by Grammy-winner Nan Schwartz, includes a classical-string quartet arrangement that’s a very beautiful thing,” says Sandoval. “This tune has been recorded many times, but I don’t think it’s been recorded quite this way before. The string quartet gives the song such a fine, elegant sound.”

The exotic and impassioned “Tin Tin Deo” features vocalist Manolo Gimenez , supported by Mintzer on tenor sax, by actor Andy Garcia on percussion, Wally Minko on piano and Joey DeFrancesco on organ – all carefully balanced in an arrangement by Dan Higgins.  The album closes with an eleventh track, “Every Day I Think of You” a poignant, string-infused ballad by Sandoval that serves as the coda to this heartfelt tribute recording. Propelled by Sandoval’s stirring vocals, the track veers completely away from the big band vibe that precedes it, opting instead for something much more intimate, understated and personal. “I really mean every word of that song,” says Sandoval. “Dizzy encouraged me so much. He opened so many doors for me and showed me so many opportunities that I would not have had otherwise.”

At the heart of Dear Diz (Every Day I Think of You) is the bebop groove that Gillespie spent a lifetime exploring and refining, says Sandoval. “When it comes to bebop, you either know it or you don’t,” he says. “There’s no halfway. If you’re going to be a good bebop player, you really need to be a hell of a musician with a lot of skill and a great education and a great command of your instrument. This is what Dizzy was all about. He wasn’t just a trumpet player. He was an innovator and a creator. That sense of innovation and creativity that he brought to every note he played is what inspires this recording and everyone who plays on it. In that sense, he’s still very much with all of us. I do think of Dizzy every day.”

Tracklisting:

1.   Be Bop featuring Shelly Berg & Zane Musa

2.   Salt Peanuts! (Mani Salado) featuring Bob Mintzer & Gary Burton

3.  And Then She Stopped featuring Joey DeFrancesco

4.   Birks Works (ala Mancini) featuring Plas Johnson & Joey DeFrancesco

5.   Things To Come featuring Bob Mintzer, Bob Sheppard & Joey DeFrancesco

6.   Fiesta Mojo featuring Eddie Daniels

7.   Con Alma (With Soul) featuring The Ralph Morrison String Quartet

8.   Tin Tin Deo featuring Manolo Gimenez & Wally Minko

9.   Algo Bueno (Woody and Me) featuring Dan Higgins & Andy Martin

10.   A Night in Tunisia (actually an entire weekend!) featuring Bob McChesney & Ed Calle

ENCORE

11.   Every Day I Think Of You featuring Arturo Sandoval, vocal

For more information please contact: Julie Murray Porter, jporter@concordrecords.com, 310-385-4234

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