Claudio Roditi.
By Danny R. Johnson
NEW YORK, NY – Every so often a Latino jazz CD comes along that stands so firmly on its musical foundations that a jazz critique is beside the point: The Bons Amigos (Good Friends) CD released by Resonance Records featuring the one-and-only Brazilian Master trumpet player, Claudio Roditi, is one such CD. Each of the 10-tracks on this powerful compilation highlights Claudio’s brilliant, but soft and tranquil horn blowing capabilities; and it highlights his superb Bebop improvisations with a top-notch Brazilian jazz rhythm section that inspired him to produce one of the BEST Brazilian jazz albums to come out this year!
For over 40 years, the 65 year-old Brazilian born Roditi, who now lives in New York, has been producing, composing, arranging, and performing music that has a refreshingly original and distinctive sound without seeming contrived. Roditi has amassed a discography of over 20 or so albums during his illustrious musical career.
Why is Claudio Roditi a Master trumpet player? Because he has mastered the combination of harmonic progressions of Bebop with the freedom of the “avant-garde” style of performing Brazilian jazz. In addition, he possesses the innate ability to play several instruments (trumpet, flugelhorn, piccolo trumpet) comprising of his prized rotary valve instruments, which contain the valve mechanism seen on French horns. Claudio is one of the only Jazz Masters to utilize the rotary valve horns. This cat can do all of this without for one second deviating or abandoning the core roots of Brazilian jazz.
On Bons Amigos, listeners will be held captivated by Claudio’s romantic, lithe line movement and melodic hooks that set the stage for so many other Latin pop instrumentalists, but there are rich world-beat elements and reverent classic jazz layers here that the casual Claudio Roditi fan might not anticipate. Where the O Sonho track runs a light-as-air melody over a gentle Samba, Bossa de Mank, presents an earthy, percussive Tango, highlighted by Roditi’s sliding, teasing lead line.
The late Brazilian Jazz Master, A.C. Jobim’s Ligia track, finds Roditi executing a sweeping gentle, mellow melody over a light Brazilian sway, creating the sensation of being gently guided across a dance floor. Claudio also displays some impressive vocals on this piece as well.
The Bons Amigos musicians accompanying Claudio on this CD included old friends as well as new ones. First, and foremost – the amazing Brazilian drummer/percussionist, Mauricio Zottarelli, performed a splendid job in meshing genuine Brazilian musical concepts with Bebop jazz. Claudio’s long time friend and sensational Brazilian guitarist, Romero Lubambo, delivers a bravura solo in the appropriately titled Bons Amigos track. Italian bassist Marco Panascia and Nicaraguan native, pianist Donald Vega, all wondrously and majestically blended the cultural flavors of Brazil into this CD.
Other highlights include the chugging, Bebop, and foot-tapping sound of Levitation, which will definitely remind you of those late and endless nights and into the morning club moods with pianist Donald Vega and bassist Marco Panascia going head-to-head in a classic duet that turns this Roditi original tune inside out! The Fantasia piece sets Claudio’s stretched out melody against Vega’s light piano falls and brushed percussion, which actually reinvents the piece as a more expansive emotive experience-sure to leave listeners with a feeling of haunted romance.
Jazz family, I have been following Claudio Roditi’s career for over 30 years, and I am convinced that this cat is a musical genius and an international treasure. Not only did he deserve the GRAMMY nomination in 2010 for his Resonance Recording album, Brazillance X 4, he should have won it.
All I know is this – when you listen to Roditi’s Bons Amigos CD, and if you are not up on your feet doing the Salsa, Samba, and the Cha-Cha-Cha, I don’t know what will.
Claudio Roditi/Resonance Records Website: http://www.resonancerecords.org/artist.php?artist=Claudio+Roditi
Danny R. Johnson is San Diego County News’ Washington, D.C. based Entertainment & Travel News Editor
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