Odessa/Havana

Odessa/Havana is the latest project of noted Canadian jazz/New-Jewish trumpeter and composer David Buchbinder, sparked by meeting and collaborating with Cuban piano great Hilario Durán. It is a high-powered collision of two great musical styles is predated but not predicted by the Jewish-fuelled, American Mambo craze of the 1950s. Working from the roots of each tradition and finding many areas of sonic commonality, Buchbinder and Durán have crafted a sound that is exciting, fresh and compelling as it challenges listeners’ comfortable genre preconceptions. This is as far from Fiddler on the Roof meets Desi Arnaz as you can get!
While Odessa and Havana might seem many miles apart, their musical associations are many-faceted, multi-layered and rich indeed, rooted in their common ancestry on the Iberian peninsula and sharing Arabic, Roma (Gypsy), Sephardic and North African forbearers. The two musics already share haunting minor modalities, improvisatory flourishes, a strong rhythmic drive and deeply spiritual underpinnings. Buchbinder and Durán’s compositions explore these commonalities as they break new ground, creating a truly unprecedented sound.
The band is filled with a Who's Who of Canadian jazz and world music heavyweights, and is just releasing their debut CD on John Zorn's Tzadik label. The group celebrates the launch with a Canada/U.S. tour in November/December, 2007.