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Member Since: 15/05/2006
Band Website: darwinnoguera.com
Band Members: Darwin Noguera
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Influences: Pianist/Composer Darwin Noguera launches debut album, "The Gardener", with Evolution Quintet. It is on the preliminary ballot in this year's Grammy Awards for best album of the year.
Darwin Noguera - Piano/Composer
Joshua Ramos - Bass
Juan Pastor - Drums/Cajon
Victor Garcia - Trumpet
Greg Ward - Alto Saxophone
Special Guests: Howard Levy- Harmonica; Ernie Adams- Drums; Rocky Yera- Tenor Saxophone
On the face of it, the fact that a man named Darwin would call his band “Evolution†is nothing more than a play on words. But this quintet represents evolution on a deeper level. It offers a noteworthy mutation of the Latin/jazz idiom, spurred by Darwin Noguera’s fertile imagination; and that fact makes his choice of nomenclature more than a mere pun.
Noguera delights in combining traditional Latin forms and hard-hitting jazz, to the benefit of both idioms. Of course, that mash-up has existed since Jelly Roll Morton first added “the Spanish tinge†to his ragtime masterpieces, and when, shortly later, the flowering of American jazz left its impact on the dance bands of Cuba and Puerto Rico. But there’s always room for a fresh approach, as proved in the 40s, when bebop embraced Afro-Cuban rhythms; and in the 50s and 60s, with the rhumba and the bossa nova; and again in the 90s by the Panamanian pianist Danilo Perez and the Puerto Rican saxist David Sanchez, both of whom enriched the Latin Jazz idiom with the folk traditions of their native lands.
Now comes Noguera, born in Managua, Nicaragua; he fled with his family from that nation’s civil war when he was just 5, and settled in Miami. By the age of 10, inspired by a church pianist, he began his classical piano studies; at 14 he debuted with the Miami Symphony. And in 2001, armed with a scholarship from DePaul University, he came to Chicago, determined to combine his classical background, his gift for jazz and improvisation, and his love for the distinctive rhythms of Central and South America – specifically the music of his native Nicaragua, but also the traditional music of Peru. From the very beginning of this irresistible recording – the spiky piano intro to "Señor del Pozo," a Peruvian festejo – Noguera’s dizzying command of both Latin and jazz idioms comes into focus. (So does his partnership with trumpeter Victor Garcia, who takes the first solo on this track, and so many vibrant solos throughout the disc: as a performer, Garcia has a unique affinity for Noguera’s writing, and even after repeated hearings, it remains one of this music’s indelible strengths.) A festejo, explains Noguera, “is a popular genre in coastal Peru, with a 12/8 meterâ€; for the lay listener, it’s enough to know that the 12/8 meter helps account for the song’s hippety-hop cadences. Later, on percussionist Juan Pastor’s “Lejana Esperanza,†you’ll hear an example of lando, which Noguera describes as “the blues of Peruâ€; there are also a couple songs, “Aguas Quietas†and “Mamanicara,†that utilize the little-known rhythm Son-Nica, or Nicaraguan son.
The first of those was penned by world-renowned harmonica virtuoso Howard Levy – whose performance becomes all the more amazing when you realize that he does not play a chromatic harmonica, the widely preferred instrument of choice for jazz and classical music. (Instead, Levy creates his own chromatics by manipulating the traditional little blues-harp harmonica in ways he himself has invented; essentially, he turns a toy into a Stradivarius.) His instrumental style offers extra spice to the already piquant blend of horns created by trumpeter Garcia and Greg Ward, whose alto work – by turns liquidy or edgy or proudly soaring – has established him among Chicago’s most exciting young musicians.
Originally, Noguera formed Evolution as a trio; shortly later, in the fall of 2006, his ideas evolved into the Chicago Afro-Latin Jazz Ensemble, a fiery, explosive whirlwind of a big band that Noguera co-leads with trumpeter Victor Garcia. And Noguera’s work with the CALJE explains one more gift he brings to this musical banquet – his ability to condense his voluptuous and detailed big-band writing down to just these few horns, while still suggesting the depth and variety of the larger format. (That same ability extends to Garcia’s own writing: listen to the gorgeously intertwined instrumental lines of his piece, “Izzy’s Lullaby,†for a clue as to why he and Noguera work so well together.) Yet for all the lovely colorations and heartfelt compositions, Latin jazz traditionally thrives on the power and virtuosity of its practitioners, and neither Noguera nor Garcia will disappoint: each in his own way balances the passionate embrace of the true believer, along with the painstakingly honed skill of the musical scientist, and their solos bristle even as they dance.
The album carries the title The Gardener, but you won’t find a composition of that name. The album doesn’t need one. As it turns out, Charles Darwin knew all about gardening: an early study of grassland plants helped him conceive his “principle of divergence†(a key component of the theory of natural selection), and he experimented on various greenhouse plants while writing his masterwork. You should think of Darwin Noguera as a gardener too, nourishing the musical seeds he has sown, and experimenting with the divergent rhythms of the Spanish diaspora as he helps steer the evolution of Latin jazz.
Jazz Critic - NEIL TESSER
For Bookings: www.darwinnoguera.com or 773.727.4963
Sounds Like:
Darwin Noguera @ Calvary Church
Evolution Trio @ Chicago Latin Jazz Festival 2007
CALJE Band:
Lina Marie - Vocals
Renier Rosario - Vocals
Tito Carrillo - Trumpet
Victor Garcia - Trumpet/Composer
Alfredo Rodriguez - Trumpet
Greg Ward - Alto Sax & Clarinet
Rocky Yera - Tenor Sax
Steve Eisen - Bari Sax
Craig Sunken - Trombone
John Mose - Trombone
Darwin Noguera - Piano/Composer
Josh Ramos - Bass
Ernie Adams - Drums
Juan Picorelli - Timbales
Danny Feliciano - Congas MyGen Profile Generator
Record Label: Chicago Sessions Records
Type of Label: Indie
