Member Since: 7/9/2006
Band Website: www.jazzcds.co.uk
Band Members: CUBA '08: 'Manolo' Rafael Cesneros Laskay - batá. Juan de la Tejera Columbié - congas. Yoilan Zamora Guibend - percussion. Yoel del Rio Olivera - double bass. Nestor Lago Hachado - trés. Loz Speyer - trumpet, flugelhorn. ............................................................ ............................................................ ......... TIME ZONE CUBA '05: Loz Speyer - trumpet, flugelhorn. Julio Cesar - alto sax. Enrique 'Kiki' Valera - cuatro. Arnaldo Lescay - timbales. Carlos Guerra - congas. Alain - double bass. ............................................................ ............................................................ ............. TIME ZONE LONDON '07: Loz Speyer - trumpet, flugel. Martin Hathaway - sax, bass clarinet. Jez Franks - guitar. Davide Mantovani - double bass. Simon Pearson - drums. Alejandro Martinez - congas.
Influences: Thelonious Monk, Buena Vista Social Club, Dave Holland, Steve Lacy, Klezmer recordings from the 1920s, many little-known Son bands from the 2000s in Santiago de Cuba, Jovenes Clasicos de Son, Coltrane, Beatles, Sun Ra, Orquesta Reve, Inaudis Paisán (elder statesman of son trumpet, Stgo de Cuba), Afro Cuban bands Kokoye, Kazumbi, Cutumba... and most of all experiences of love, life and the soul in the context of real live afro-latino-communist Cuban surrealistic Caribbean reality.
Sounds Like: "The slow moving nature of the Cuban clock is one of several salient sources of inspiration for the articulate, probing sound of Speyers quintet. Another is the biting swing of Thelonious Monk... Monk altered our perception of time through his command of rhythm, his clever emphasis on the placement and displacement of the beat. It seems entirely logical for his spirit to coalesce with that of Santiago de Cuba in all its lithe yet muscular slowness... Clave rhythms crop up here and there but they're not weighed down by standard Latin-Jazz licks. Slow can be fast and fast can be slow. And there is an intriguingly saturnine quality in both the leaders compositions and the bands execution, a sense of hard-edged modernity that has a side-winding thrust reminiscent of Dave Holland's ensemble at times. Speyer's playing catches the ear due to its buoyant drive, astute use of space and incisive way with a phrase that intermittently evokes Hispanic players and avant-garde heroes such as Lester Bowie. Time Zone (the CD) is an impressive, mature debut by an ensemble led by a trumpeter/composer who has absorbed the essence of Cuban music and distilled it quite cunningly into an improvisatory context with no compromise to either culture. The result is gritty, graceful sounds with a dark-light intensity." KEVIN LEGENDRE, ECHOES, JAN 2005 - review of 'Loz Speyer's TIME ZONE' CD on 33 RECORDS (33JAZZ098)
Record Label: Spherical Records / 33 Records (Time Zone CD)
Type of Label: Indie