[JPL] Cuban Music, Good for Dancing, and for Thinking About as Well

[r durfee]

May 17, 2007
Music Review | Jose Conde y Ola Fresca
Cuban Music, Good for Dancing, and for Thinking About
as Well 
By BEN RATLIFF
Cuban music can withstand endless revisions, and the
singer-songwriter Jose Conde is taking his turn, as he
suggested at Joe’s Pub on Tuesday night. Born in Miami
to Cuban parents, Mr. Conde has been working in New
York for the last 10 years, slowly formulating a kind
of Afro-Cuban music with an enlarged frame. It now
brings together son, guajira, guaracha with New
Orleans funk, Nigerian Afrobeat, South American
cumbia, James Brown rhythms, Haitian compas, Brazilian
afoxe, New York City boogaloo and even jam-band stuff
predicated on electric guitars as much as hand drums. 

His band, Ola Fresca, isn’t the only one making these
connections, but that doesn’t matter. These elements
are already historically joined, and this project
almost writes itself.

That’s a lot of dance rhythm in one band, but there’s
a folkish element too: Mr. Conde’s vocal
understatement — unusual for the singer of a Latin
dance band — and his emphasis on songs with
characters, wordplay and some mild social ideas. 

On Tuesday Mr. Conde and his band ran through songs
from a new record, “(R)evolucion” (Pipiki/Mr. Bongo),
which comes out next week. None of it was pensive,
sit-and-think music, but the show had the irresolute
feeling of the music being neither completely
contemplative nor kinetic. Songs like “Ritmo y Sabor,”
a son-funk alloy, and “Pititi y Titi,” a compas-son
sung in French, were pointing the way toward release;
they just didn’t quite get there.

But when the band found its stride and played a little
harder, it all made sense, this balance between
holding back and letting go. Some of the band’s
excellent musicians made it happen — including the
Cuban percussionists Roman Diaz and Marvin Diz; the
keyboardist Pablo Vergara, who played jagged, powerful
improvisations over Cuban rhythm patterns; the
trombonist Rafi Malkiel, who soloed with loud
confidence; and the electric guitarist Juancho
Herrera, who played passages of ambient noise as well
as driving grooves. 

The band soon plays at the Living Room, a club
associated more with cogitating than dancing. There
Mr. Conde will have to try to retain his cool, but
make the music explode with its inherent rhythm. 

Jose Conde y Ola Fresca will play at the Living Room
on May 27, June 10 and June 24; 154 Ludlow Street,
Lower East Side, (212) 533-7235

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/17/arts/music/17cond.html?ref=music

Roy Durfee
P.O. Box 40219
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87196-0219
rdurfee2003 at yahoo.com


 
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