[JPL] Dafnis Prieto 's Absolute Quintet sizzles in Denver

[Arturo]

The Absolute Quintet-drummer Dafnis Prieto ensemble has everyone ablaze for
his 2 sets Saturday night at Dazzle Jazz in Denver. About an hour before the
first set I was hanging out with the band who had driven in from Santa Fe,
New Mexico just a few hours prior to show time. It has been Spring like
weather all along the Front Range-warm temps, multi-color changing leaves
contrasting against the purple Rockies and bright blue skies making their
road trip very pleasant which even including a few hour layover in the hot
springs of Ojo Caliente. Dafnis was here 2 years ago but had a different
quintet, I was quite impressed with Dafnis drum kit when I noticed he was
attaching a "sárten"-a frying pan typically used at carnival time for the
street comparsas-marching bands, especially in the eastern part of Cuba-my
home base.

The interplay of the band was as tight as a drum, they had been on tour for
2 weeks and Denver was their last stop for their Saturday night shows and a
free performance on Sunday in nearby People's Republic of Boulder before
jumping on the big bird Sunday night to return to NYC. The quintet is Jason
Lindner on keys, acoustic piano and B-3, Dana Leong on cello and trombone
and 3 Cubans, Yosvany Terry soprano and alto, Ivar Gavilán-violin and Dafnis
on drums-whistle, frying pan. Dafnis and this Absolute Quintet had just
finished their next recording in NY before hitting the road. Dafnis is on
his way to Europe for an extended tour as part of the Michel Camilo tour.

The band blew everyone in the sold out house away with their exquisite
mixture of classical, funk, jazz, semi-classical and avant garde all with an
underlying Afro-Cuban feel, Jason would at times be playing all 3 keys at
one time, his feet would be on the pedals and one hand each on another
keyboard, Yosvanny has really improved in his jazz phrasings since I first
met him a few years ago, he is rapidly becoming Sonny like in his solos as
you never know what he is going to quote, great tone on soprano, the young
man Ivar on violin has great lineage, his grand father was the second
clarinet instructor of NEA Jazz Master-Paquito D'Rivera(Paq Man's dad was
his first), during the 4th song of the first set, Dana who was engaged in a
marvelous semi-classical exchange with the violinist Gavilán, all of a
sudden stopped playing his cello, Jason brought in the bass lines with the
B-3 and Leong brought out a trombone and began taking an electrifying,
bluesy-swinging solo that the band followed suite surprising everyone in the
lounge including this reporter in one of the most energetic displays I've
ever seen, the crowd went into a frenzy, wow!  double wow wow!!

After the first set concluded, no one wanted to leave despite me-serving as
emcee informing the patrons that unless they made reservations for the
second set they must leave because the second show like the first was sold
out, still few left, finally the lounge manager had to get on the mic and
once again ask the folks to leave, hesitantly they did. After the second
show ended and I got the band who was exhausted as they were on 3 hours
sleep from the night before to play another song, again few people left,
everyone just stayed at their tables smiling, completely satisfied  talking
among themselves about how great a show they had witnessed, even those of us
who saw both sets were hanging, many talked to the band who were very
friendly, bottom line a good 1/2 hour after the show ended almost the entire
crowd was still in place, I had never seen that before at Dazzle, no wonder
Dafnis calls his group the Absolute Quintet.

I'll never forget the first time I saw Dafnis-it was during the 2000 IAJE in
NY, he had just defected while on tour with Jane Bunnett and played at a jam
session in an uptown Manhattan art gallery that was chock full of veteran NY
Latin music players, Chris Jonez, Dianne Reeves and I can't recall who else
from KKJZ went with me and were blown away with the youngster on drums, 8
years later, Dafnis is better than ever and still improving, he is barely
over 30 years of age. he was telling me though, that in about 2-3 years, the
graduates of the current crop of Cuban musicians studying in the
conservatories will make his generation pale in comparison they are so
gifted, daaaaaaaaaaaaaang, not sure my heart would be able to handle that
next invasion, but what a way to go!!!

Arturo Gómez