| 1 CD |
|
Buy at PlatoMania |
| Label ACT music |
UPC 0614427993625 |
Catalogue number ACT 99362 |
Release date 24 September 2021 |
"Recorded as a trio by the Madrid pianist Daniel García, “Via de la Plata” is one of those rare records that you fall in love with from the very first bars."
Jazzmania, 20-1-2022Salamanca is a city steeped in history, with ancient archaeological sites. For centuries student priests have walked in their flowing robes along the Calle Compañia, a central street shadowed by tall baroque buildings. The city was one of the main stopovers on the Vía de la Plata (‘the silver way’), a Roman route from North to South of the Iberian peninsula.
Daniel García has a deep feeling for what that ancient silver thread through his country means: it gave the peninsula its main artery. Spain exists as a melting pot of different cultures, with influences Celtic and Nordic, from the Eastern Mediterranean and Africa, and from the Americas too. Vía de la Plata is a living symbol of how “all of this melts together in Spain,” as García explains.
The pianist’s awareness of these different cultures which have formed Spain is everywhere in this album: the guests represent musical heritages from different points of the compass. Charismatic clarinettist Anat Cohen, raised in Israel, now based in the Americas produces wonderful emotion on “Pai Lan”, a tune dedicated to García’s wife. Trumpet star Ibrahim Maalouf was born in Beirut; “Silk Road” is a glimpse of the East. Guitarist Gerardo Núñez and García are equally fascinated by the links between Flamenco and jazz. In their first co-operation here they show a natural empathy, notably in “Calima” named after the wind that carries sandstorms from the Sahara. García’s trio fellows – Reinier Elizarde (bass), Michael Olivera (drums) – are from Cuba. García met them on the scene in Madrid. All are in their mid-thirties, close friends on and off stage.
García is also a passionate advocate for Salamanca’s musical heritage. The title track “Vía de la Plata”, with its intoxicating echoes of both Ravel and the Cameroonian coupé-décalé has García and Anat Cohen trading fragments of melodies from the charrada, a centuries-old Salamancan peasant dance, with everything fitting together miraculously and seamlessly.
As a man and as a musician Daniel García is clear, thoughtful and self-aware. This very fine album defines him – and the history which has formed him.
“Flamenco and jazz,” says pianist Daniel García, “are brothers. They have some essential things in common: self-expression, a total engagement at the instant of making music, plus the deep experience of the moment”. That is how he sums up what “Travesuras” is all about: García has delved deeply into the music of his homeland and has combined influences from it with the vocabulary of the modern jazz piano trio.
Western classical music also helped to pave García’s way to becoming an artist: before he studied jazz at Berklee College of Music in Boston (where Danilo Pérez became his teacher and mentor), he studied classical piano at the Castilla y León Conservatory in his native Salamanca. It’s fascinating how his music sparkles and shimmers with the cadenzas, harmonies and timbres of classical music, but will then unexpectedly take a flamenco turn, dissolve into jazz harmonies or flow into a powerful improvisation.
And yet there is much more to García’s musical substance. He describes himself as an eclectic who has also ventured into rock, electronica, music of the Middle East, Cubanism, and even medieval music and Gregorian chant. “So much has influenced Spanish culture – and also left its mark on me. Pieces like ‘Vengo de moler’ and ‘Travesuras’ reflect this development.”
“My goal is to bring the original Spanish music into a new context through improvisation and to make all stylistic dividing lines invisible,” he says. And the album’s title is to be understood in that sense. “Travesuras” means pranks, or mischief, and describes the kind of innocent, naïve, unconstrained behaviour that is often observed in children as they discover the world. “It is a lovely metaphor for what I’m trying to do: to look at the music from a naïve angle. I free myself from expectations, let myself drift, and just watch out whether or not something new and interesting emerges.”
“Flamenco and jazz,” says pianist Daniel García, “are brothers. They have some essential things in common: self-expression, a total engagement at the instant of making music, plus the deep experience of the moment”. That is how he sums up what “Travesuras” is all about: García has delved deeply into the music of his homeland and has combined influences from it with the vocabulary of the modern jazz piano trio.
Western classical music also helped to pave García’s way to becoming an artist: before he studied jazz at Berklee College of Music in Boston (where Danilo Pérez became his teacher and mentor), he studied classical piano at the Castilla y León Conservatory in his native Salamanca. It’s fascinating how his music sparkles and shimmers with the cadenzas, harmonies and timbres of classical music, but will then unexpectedly take a flamenco turn, dissolve into jazz harmonies or flow into a powerful improvisation.
And yet there is much more to García’s musical substance. He describes himself as an eclectic who has also ventured into rock, electronica, music of the Middle East, Cubanism, and even medieval music and Gregorian chant. “So much has influenced Spanish culture – and also left its mark on me. Pieces like ‘Vengo de moler’ and ‘Travesuras’ reflect this development.”
“My goal is to bring the original Spanish music into a new context through improvisation and to make all stylistic dividing lines invisible,” he says. And the album’s title is to be understood in that sense. “Travesuras” means pranks, or mischief, and describes the kind of innocent, naïve, unconstrained behaviour that is often observed in children as they discover the world. “It is a lovely metaphor for what I’m trying to do: to look at the music from a naïve angle. I free myself from expectations, let myself drift, and just watch out whether or not something new and interesting emerges.”
Recorded as a trio by the Madrid pianist Daniel García, “Via de la Plata” is one of those rare records that you fall in love with from the very first bars.
Jazzmania, 20-1-2022
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