Left – Martinez AkusticaEastern Lounge, but one of the peripatetic Dave Keogh's multifarious musical and other ventures, already firmly established in a northerly direction, is expanding its influence. Not only will you be able to indulge in a fit-to-bursting lineup at The Roseville Club on the second Friday of every month, but to fill up on the last Friday of the month at The Mosman Club. Who said the north shore of Sydney was dead?
July's Roseville event, last Friday evening, was a Latin fiesta and while the location might be one of the last places on the planet you'd expect to find authenticity in that realm, it might have been Santiago or Havana. Well, almost.
Opening was Martinez Akustica, a three-piece family outfit of the highest virtuosic standard. Victor is the patriarch, the master, the man. Proclaimed as one of the greatest avant garde guitarists ever, he steps unassumingly onto the now massive Roseville stage, backlit by the distant, twinkling metropolis, to bend Stevie Wonder's You Are the Sunshine of My Life into something of his own making, taking it to the very edges of its structure and melody, stepping well beyond those boundaries, before returning to its recognisable, sweet heart. And it's not just the tune that's stretched to its limits, his elastic approach to guitar technique, in which classical method is subverted to meet the needs of the arrangement. Victor might frock-up in something more closely resembling formal wear than headband and big collared, psychedelic shirts, but he's all the way out there: as left-field as Hendrix, Steffen Basho-Junghans or Bob Brozman. The dynamics are breathtaking; the rhythmic intensity stirring. It's a journey. A trip.
This left-field audacity informs the divergent styles of his savant sons, too. Dauno joins his father for Under Influence, an original. Victor's acoustic guitar weaves together with Dauno's upright electric bass, in a piece where traditional flavours meet the smokiness of modern jazz. It's elegant, transfixing, while intimating something of a desolate state-of-mind.
New Timba sees the full trio on stage, Dauno introducing the piece by way of the most frenetic, inventive beatboxing you're ever likely to see: as well as the customary vocalising on mike, the body of his guitar becomes a virtual cajon. It's aptly named, since it takes the timba genre even deeper into a hybridised space, joining-up Cuban influences, including salsa, with jazz, funk and even tinges of rock. Dauno and Andro keep it chugging along, while Victor ekes out a melody that alternates between silky-smooth (think Earl Klugh) and stinging. Andro puts in some sweet soloing too.
For Kenny Dorham's beautiful Blue Bossa, the trio called on oudist Brent Keogh to add yet another layer and texture to this immutable jazz classic. Each Martinez takes their exquisite turn soloing: Dauno, the showman, electrified and electrifying; Andro, as ever, understated and a sublime exponent of taste.
A slightly darker note to end on with the authentically, even quintessentially Chilean, in Violeta Parra's Fantasy on a Song, arranged in a medley with Ay Ay Ay. As elsewhere, Martinez Akustica develop the pieces in a fugue-like way, the melody weaving in and out, over and under, as the three Martinez men complement and counterpoint each other. Dauno's acoustic guitar once again doubles as a cajon and, by turns, a synthesised semi-acoustic or full-on electric, soloing like Jeff Beck or Al Di Meola. Andro, the anchorman, meanwhile, passionately punches out the insistent rhythm, while Victor keeps the traditional flavour alive and us alive to it. If you've yet to see Martinez Akustica, or any of the Martinez brothers, let alone Victor, in any of their many guises, you really haven't lived.
Magdalena Mira is also from Chile, but hers is a more laid-back, folk-oriented presentation. Her opening gambit was imbued with added poignancy for the fact it was a song by her countryman, Víctor Jara: El Cigarrito. Mira possesses, arguably, the female equivalent of Jara's silken vocal style. The pathos derives from Jara's infamous execution at the hands of the vicious Pinochet regime, the grisly details of which I won't enter into here and now. Interestingly, the aforementioned Violeta Parra was a key mentor. Mira seems to sing it with a certain sadness; hardly avoidable given the song's title and the connotation it suggests, of a man's last cigarette. From the opening bars, it's clear Mira is a woman with the power to pluck heartstrings.
Fito Páez is from Argentina and his Yo Vengo A Ofrecer Mi Corazón (I Come To Offer My Heart) with which Mira follows. She seems to offer hers. Piero also hails from Argentina and is the author of Soy Pan, Soy Paz, Soy Más, a gently philosophical song of a somewhat lighter nature. It almost seems to float, or soar, wafted by the breath of fresh air it brings into the room, especially as expressed through the medium of Mira's comely vocals.
Having blessed us with a song by one of her countrymen, she does same with one of her countrywomen: Violeta Parra again; this time, her Volver A Los 17. Returning to seventeen, after a century of living, is like deciphering signs, without wisdom or competence. Even via the inadequacy of translation, there's no substitute for the deeply poetic cadences possible in Spanish.
Magdalena Mira is an exquisite sounding and feeling singer, with a rare gift for interpreting and communicating songs by the South American equivalents of, say, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger; closer to home, Paul Kelly or Kev Carmody. Marcelo Garcia provided sensitive backing on acoustic guitar, too.
Sydney’s Afro-Cuban Elite is a ten-piece de resistance party band, in the best and hottest Latin tradition. Headed by Armandito Garcia, it sizzles: little wonder seats were quickly vacated as people of all shapes, sizes, backgrounds and ages made a beeline for the expansive dance floor, soon packed to the gunwales. Arranger, composer and bandleader, Garcia is the undisputed go-to guy as far as contemporary Latin music down under is concerned. By contemporary Latin music, I'm talking about music that pulses with the energy of salsa, son, rumba, guaguanco, bata drums and the sacred songs of santeria, spiced with jazz, rock, funk, r &b, disco and hip-hop.
There's no question Armando's the real deal. Born in San Luis, Cuba and educated at the Conservatorium in Santiago de Cuba, he's been playing professionally since he was a teenager. He played in the legendary Sonora La Calle, taking authentic Cuban music around the world, on the same bill as Buena Vista Social Club and Los Van Van, to name but two legends. He first came to Australia in 2002 with Sonora La Calle, returned with international stage show Lady Salsa and now calls Australia home.
The band kicked-off with a classic: one of the touchstones of Afro-Cuban jazz, co-written by Dizzy Gillespie, Chano Pozo and Gil Fuller, way, way back, in 1947. Manteca begins with a percussive onslaught, before the exuberant, ear-splitting brass takes the lead, hitting like a category five hurricane. It's a significant tune, historically, inasmuch as it was the first-ever jazz standard to be based on the clave, the five-stroke pattern that so comprehensively informs Afro-Cuban music. It cooks. Suddenly, Roseville becomes Havana. Sticky. Sweaty. Obscenely large, gas-guzzling, unparkable American cars lumber down the broken, er, boulevard that is the Pacific Highway. Cigars fill the air with plumes of aromatic, blue smoke. You could be at the Casa de la Musica, or El Delirio Habanero. (Now, there's a hotspot!) Well, not really. But that's the effect. Ay, ay, ay, ay! And it's all tighter than – well, let's just say it's tight.
Things continued in similarly hip-swivelling style with old school timbales virtuoso and showman Tito Puente's finger-snapping Pare Cochero (composed by Marcelino Guerra), probably as good a therapeutic dose for depression as a year's worth of Prozac.
Armando’s Rhumba is the swinging Chick Corea tune from the album (My Spanish Heart) that took him back to what you might assume to be his roots, ave for the fact, just between you and me and the gatepost, his descent is actually Italian. Nevertheless, I'm sure Chick, like everyone present, once immersed in this style, or these styles, of music, felt he had one. Put the kind of firepower behind Chick's otherwise quite delicate tune Sydney's Afro-Cuban Elite boasts and you've got a recipe for a fast fiesta. Which makes sense. After all, in Cuban Spanish rumbo means just that: party!
Perseverancia is a tune by Patagonian Hugo Gimenez Aguero and is of a more romantic, hold close and tight, disposition. Danzon is a Chucho Valdes piece. It sustained the sensual mood and put us right back in the warm, fast-beating heart of Havana, in a dimly-lit dancehall somewhere, under which leaky roof patriotic patrons partake of their official national dance, deriving from the habanera. This is an exceedingly sophisticated arrangement of a surpassingly beautiful melody.
Maria Juana, unless I'm mistaken, is an upbeat number with Bolivian roots, that shook the room from its reverie. It was followed by Dizzy's (and Frank Paparelli's) immortal A Night in Tunisia; hard to believe such a hip tune was written in 1942. Hip hop fans will know it as a sample, from Gang Starr's 1989 debut ingle, Words I Manifest. It's also known as interlude and was recorded by Sarah Vaughan under that title. But I digress. Wherever you've heard it, or under what title, or in what context, you're bound to have heard it. It's one of those tunes. And Sydney's Afro-Cuban Elite shows it can swing with the best of 'em and better than the rest of 'em.
Changui Pa’l Chivo is not well-known to me, but, having now heard it, I'm keen to get up-close-and-personal with it again. Tira Tira, as far as I know, was the odd number out, as it were, in the set, being of Italian origin. Still, S's A-C E gave it an Afro-Cuban makeover that fit like a glove.
The night ended on a high note: was that Marcia Ball's The Party's Still Going On? One thing's for sure, while this decad, decade, decuplet, or tensome of players is in the house, the party's definitely still going on. Probably all night.
Eastern Lounge July 2013
Martinez Akustica
Magdalena Mira
Sydney's Afro Cuban Elite
Venue: The Roseville Club | 64 Pacific Highway, Roseville NSW
Date: July 19, 2013
Tickets: $25 pre-paid | $30 at the door
Bookings: trybooking.com
