1. My Mrs
2. Somebody Backstage (Danzon)
3. Rumbiando
4. Just Like U
5. You Are Too Beautiful
6. Apunta Un Lapiz
7. Swings and Roundabouts
8. Talking Bata
9. Think Carefully
10. Motherland Pulse
Omar Puente - Electric and acoustic violin
Robert Mitchell - Piano, organ
Jimmy Martinez - Double bass (tracks 1-4, 7, 10)
Darren Taylor - Double bass (tracks 5, 6, 8, 9)
Oscar Martinez - Congas, bongoes, coconut woodblocks, timbales, bata
drums
Michel Castellano - Drums (tracks 1, 3-10)
Courtney Pine - Flute, bass clarinet, soprano sax, tenor sax, baritone
sax, keyboards (tracks 2-4, 6, 8-10)
Cameron Pierre - Acoustic guitar (tracks 3, 4, 8)
Dennis Rollins - Trombone (tracks 3, 8, 9)
Dorance Lorza - Cuban guitar (tres), backing vocals (tracks 2, 9,
10)
Antonio Zapata - Background vocals, guiro (tracks 2, 3, 9, 10)
Helen Correa - Violin (tracks 3, 10)
Natalie Taylor - Viola (tracks 3, 10)
Jenny Adejayan - Cello (tracks 3, 10)
Babatunde Ayandosu - Bata drum (track 8)
Rasaq Ayandele Oregarde - Omele bata drum (track 8)
Ricardo Pompa - Lead vocals (tracks 8, 9)
Eska Mtungwazi - Lead vocals (track 10).
Elpidio Calcedo - Backing vocals (tracks 2, 8, 9, 10)
Members of the Harrow Youth Choir - Backing vocals (track 10)
In my reviews of albums by the Jazz Warriors and Courtney Pine, I
have already noted the abilities of Cuban violinist Omar Puente. But
this is Omar's debut album under his own name - and it's very impressive.
Puente trained as a classical violinist but listened to lots of jazz
before moving to the UK in 1997. He calls himself "a classical
musician whose heart beats with a Cuban rhythm, whose soul is African,
and whose home is Yorkshire".
This mixture of influences is clear in the music on this CD, for
which all the tunes except one were composed by Omar. The Cuban and
Latin-jazz rhythms on the opening track immediately light up the album
with warmth. Omar plays the electric violin with a sound that might
be described as reminscent of Jean Luc Ponty, although his playing
sometimes can have a hard edge to it, which gives it added bite. In
fact it is fair to say that Puente makes the violin sound different
from how we have heard it before. Part of this is down to his use
of various effects pedals.
Mind you, he can be as rhapsodic as Stephane Grappelli (although
without such a sweet tone), as in parts of Rumbiando, which
also has a powerful trombone solo from Dennis Rollins. Rodgers &
Hart's You Are Too Beautiful proves that Omar is capable
of rich lyricism. The variety in his compositions can be heard in
such tracks as Just Like U, which has elements of African rhythm
mixed in with a Weather Report feel, while Omar's violin solo has
the furious intensity of Stuff Smith.
An unaccompanied cadenza in Apunta Un Lapiz reveals Puente's
classical training. Talking Bata features the conical bata
drum which is common to Nigeria and Cuba and the song has a distinct
African atmosphere, with chanting vocals followed by weird miaowing
sounds from the violin. Think Carefully sets the violin against
typically Cuban rhythms. The CD ends with Motherland Pulse,
an almost folky song in which singer Eska Mtungwazi declaims in praise
of Africa: "I'm so very glad to know that you're my home"
with choral backing.
Omar Puente was in the news earlier this year when his wife, Debbie
Purdy (who suffers from multiple sclerosis) won a court case attempting
to clarify the rules about assisted suicide. This album will ensure
that Omar Puente is in the news for his music and musicianship.
Tony Augarde
CD Reviews
Destin-E 777G20011962
