Search - Danilo Perez :: Motherland

From his work with Dizzy Gillespie and Wynton Marsalis to his pioneering recordings including The Journey and PanaMonk, Panamanian pianist-composer Danilo Perez has evolved into one of the most complete musicians of his generation. This monumental CD is his most intricate and engaging to date. Perez's approach to the African musical imprint in the Americas, with its U.S., Caribbean, Central American, and South American branches, is the aural equivalent of a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel steeped in the magical realisms of the Americas. In Perez's hands, national rhythms blend with jazz, folkloric, and classical musical forms and merge with his encyclopedic keyboard conception on acoustic and electric piano. He's backed by an all-world array of musicians including soprano and alto saxophonist Chris Potter, violinist Regina Carter, drummer Brian Blade, and bassist John Patitucci from the U.S.; trumpeter Diego Urcola from Argentina; and singer Claudia Acuna from Chile. Perez takes the listener on a tour: from the Latin blues of "Suite for the Americas, Parts 1 and 2," and Richard Bona's funky Afro-Brazilian basslines on "Pan Africa" to the choral, Cuban complexity of "Overture." The highlights of the CD are Perez's updates of "Panama Libre" and "Panama 2000" from his self-titled debut and The Journey. They show off his arranging genius, and highlight his new role as the Cultural Ambassador of Panama. --Eugene Holley Jr.