Search - Jerry Gonzalez & the Fort Apache Band :: Rumba Buhaina - The Music of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers

As strong as anything he's ever done

Jan P. Dennis | Monument, CO USA | 05/30/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Jerry Gonzalez will be forever immortalized by his altogether remarkable disc under the rubric of the Fort Apache Band, Rumba Para Monk. By transposing the great bebop pioneer and altogether iconoclastic composer and pianist Thelonius Monk into an authentically Latin key, he practically created a new sub-genre of jazz, what might be called neo-Latin bebop.



And it unfortunately proved to be something of a dead-end, as this kind of thing often happens to be: instead of providing a new pathway to ever greater self-expression and musical adventure, Rumba Para Monk stood out as a kind of pinnacle or apex which subsequent discs, fine as they were, seemed unable to surmount, eventually resulting in the disbanding of a very fine, but increasingly etiolated, outfit.



Well, they're back (after a short and admittedly quite bracing venture by Jerry into Nuevo Flamenco) and better than ever. This is certainly the best thing the Fort Apache Band has recorded since Rumba Para Monk, except, perhaps, for that altogether brilliant disc, Earthdance, the last featuring Carter Jefferson, I believe. They're re-energized, tighter than ever, and leader Gonzalez seems to have recaptured that unique vision of blending jazz and Latin musics into something greater than the sum or their parts.



OK, no one will ever replace the great Carter Jefferson and I DO very much miss John Stubblefield, but Joe Ford (on alto and soprano sax) is playing better than ever, Andy Gonzalez has emerged as perhaps the premier Latin jazz bassist on the scene, Larry Willis on piano not only has sick chops but an incredibly deep swing, Ignacio Berroa cooks like a madman, and the leader is unmistakable on trumpet (especially muted, where he extends and pushes out Miles' message) and percussion. But here's the kicker: The group casually rolls out the deepest, swingingest grooves amid such killer melodic and harmonic sophistication as to have practically single-handedly dragged that somewhat lumbering creature, Latin jazz, willy-nilly, into the 21st century.



There are others--Danilo Perez, Dafnis Prieto, Omar Sosa, Susie Ibarra, Miguel Zenon, and Edward Simon come to mind--who have advanced the music in other ways, often by melding authentic national folkloric sensibilities with jazz, but no one has quite made the same move as Jerry Gonzalez and the Fort Apache Band to integrate the whole history of Latin music with classic jazz all in the most up-to-date melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic setting.



And it doesn't hurt that these boys are reinterpreting some great classics by Shorter, Hubbard, Golson, and Monk, plus presenting some very attractive originals entirely within these aesthetic parameters.



All in all, a wonderful disc; certainly my comeback record of the year, and absolutely worth acquiring."

Apache for life

M. Capshaw | NYC | 02/13/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm honored to be the first one to review this beautiful recording. The boys are back after a long while. Unfortunately, they are one Apache down. We miss you John Stubblefield. Once again though, Jerry, Andy, Larry, Steve, and Joe affirm their place in the halls of greatness with Rumba Buhaina. The Fort Apache Band is the greatest small afrocuban jazz ensemble of all times, bar none. Virtuosity, respect for tradition, mood, and purity, as usual. Maybe their finest? Bu would be astonished."