Cuban Drummer Ignacio Berroa.....Codes

[KiwiCoromandel]

Drummer Ignacio Berroa has finally married the "codes" of jazz and Cuban music......

Drummer Ignacio Berroa has the intensity of one whose musical enthusiasms were repressed by the state. In '70s Cuba he could not study jazz drums or the Yoruba religion, which is central to much Afro-Cuban drumming.

Totalitarianism can be unpredictable: he was allowed to study classical percussion. Since 1980 Berroa has been in the US, where he has a following.

He says that on this disc he has finally married the deep "codes" of jazz and Cuban music. With players such as pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba and bassist John Patitucci, you would expect lots of technique and rhythmic intricacy - particularly as fusion seems to be one of Berroa's jazz influences.

There is all that, including synthesiser touches, and it is very satisfying in its clean percussive textures.

The percussionists are indeed fantastic and the two saxophonists very interesting: acerbic, quirky and exciting. Two vocals by Giovanni Hidalgo earth the proceedings.

source:John Clare:reviewer.smh.com.au

Artist:Ignacio Berroa

Genre:Jazz/Blues

Label:Blue Note

image:Codes: lots of technique and rhythmic intricacy.