RAFAEL GRECO

VERSOS BAJO MI SOMBRA (VERSES UNDER MY SHADOW)

Blue Canoe Records

Rafael Greco, acoustic & electric piano/ Wurlitzer/keyboards/synthesizers/guitar/vocals (lead & background)/percussion/didgeridoo/toys/samplers/programming;

Rafael Greco is a multi-instrumentalist, a composer, arranger and co-producer on this unusual and dynamic project.  The production opens with an original composition. It’s the album title tune, “Verses Under My Shadow.”  This first composition sets the mood and magic for this recording of contemporary jazz, rooted in Afro-Latin rhythms, textured with looped music, vocal chants, and hypnotic percussion.

The next tune veers into a more experimental vein. It features a rubato introduction by Rafael Greco on acoustic piano.  The legendary Jimmy Haslip soon joins him on electric bass. Mark Ferber adds drums to the mix, to solidify the tempo. Still, the song “Vincenze Nel Mare” continues to sound like an exercise in free falling, with a melody that floats above a rhythm groove that surprisingly melts into a ballad at the fade. This music is very experimental.

It’s “La Nuit / La Noche” that catches my attention with Louisito Quintero’s percussion and Dave Weckl’s drums giving the groove a rhythm that reminds me of Western movies and the clip-clop of horses’ hooves. This time the instrumental features Scott Kinsey on an improvised keyboard solo, with Greco blending smoothly into the rhythm section groove on piano and synthesizers.  In his press package, Rafael Greco says this composition is a nod to Lester Young and the classic 32-bar form.

On his “Lucia” tune, Greco’s melodic ideas develop as a trio arrangement, with Haslip (who co-produced this album) on bass, and Ferber’s sensitive drums and percussive ideas holding the arrangement in place as a pretty ballad. The enchanting thing about Greco’s music is the freedom of spirit and time that he weaves into each arrangement.  Also, his rich sense of harmonics is reflected in his piano chords.

“Dr. Igloo, My Evil and Clumsy Stalker” comes next. This arrangement lifts the tempo and incorporates toys, samples, and I was excited to hear the Didgeridoo, that I haven’t heard since time spent in New Zealand.

Rafael Greco uses music to explore his own emotional artistic development and creative life. This is a blend of fusion jazz and experimental music. It’s culturally rich with Spanish, American and Italian roots that creatively interlock as part of the compositions Greco has written.  Various foreign languages and sounds pepper his production.

I found enchantment in Greco’s emotional vocals.  He has a beautiful voice.  I especially enjoyed him on “I Changed the Title” that is arranged quite Folksy. It’s a song he composed many years ago, but it still fits perfectly into a contemporary jazz/folk vernacular.

Rafael Greco and his varied band of musicians offer experimental music to share a dozen songs for your listening pleasure.

Perhaps Rafael Greco summarizes this experimental music in his liner notes where he wrote:

“This music was born from witnessing cruelties firsthand, and from a desire to escape the noise of the modern world.  It’s a protest against the triumph of mediocrity, against a society where the highest aspirations are merely to be a shallow intellectual, an erotic film star, a virtual musician, or a sad celebrity. We are living in an alienated world, where a new Inquisitorial wave seeks to rewrite history and murder art, philosophy, and humor.  The rise of the least capable and the technologies that empower stupidity have been cheered on by fools who favor extremes.  Empathy, judgement, and common sense are under threat. I can only hope this absurd new obscurantism doesn’t last too long.  To those who believe their legacy will be immortal, whether they do good or evil, I have news for you: nothing is eternal.”

RAFAEL GRECO BAND: Rafael Greco, acoustic & electric/ piano/Wurlitzer/keyboards/ synthesizers/guitar/vocals (lead & background  vocals/percussion/ didgeridoo/ toys/samplers/programming; Jimmy Haslip, electric & acoustic bass; Fernando Valladares, drums/maracas/chekere/toy rain tree/ timbales; Mark Ferber, drums/percussion; Dave Weckl, Vinnie Colaiuta & Anton Fig, drums; Luisito Quintero, percussion; Scott Kinsey, keyboards; Santiago Bosch, synthesizer solo; Charles Altura & Juan Angel Esquivel, guitars; Marcos Salas, b-flat clarinet; Ezequiel “El Negro” Serrano, vocals/background vocals/spoken word/drum programming/electronic drum sounds; Pimpi Santistevan, vocals; Yonis Flores, tambora; German Landaeta, sound design.

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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