Dafnis Prieto
Co-presented with the Northrop’s jazz series, last night’s concert marked the Minnesota debut of Cuban percussionist Dafnis Prieto. Prieto’s music revels in the fertile middle ground between free jazz and the straight-ahead jazz rooted in 1950s hard bop. The songs that made up the more than 80-minute set, many of which were from his recent album Taking the Soul for a Walk, fluidly moved between composed and improvised. Surrounding Prieto were the other members of the sextet: Peter Apfelbaum (Tenor and Soprano Sax, Melodic, and Hand Percussion), Felipe Lamoglia (Alto and Soprano Sax), Ralph Alessi (trumpet), Manual Valera (piano), Charles Flores (bass), and, on one piece, dancer Judith Sanchez Ruiz.
As good as these musicians were, Prieto was obviously the star. Watching him move effortless across the drum set brought about not only the “How is one person can making all those sounds?” cliché, but rather that the sounds and polyrhythms he’s coaxing from his set somehow all fit together into a composite groove that’s as exploratory as it is infectious. At times Prieto looked like he was barely holding his sticks as he lightly struck the rims and edges of his cymbals, producing a sound like a collection of skittering bugs. At other moments, including a bit of boom-bap during a duet with pianist Valera, he was as loud as the most aggressive amateur banging away at the “Integrity of the Insider” exhibit of Haegue Yang in the Walker’s Medtronic Gallery. A favorite technique for Prieto was to turn the snare off, thus making it another tom, resulting in a palette of four closely-pitched drums that he played like melodically rolling waves.
All that being said, the intimacy and tightness of the sextet made Prieto that much better. One of the best things about seeing good jazz live is to witness the subtle micro-interactions that make up a song, most of which are done on the spot. These are more than just smiles and nods, but rather the bounced back-and-forth of melodic and rhythmic fragments between soloists and members of the rhythmic section that show just how good a group is and how much they’re enjoying their work; this sextet had all of these characteristics in spades.
Before the night’s final song, Prieto grabbed a pair of claves and, after doing a bit of cheeky self-advertisement for Taking the Soul for a Walk, proceeded to wow the crowd one more time with an incredible display of mouth percussion, double- and triple-tonguing his way through myriad sounds and patterns. In a return to the most elemental of musical relationships—the hand and the voice—Prieto produced unbelievable music with the simplest of means, making what he creates with a full drum set and locked-in sextet that much more astonishing.
Having been a drummer for 20-some years now I really enjoyed Dafnis and his combo. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a combo play live (especially a good one) and I came away quite impressed. I agree, the great thing about a live performance is the interactions of the musicians. Given so much of it tends to be improv, you get a visual cue when a musician hears something they may not have heard in any of the dozens of performances prior. There were a few times I saw one of the musicians give looks of “damn!” when another was soloing.
As for Dafnis himself, his style is very unique. He’s one of those drummers who uses all parts of the kit. No drum machine or electronic kit could ever come close to making the sounds Dafnis produces on his set. He’s really all over the place, and I mean that as a positive thing. You can hear the Cuban influence in most of his work, it’s brash, it’s big and it’s not afraid to be different. In many ways, as a trained drummer it was even challenging. I’m very used to studio drummers who impress with their amazing chops and coordination. Dafnis impresses in other ways, taking sounds and rhythms in directions many drummers just aren’t accustom to. It’s more chaotic than measured, but that’s half the genius of it.
For those who want to learn more about Dafnis, or missed the show and want to see him in practice, Vic Firth has an excellent video series on him:
http://www.vicfirth.com/artists/dafnis_prieto.html
Comment by Brent Gustafson — December 2, 2009 @ 2:03 pm