I love both African music and jazz; Felipe Salles integrated the two styles to create something new and exhilarating!

Felipe Salles

Felipe and his band held a CD release show at Regattabar last night and I was fortunate to be in the audience for the excellent show.

Felipe

The title of the new release is ‘Ugandan Suite” and comes out of time Felipe spent in Uganda while on a grant, meeting musicians and learning more about their music. It is clear to me that it was time well spent; the numbers they played, which comprised the entire album, are beautiful.

Rogerio Boccato

Each piece is titled after an animal native to Uganda – The Elephant, The Buffalo, The Leopard, The Rhinoceros and The Lion. The songs evoke images of those animals; at times I closed my eyes and saw them in my mind’s eye.

Felipe

Felipe played baritone and tenor saxophones as well as the flute. His band for this show comprised Tucker Antell on tenor and soprano saxophones, Maxim Lubarsky on piano, Keala Kaumeheiwa on acoustic bass, Bertram Lehmann on drums and percussion, and Rogerio Boccato on percussion.

Tucker Antell

Maxim Lubarsky

Keala Kaumeheiwa

Bertram Lehmann

Rogerio

Felipe told us that not all of these musicians performed on the album, but that was not obvious from their playing. Each man is a master of his instrument.

The saxophone is one of my favorite jazz instruments and I loved the range of ‘voices’ at this performance. Felipe’s baritone sax was paired with Tucker’s soprano sax for ‘The Elephant’ and the harmony was so lovely. I also loved the duet of two tenor saxes in another number.

Felipe

Felipe and Tucker

Tucker

I especially enjoyed watching Rogerio play all kinds of bells, shells, native drums, and seemingly whatever he found to create a rhythm.

Rogerio

The music is progressive and enticing.

Most of the musicians are also music educators, and I applaud them. They had many students in the audience, which is a testament to their teaching ability.

Felipe

I can’t wait to listen to the CD now that I’ve heard the album live! I know ‘Ugandan Suite’ will be in regular rotation on my iPod.

Thanks to Regattabar for the ticket. All opinions are my own.