Issac, Night 1

They're back Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Don't miss it.

[all photos by Tom Ehrlich] It was vintage Issac Delgado at SF JAZZ Thursday night, with a 13-piece working band from Cuba--a full complement of young conservatory studs, including a wild new pianist, Victor Campbell, along with three celebrated veterans:

- musical director/tecladista Yusef Díaz of Klímax fame

- Elpidio Chappottín, a founding member of Los Metales del Terror who recorded with NG La Banda when Issac was singing lead

- trombonist Ariel Guillot, who began playing with Issac in the late-90s, taking a break to play with Pupy for a few years.

The show was all in Issac's classic live timba style, thus turning the tributes to Cheo Feliciano and Beny Moré into two of the hottest numbers of the night. The songs spanned Issac's full career, from NG (Necesito una amiga) through the torrid 90s (La sandunguita was truly ferocious) and onwards to La primera plana, Salsa, timba y amor, tracks from the new album, and--in true timba fashion--a few new improvisational tumbaos thrown in for good measure. Chappottín played several smoking hot solos with the soon-to-be-famous young lions hot on his heels. The pianist one-upped Jimi Hendrix by playing part of his solo with his back to the keyboard (almost infinitely harder than JImi's behind-the-neck trick because both hands are doubly reversed from their usual functions). He didn't use his teeth, however. Maybe he will as the weekend progresses! [Kevin Moore]

| Share

Tuesday, 13 August 2019, 12:30 PM

To celebrate his new album Issac Delgado is coming to SF JAZZ for 4 nights (August 15-18) with a huge band from Cuba that includes the great Elpidio Chappottín from NG La Banda, Yusef Díaz from Klímax and many other luminaries. This should be one of the most exciting weeks in the Bay Area in recent years.

| Share

Thursday, 01 August 2019, 09:40 PM

La familia Arango really brought it to Kuumbwa tonight. It's an entirely different repertoire from what we heard at Ashkenaz two years ago and it's easily the farthest anyone has come towards integrating the full array of Afro-Cuban folkloric rhythms and singing into Cuban popular music. Cuban shows are often a smorgasbord - a little danzón, a little guaguancó, a little bolero, a little of everything.

This is not that.

Everything is seamlessly fused together into a powerful and original musical identity. Every song is a throbbingly danceable, hook-filled, harmonically interesting creation. The differences between songs--and there are plenty--are provided by shifting from arará to palo or from abakuá to batá, but nothing is derivative, nothing is gratuitous, and everything sounds like Los Hermanos Arango and nobody else. It has the harmonic interest of jazz, the rhythmic interest of folkloric music, and the raw drive of NG La Banda and North American R&B, but it's not any of these things. It's something new, and something that's been a long time coming. Don't miss it. Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, tonight, August 2. [Kevin Moore] [photos by Tom Ehrlich]

| Share

Monday, 29 July 2019, 12:26 PM

Seminal timba bassist Feliciano Arango, founding member of NG La Banda, comes to the Bay Area for the second time with his jazz-folkloric-fusion group Los Hermanos Arango, featuring his siblings Ignacio on guitar, Eugenio on percussion and Cristina on vocals. They'll be at Kuumbwa Jazz Center on Thursday and Freight and Salvage on Friday. Click here for Tom's gallery from the group's performance at Ashkenaz in 2017.