{"id":3957,"date":"2014-05-30T15:00:26","date_gmt":"2014-05-30T15:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.artinfo.com\/blunotes\/?p=3957"},"modified":"2014-05-30T15:00:26","modified_gmt":"2014-05-30T15:00:26","slug":"dancing-with-eleggua-weekly-at-mintons-in-harlem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/2014\/05\/30\/dancing-with-eleggua-weekly-at-mintons-in-harlem\/","title":{"rendered":"Dancing With Eleggua, Weekly, at Minton's in Harlem"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Percussionist Rom\u00e1n D\u00edaz leads a his new project, El Gallo Mistico, during \u201cJazz at the Crossroads: The Dance of Eleggua" at Minton's Supper Club in Harlem.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u2019d not yet been to Minton\u2019s<\/strong>, the new supper club that revives a storied Harlem name on 118th<\/sup> Street, until this week.<\/p>\n

\n

I can tell you that the cuisine, under the direction of executive chef Alexander Smalls<\/strong>, is both fine and creative. But a new series \u201cJazz at the Crossroads: The Dance of Eleggua<\/a><\/strong>,\u201d which continues\u00a0each Tuesday night through August, was the real lure for me.<\/p>\n

This past Tuesday, alto saxophonist Yosvany Terry <\/strong>and his brother, bassist Yunior Terry<\/strong>, who were born in the town of Florida, in Cuba’s Camag\u00fcey province, and live in New York City, performed in a group that showcased their father, Eladio \u201cDon Pancho\u201d Terry<\/strong>. The elder Terry is a violinist the founder and director of the “Orquesta Maravillas de Florida,” an important band in the Cuban charanga <\/em>style. He is, perhaps most notably, a master of the cheker\u00e9<\/em>, the beaded gourd used for percussion; in his hands, it can direct a group with the authority and flair of drummer Roy Haynes\u2019s trap set. The group at Minton\u2019s performed a mixture of traditional charanga tunes and more modern jazz, some drawn from the books of Yosvany Terry\u2019s brilliant and forward-leaning bands. Yet this was no survey or fusion; the set was an example of how Afro Latin music, grounded in traditional rhythms and flecked with modern jazz\u2019s full stylistic palette, can flow pretty much wherever it wants without losing its spiritual heft and sense of musical purpose.
\nThat\u2019s what this new series is about, according to Dita Sullivan<\/strong>, whose recent credits along similar lines \u201cNew Dimensions in Jazz\u201d and \u201cA Cuban Drum Series,\u201d both produced for Manhattan\u2019s Jazz Standard.\u201cJazz at the Crossroads was inspired by the Yoruban deity Eleggua, the messenger of the gods, a trickster who is the guardian of all crossroads and doorways and rules the portal where past and future meet,\u201d she said. \u201cA key figure in the cosmology of pan-African culture in the New World, he embodies the multiple doorways onto the African-Caribbean-New Orleans-Chicago musical diaspora that reached an apotheosis in the Harlem Renaissance.\u201d This festival, she said, \u201cmarks a point of departure and a new beginning in the perpetual rebirth of jazz.\u201d (She expands on this and other ideas in an interview<\/a> at writer Tomas Pe\u00f1a\u2019s website.)
\nThe lineup through August, below, is diverse and compelling, and it includes the U.S. debut of a highly touted young Cuban singer, Melvis Santa<\/strong>.
\nIf, like me, you missed the first performance of Rom\u00e1n D\u00edaz & El Gallo Mistico<\/strong>, you\u2019ll get another chance on July 15 (I won\u2019t make the same mistake twice). As I wrote earlier this year <\/a>about D\u00edaz:<\/p>\n

Since his arrival in New York City from his native Cuba in 1999, D\u00edaz has not only deepened the presence of Afro-Cuban traditions in and around New York, he has infused the city\u2019s jazz scene with a rare blend of expertise, energy, wit, and humor drawn from both Afro-Cuban culture and his own imagination.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Diaz holds court each Thursday night at Manhattan\u2019s Zinc Bar<\/strong> for a weekly rumba, He\u2019s making music and enacting rituals with old friends and new partners, inviting in ancient spirits as he lends new edge to New York\u2019s scene.\u00a0But this new project, El Gallo Mistico (The Sacred Rooster), \u201crepresents the exciting synergy between tradition and the avant-garde that has characterized the Negrista and\u00a0AfroCubanismo\u00a0movements of the 1920s and \u201930s\u00a0in Cuban culture,\u201d according to Sullivan. It also expresses a continuing collaboration between D\u00edaz and Cuban pianist David Virelles<\/strong>. In Virelles fascinating Continuum band, D\u00edaz was a key player in the realization of Virelles\u2019s vision. Here, the script gets flipped.
\nSee you there.
\nMinton\u2019s in Harlem presents: Jazz at the Crossroads:\u00a0The\u00a0Dance of Eleggua\u2028Tuesdays, through August 26th<\/strong>
\n6\/3 Jack Walrath\u00a0&\u00a0Masters of Suspense <\/strong>
\n6\/10<\/strong> Fernando Otero & Radio Angel <\/strong>
\n6\/17 & 6\/24\u00a0Cuban diva Melvis Santa<\/strong>
\n7\/01<\/strong> Francisco Mora-Catlett & AfroHORN <\/strong>
\n7\/08 \u00a0Emilio Valdes\u00a0+\u00a0Mark Whitfield <\/strong>
\n7\/15\u00a0Rom\u00e1n Diaz & El Gallo Mistico<\/strong>
\n7\/22\u00a0Brian Lynch & Spheres of Influence<\/strong>
\n7\/29\u00a0\u00a0Cuban diva Melvis Santa<\/strong>
\n8\/05<\/strong> David Virelles trio<\/strong>
\n8\/12<\/strong> George Burton quintet <\/strong>
\n8\/19<\/strong> Direct from Sao Paolo:\u00a0Ulisses Rocha<\/strong>
\n8\/26<\/strong> Yosvany Terry quintet<\/strong>
\nphoto: Tomas Pe\u00f1a<\/em>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019d not yet been to Minton\u2019s, the new supper club that revives a storied Harlem name on 118th Street, until this week. I can tell you that the cuisine, under the direction of executive chef Alexander Smalls, is both fine and creative. But a new series \u201cJazz at the Crossroads: The Dance of Eleggua,\u201d which … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Dancing With Eleggua, Weekly, at Minton's in Harlem”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[153,11,154,155,12,14,38,156,157],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3957"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}