{"id":4551,"date":"2014-11-14T21:51:26","date_gmt":"2014-11-14T21:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.artinfo.com\/blunotes\/?p=4551"},"modified":"2014-11-14T21:51:26","modified_gmt":"2014-11-14T21:51:26","slug":"manhattan-subrosas-soft-launch-hits-hard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/2014\/11\/14\/manhattan-subrosas-soft-launch-hits-hard\/","title":{"rendered":"Manhattan: Subrosa's Soft Launch Hits Hard"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Pedrito Martinez\/ photo: Michael Weintrob<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nThe bad news: If you’ve never caught the Cuban percussionist Pedrito Martinez <\/strong>leading his quartet at the midtown Manhattan restaurant Guantanamera, where he held court for nearly a decade, you never will.
\n\u201cAt first we played traditional Cuban songs, but then we decided \u2028to just play what we love and let people get used to it,\u201d Martinez told me for this feature story<\/a> I wrote about him in 2012.
\nPeople got used to it\u2014enough so that the gig became a scene, drawing players from all walks of music, from Wynton Marsalis to Eric Clapton.
\nBut that gig is done.
\nThe good news: Martinez\u2019s residency lives on\u2014now transplanted to Subrosa<\/strong><\/a>, a new venue in Manhattan\u2019s newly fashionable meatpacking district. Subrosa is owned and operated by the Blue Note Entertainment Group, a company anchored by its namesake Greenwich Village jazz club. The new club, which seats 120, feels intimate without seeming cramped, elegant yet not slicked-up: white-painted brick walls and cafe tables give way to a horseshoe-shaped bar in the rear.
\nBy now, Martinez\u2019s mesmerizing talents as singer and percussionist have made him as potent a force on New York\u2019s music scene as there has been in many years, sparking new attention to and possibilities for Afro-Cuban tradition.\u00a0If Thursday night\u2019s first set was any indication, the high energy, deep musicality and spontaneity of his former Guantanamera residency continues apace.
\n Though pianist Edgar Pantoja had only recently replaced Ariacne Trujillo in the quartet, he seemed well esconced within the intuitive rapport and rhythmic cohesion Martinez shares with longtime partners bassist Alvaro Benavides and percussionist Jhair Sala.
\nMartinez\u2019s new residency is already a fresh scene worth catching for both reliable thrills and the potential for suprises. On Thursday, percussionist Rom\u00e1n D\u00edaz<\/strong><\/a>,\u00a0Martinez\u2019s mentor and himself a forceful presence in New York these days, sat at a corner table. Seated nearby was Ernesto Gatell<\/strong><\/a>,\u00a0who has been principal singer in Cuba\u2019s most important rumba groups, and who Martinez first made music while growing up in the Cayo Hueso neighborhood of Havana. (Gatell now lives in Washington, D.C.)
\n
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Ernesto Gatell (left) singing with Pedrito Martinez as Jhair Sala plays cowbell at Subrosa\/ photo: Larry Blumenfeld<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nNear the set\u2019s end, Gatell took the stage, singing with obvious authority; Martinez lent harmony, and then responses to Gatell\u2019s calls. Soon, D\u00edaz joined them onstage, taking over Martinez\u2019s congas. “Luisito” Quintero<\/strong> stepped up too, playing bongos. Martinez, white handkerchief in hand, left the stage to dance between the club\u2019s caf\u00e9 tables. It was a reminder of Martinez\u2019s roots: of the rumba tradition he learned form elders like Gatell, in which music and dance are parts of a whole; and of his own career, which involved distinction as a dancer long before he became a sought-after percussionist. And the scene offered a taste of the atmosphere at a rumba club in Havana, when things heat up through both rhythmic intensity and the warmth of personal associations.
\nMartinez will be back at\u00a0Subrosa<\/strong> with regular midweek residencies, including November 19,\u00a020. The club\u2019s upcoming bookings include another noteworthy Cuban musician, drummer Francisco Mela <\/strong>(his son <\/em>quartet plays\u00a0December 12,\u00a019 &\u00a026). For complete listings and more information, go here<\/a>.
\nThe club\u2019s grand opening is set for December, according to Bensusan. This week was a \u201csoft launch,” he said.
\nYet it sounded loud and hard-hitting. And plopped down into a basement within a wildly gentrified neighborhood, the traditions Martinez and his partners called forth seemed at once ancient and more hip than anything smartly dressed trendwatchers dished out on the street above.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The bad news: If you’ve never caught the Cuban percussionist Pedrito Martinez leading his quartet at the midtown Manhattan restaurant Guantanamera, where he held court for nearly a decade, you never will. \u201cAt first we played traditional Cuban songs, but then we decided \u2028to just play what we love and let people get used to … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Manhattan: Subrosa's Soft Launch Hits Hard”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[25,217,12,14,218,219],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4551"}],"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=4551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4551\/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=4551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}