Review of Javier Ruibal AND Chick Corea by Maya De Silva Chafe

On Friday, November 18th The Academy of the City Charter School of Long Island City hosted a benefit at Centro Espanol in Astoria. The three-storied building itself was built in 1922 for The Loyal Order of the Moose (LOOM) and has a large and gracious hall with a raised proscenium stage and good acoustics. The tapas were plentiful and reasonably priced for a benefit: authentic Spanish tortilla, jamon y queso, with wine & beer for sale also.

Javier came onstage solo to sing us songs “about love”- suggesting that we, the audience, should “do all that I sing about after the concert tonight.” He describes his own songs as going to “places of dreams and fantasies, amongst the aroma of the earth.” He plays the guitar masterfully, incorporating some flamenco guitar technique with his popular song style vocals. The music was at once soothing and exciting. Javier Ruibal is a poet and songwriter of the first quality. He is appearing at the Instituto Cervantes on November 29th and on December 3rd at Alwan for the Arts on Beaver St in Lower Manhattan.

Opening the show on his acoustic guitar with a ballad called “Agua Luna”, the troubadour sang the following: “Saber de locura desnuda, Amar saliente, Guardame, Juegos del espejo, Tu pecho-tus lunares, and Tu corazon sin dueno.” (This is perhaps not the actual sequence of these phrases, this is only what I could catch with my limited comprehension of a language which is not my first, author please forgive) The verse lyrics are folksy and sexy at once, while the bridges and adornments are more flamenco.

The song’s final chord is dark, although entire song was bright & playful, which is the opposite of some typical flamenco structures: mostly dark songs with a sudden happy wrap up, as my friend guitarist John Simpson used to say, “so you don’t go home and kill yourself.” Perhaps to counter-act the inherent tragedy of love the second ballad was called “Broma”. Here Ruibal’s voice is full of feeling and passion. “Aroma, no quiero ir-del quinto piso pa arriba, en un barco de papel, en un avion de lata…..” Javier Ruibal’s lyrics remind me of Simon & Garfunkel or Billy Joel, they are sweet and clever with a touch of ironic humor, alternating the dark mood of a tango with a lilting playful catch.

After accompanying himself for five songs Sr. Ruibal brought on the keyboard player Jorge Dulin. Together they played “La Flor de Istanbul” a hypnotic and mysterious tune set to an old composition by Eric Satie, a 17th century French Romantic (naturally) composer with lyrics by Ruibal about a Turkish dancer in Paris. Later when he invited the rest of his group (Chris White cello, Franco Pino percussion, Javier Moreno on stand-up bass,) onstage they really started clicking, at which point we found out that Sr. Ruibal has an even more powerful voice and he began to come off more like a rock star. With the ensemble’s solid back up the leader’s voice began to stretch out a bit more, in a good way, using a throaty vibrato and more styling and melismas, with both music and vocals referencing Arabic, Islamic, Judeo/Christian and Flamenco motifs. The musical themes also had elements of Latin jazz, samba and popular music.

One of my favorite numbers of the night wrapped up the first half of the concert, a rumba called “La Gloria de Manhattan”. After a reflective and melodic start with keyboards and mysterious cymbals, it developed a catchy twist on the chorus, they would switch to a 9/8 rhythm and then back to the standard 4/4 rumba for the verses. This number really had a great hook and lot of dynamics. I felt like dancing, and the song produced a tremendous reaction from the public with tons of Oles and Bravos!

As the concert continued, Javier brought on a young guitarist from Malaga, Ricardo Moreno who was also an inspired player, he really added a lot to the tunes. Since I am not a musician I don’t have a huge vocabulary with which to write a music critique, but I do know good music when I hear it. Each musician on this stage was a skilled player, and obviously real professionals since I think they had about two rehearsals together before the show, although I believe that Chris and Javier knew each other many years, plus Ruibal and Ricardo Moreno also had known each other in Spain. Chris White was impressive. I had never heard a cello featured so strongly in a Latin ensemble. Percussionist Pino had the elements of a traditional drum kit plus an Argentine Bomba, a Thai drum and bongos. Both the standing bass and the keyboardist were excellent, Javier Moreno and Jorge Dulin. All together they made a lovely blend, creating a wonderful swell and roll of music.

Later some of the people in the audience sang along with a few songs, there were dancers on the floor, and the concert wrapped up with Ruibal’s hit song Pasara. Some folks left early, disappointed because they thought the concert would be more flamenco puro. Nevertheless I felt that the evening, though less well attended than deserved, was a tremendous success.

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On Sunday, Nov 20th, I had the good fortune to be celebrating a birthday, and as such was invited to see Chick Corea’s Flamenco Heart at the Blue Note on W. 3rd St, NYC. We managed to get seats to the final show at 10:30pm on Sunday night, their sixth and last set of the weekend. At the legendary jazz club they are celebrating Chick Corea’s 70th birthday for a month and this last weekend Chick had Nino Josele, Jorge Pardo, Carlos Benavent and Jeff Ballard in his excellent ensemble.

Chick Corea is very lively for being seventy and at the end of a month long performance marathon. He is spry and peppy in the mike, affably introducing numbers and keeping us informed. The first number was one that Chick had recorded with Paco de Lucia in the 70’s called Touchstone featuring his wife on vocals, with Chick driving a strong and jazzy flamenco piano with complex modulations on a scale (that sounded quite like a Solea por Buleria)…. that would be Phrygian, I believe, but played with a Rumba feel, in a 4/4 time signature.

These artists are the very best in their chosen instruments at what they do, they are such all seasoned musicians, Pardo and Benavent having been an integral part of Paco de Lucia’s sextet for over 20 years. Jeff Ballard played on the Corea album Origin years ago and flew in from his place in Spain to play this date. These guys are just so good. Words cannot describe how satisfying it is to listen to them play. Chick sets up a basic parameter melody and after a steady groove is established then he will just start to play with all the possible variations that he can lay his fingers on at a the moment, each note just tickling the right spot, and then he’ll toss it over to the next expert, who in turn does his thing until all his present variations are exhausted and then we get to start all over again with the next guy, each number so extended and enjoyed that it lasts about 12-15 minutes.

To open a number presented as a Tribute to Bill Evans we heard a long flamenco guitar introduction from Nino Josele. This was lovely, but aside from this moment the guitar was not very loud in the mix, at least not from where I was sitting and I felt he was not very well featured for much of the rest of the show. As this number progressed in to a rollicking bulerias Jeff Ballard took an amazing extended solo on the 12-count theme. When each of the artists take their solos and begin their riffs, one can lose aural sight of the flamenco feel and coast instead on a powerful blend of Latin and jazz, with some flamenco forms, but the theme is always maintained and expanded on: these masters blend and morph together so effortlessly that there is never a dull moment or a musical misstep. Auxi Fernanadez, a bailaora form Cadiz who is new to the NYC scene, joined the musicians onstage at the end of their third number, doing palmas (and blocking my tiny view) for 2/3rds of the song, but then adding to the percussion with her improvised footwork

The real treat of the set, the icing on the musical cake, was the unpretentious talent of Concha Buika. This chanteuse from the Canary Isles is a tremendously gifted young lady in her 20’s. She will be headlining at Carnegie Hall on Feb 8th, 2012. Mr. Corea sent Buika a composition of his called Hand Me Down and asked her to write the lyrics. This number was one of three gems she shared with us, her expressively rich whisky voice reverberating throughout the club as she sang: “Bailame…Llevame…abrazame…punal de seda…apuname…quedate….bailame” in a jazzy Latin style. Any collaboration between artists like these two cannot fail to be compelling. Buika also sang Mi Nina Lola, her signature Spanish copla, a sentimental number that brought tears to more than one pair of eyes in the club. Watching her, so at ease and natural onstage, in a sequined gold shirt and jeans, I imagined that people must have felt that way seeing Billie Holiday perform, she is just so exceptional, with a star quality that is completely unaffected.

Dancer Auxi came back at the end for a big finish, she had an abandon within her control that was much appreciated. During an encore, Chick started doing a refrain that the audience sang back to him, which developed into a call and response sort of challenge, where he would play a phrase and we would sing it back to him, again and again….this was fun and people who go to the Blue Note must listen to a lot of jazz and so can pretty well sing on pitch!

This was an historic concert and very enjoyable, even though one gets crammed into tiny tables at Blue Note, it’s such a mill, but the service is good, the sound is excellent and the artists are absolutely top notch. It was very thrilling to be present.

Though neither of the concerts I saw this weekend were actually flamenco music, they were both first quality with lots of flamenco influence evident. It’s a good thing to live in NYC.

Maya De Silva Chafe is an artist and instructor from NYC who contributes to flamenco Buzz.