Poncho Sanchez: World Heavyweight Conguero Champion...
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| Poncho Sanchez: Photo courtesy of globedia.com |
Latin Jazz Music fever erupted at Yoshi's Jazz Club in San Francisco on May 21 - May 22 (2011), brought on by a visit from 'El Jefe' of the congueros - Poncho Sanchez, and his Latin Jazz Orchestra.
Of course, jazbuzz.com was in the house!
Poncho Sanchez was born in Laredo, Texas and grew up in Los Angeles, California. His musical influences are stoutly eclectic and include Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Cal Tjader, Mongo Santamaria, James Brown and Wilson Pickett. Sanchez's music is diffused through this rich tapestry of figures and outputs into a vortex of hot whirling colors with rhythms of dazzling ferocity.
Sanchez's drumming submerges itself sonorously deep beneath the band's instrumental harmonies, like a diver seeking pearls, then smoothly breaks to the surface with fists filled with rare gems that percussively decorate the ensemble's melodic structures, hanging in the air like fine jewelry on a beautiful Latina. He is Charles Mingus on Afro-Cuban drums: Impressively strong in fingers, wrists, forearms and shoulders; with stamina to match; the ability to attack the congas with a calculated, relentless fury and hand speed of a pugilist; forcing them to surrender all their vibrant sounds and rhythms with the force of an erupting volcano. Experts who know about these sorts of things, endearingly refer to Mr. Sanchez's drumming style as "sick."
The band includes: Rob Hardt - saxophone/flute: Ron Blake - trumpet/flugelhorn: Francisco Torres - trombone: David Torres - keyboards: Tony Banda - bass: George Ortiz - timbales: Joey De Leon - percussion: Poncho Sanchez - congas.
Sanchez and the gang came out of the gate like jets, with trumpeter Ron Blake, tenor saxophonist Rob Hardt and trombonist Francisco Torres breathing fire. Immediately, the sold out crowd got excited; quickly Sanchez took over on congas; the evening's mood was set: Excitement reigned.
Sanchez is a geat story-teller. On this occasion he talk about his apprenticeship in the great Cal Tjader Band, which began in 1975, and lasted for more than seven years. He spoke with deep reverence and respect for Tjader and told the audience that he was with him when he died in the Philippines in 1982.
This night was given over to musical tributes; gazing backward and looking forward; mixed in were sumptuous portions of pungent nostalgia mixed with peppery rhythms.
Sanchez took time for a look back and simultaneously forward with a tribute to the Latin jazz contributions of Dizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo, hinting at the focus of his next CD which will feature guest trumpeter Terrence Blanchard. The band played "Tin Tin Deo," "Manteca" and "Con Alma," with sparkling trumpet work by Ron Blake, a superb conga drumming display by Sanchez, Joey DeLeon's wizardry on percussion, splashing intricate, striking colors on to the sheets of sound laid out by the horns, while pianist/musical director David Torres pounded the ivories like a modern day John Henry, driving golden chords securely into the pulsating tracks for this Latin jazz juggernaut to propel itself in any direction, at any speed and under any condition.
A cool dip into the 2010 Grammy nominated CD "Psychedelic Blues" brought out refreshing concoctions of Willie Bobo's soulful "I Don't Know" and the spicy "Fried Neckbones and Some Homefries." These Willie Bobo compositions are especially suited for the band and are performed in a languid, soulful, swaying strut that seem to take audiences by the hand and transport them to a time of carefree, easy joy. On this occasion, they also served as an artfully constructed bridge to the classic, uptempo Dizzy Gillespie composition, "Groovin' High," spiced and seasoned by the burning timbales of George Ortiz, and perfectly cooked with a searing Rob Hardt tenor solo.
This group of players engages in very hip 'call and response' musical conversations which are imbued with sophisticated street-wise idioms, and cryptically funneled through their instruments; you get a whiff of them from the musical vignettes they spontaneously create as each player is introduced by name to the audience. It's also funnier than hell!
They perform like a well-oiled machine; changing moods, tempos, colors and rhythms like an efficiently working super-charged transmission. They spun around in this fashion, mesmerizing the increasingly spell-bound crowd until they ran full force into the white hot salsa furnace of "Guaripumpe." This infectious heart-beater got the dancers on their feet, helped by some very sardonic, comic exhortations from bassist Tony Banda.
This is the moment that the band broke through, and Sanchez sensed it. He immediately invoked the spirit of the "Godfather of Soul," James Brown, and let loose a torrent of his 60's hits that drove the entire room into a frenzy of 'testifying' and shouting like repentant sinners searching for soul-cleansing salvation. This was intended to be the band's musical 'coup de grace'; to lead to a smooth exit. But the feverish crowd had smelled blood and called for more; they screamed that they were not taking "no" for an answer. So Mr. Sanchez and his band respectfully obliged and returned to the stage with Herbie Hancock's perennial crowd-pleaser, "Watermelon Man." It's sweet, hypnotic, thirst-quenching effect, eventually brought the patrons down to a swaying, controlled, uneventful finale.
The fire was extinguished; until next time!
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