Search - Jorge Sylvester :: In The Ear Of The Beholder

In the 20th century, Panamanian musicians, from Luis Russell to Danilo Perez, have contributed profoundly to the jazz idiom. Add to the list of Panamanian jazz players the brilliant Colon-born, New York-based alto saxophonist Jorge Sylvester, who's worked with Oliver Lake, David Murray, and the Black Rock Coalition. Backed by Puerto Rican drummer and percussionist Bobby Sanabria's articulate polyrhythms and African American bassist Donald Nicks's Jaco Pastorius-derived bass lines, Sylvester's piercing alto tones combines Sonny Rollins's rhythmic drive and Joe Henderson's melodic complexity. The trio abstracts, refracts, and then reinvents the black dance rhythms of the New World, including the Brazilian timbal/tambor de mina on "Tambor: The Mix," the Trinidadian calypso "Sly Mongoose," and Beny Moré's Cuban bolero "Corazon Rebelde" with a swinging jazz sensibility. Jorge Sylvester and his marvelous trio prove that jazz is truly a Pan-American phenomenon. --Eugene Holley Jr.