Search - Paquito D'Rivera :: Havana Cafe

Havana Cafe - A Great Place To Hang Out

Douglas T Martin | Alpharetta, GA USA | 06/25/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Havana Cafe" was my introduction to Paquito D'Rivera's music in a small band setting. On this set D'Rivera plays alto and soprano sax, plus clarinet backed up by piano, guitar, bass, drums and percussion. The title track by musical director Danilo Perez opens the recording with a funky riff from the low end of the piano before breaking into a bright and upbeat melody; D'Rivera's alto sax solo is appropriately buoyant throughout. Guitarist Ed Cherry contributes "Jean Pauline", a smoothly grooving cha cha, and guitarist Fareed Haque brings his own "The Search", an exploratory piece of music. Two short tracks show off D'Rivera's considerable compositional skills: "Improvalsation", a duet for acoustic guitar and clarinet, and "Contradanza", a solo clarinet piece. These two works blur the lines between jazz, Latin and chamber music so effectively that trying to classify the them into any genre is futile. The highlight of "Havana Cafe" is the track "Who's Smoking?" a quick-paced bop number written by D'Rivera and featuring some excellent soloing from Ed Cherry. Although "Who's Smoking?" is dedicated to James Moody, D'Rivera is the one doing the smoking - his alto work on this track is, well, smoking. This is a killer set."

Great Latin Jazz Ensamble

Douglas T Martin | 06/04/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is my favorate D'Rivera CD -- so far. The combo is one of the best he has led. The musicianship is outstanding, and great tunes. Paquito is never "far out" but instead very accessible."