Search - Paul Carlon Octet :: Roots Propaganda

What if the spirit warrior goddess had blown through the Hurricane Club during Duke Ellington's early 1940s flirtations with Latin jazz? Jazz saxophonist and composer Paul Carlon and his Octet imagine just such a musical scenario on their second album, Roots Propaganda (Deep Tone Records). The ensemble returns to the roots of classic jazz and to the Afro-Latin roots that have sent Carlon on a spiritual journey of sound around Latin America.
The album features some of NYC's finest young jazz and latin jazz musicians, as well as several special guests. Vocalist Christelle Durandy, born in France with parents from the Caribbean island of Guadaloupe and the island of Réunion off the coast of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, grew up playing percussion and dancing with her family's folkloric group in Guadaloupe. Though she always wanted to sing, her father insisted that they first learn to play instruments, giving the versatile singer an uncommon range of musicianship. Christelle has worked and recorded in Paris, New York and Havana.
Rumbatap innovator Max Pollak is featured on two tracks, Mambo pa' Kanoa and Ochun , recorded in São Paulo, Brazil. Paul and Max engage in layered sonic explorations of feet and body percussion, vocals, and woodwinds. The pair showcased their creativity in NYC s Central Park in August 2008 as part of the Summerstage concert series.