DAVID VIRELLES – Mbókò: Sacred Music for Piano, Two Basses, Drum Set
and Biankoméko Abakuá
ECM 378 2966
David Virelles: piano; Thomas Morgan: double bass; Robert Hurst: double bass; Marcus Gilmore: drums; Román Díaz: biankoméko, vocals
Recorded December 2013
David Virelles has been heard on previous ECM releases, appearing on Tomasz Stanko’s Wislawa and Chris Potter’s The Sirens, and with Mbókò: Sacred Music for Piano, Two Basses, Drum Set and Biankoméko Abakuá, the Cuban born but Brooklyn based pianist makes his debut for the label.
Taking folkloric rhythms of Afro-Cuban religious ritual he has brought the music in the 21st century and juxtaposed the traditional music of his own heritage with that of his abilities as a jazz musician and improviser. Further investigation in to the origins of the title and the Abakuá culture, apart from proving educational and interesting may only serve to blur the intent and power of the music, as the theory and motives of Virelles’s in composing these pieces is a very personal part of his who he is, as both a person and a musician.
Crucial to the success of the music is the melding together of two sets of relationship between piano and percussion, and the two basses and drums, and how they find common ground and forge a new unified and collective. Percussionist Román Díaz plays the traditional Cuban four drum biankoméko kit, and as Virelles’s points out is a specialist of the largest drum in the biankoméko – the improvising drum bonkó enchemiyá. It is this relationship that is initially explored in the albums two opening pieces, both of which are rather introverted and at time impenetrable. However, the music gradually opens up with ‘Biankoméko’ where the piano lines are more animated and elaborate, and from here on the roles within the unusual instrumentation become more defined. However, more defined does not mean a mere reverting to type, but the two basses working together to create a drone as well as a pulse, and drummer Marcus Gilmore integrates himself with the material and his colleagues in both camps, in a dialogue that draws the all the parts seamlessly into a satisfying whole.
This process develops over the course of the album, with the collective very quickly feeding off the splinters of melody from the keyboard, and listening and reacting to the less familiar timbres and rhythms of the biankoméko. This culminates in a beautifully played out ‘The High One’, a quiet reflective piece that is reminiscent of looking into a well, with more being revealed the deeper one looks.
Reviewed by Nick Lea
ECM 378 2966
David Virelles: piano; Thomas Morgan: double bass; Robert Hurst: double bass; Marcus Gilmore: drums; Román Díaz: biankoméko, vocals
Recorded December 2013
David Virelles has been heard on previous ECM releases, appearing on Tomasz Stanko’s Wislawa and Chris Potter’s The Sirens, and with Mbókò: Sacred Music for Piano, Two Basses, Drum Set and Biankoméko Abakuá, the Cuban born but Brooklyn based pianist makes his debut for the label.
Taking folkloric rhythms of Afro-Cuban religious ritual he has brought the music in the 21st century and juxtaposed the traditional music of his own heritage with that of his abilities as a jazz musician and improviser. Further investigation in to the origins of the title and the Abakuá culture, apart from proving educational and interesting may only serve to blur the intent and power of the music, as the theory and motives of Virelles’s in composing these pieces is a very personal part of his who he is, as both a person and a musician.
Crucial to the success of the music is the melding together of two sets of relationship between piano and percussion, and the two basses and drums, and how they find common ground and forge a new unified and collective. Percussionist Román Díaz plays the traditional Cuban four drum biankoméko kit, and as Virelles’s points out is a specialist of the largest drum in the biankoméko – the improvising drum bonkó enchemiyá. It is this relationship that is initially explored in the albums two opening pieces, both of which are rather introverted and at time impenetrable. However, the music gradually opens up with ‘Biankoméko’ where the piano lines are more animated and elaborate, and from here on the roles within the unusual instrumentation become more defined. However, more defined does not mean a mere reverting to type, but the two basses working together to create a drone as well as a pulse, and drummer Marcus Gilmore integrates himself with the material and his colleagues in both camps, in a dialogue that draws the all the parts seamlessly into a satisfying whole.
This process develops over the course of the album, with the collective very quickly feeding off the splinters of melody from the keyboard, and listening and reacting to the less familiar timbres and rhythms of the biankoméko. This culminates in a beautifully played out ‘The High One’, a quiet reflective piece that is reminiscent of looking into a well, with more being revealed the deeper one looks.
Reviewed by Nick Lea
