Jazz Music News, Press Releases - Alex “Apolo” Ayala

Alex "Apolo" Ayala - Photo by Nick Carter

Alex “Apolo” Ayala is right in suggesting [concurring, actually, because all the masters of Puerto Rican music before – and contemporaneous with – him have not only expressed that thought but proved it in their music too] that Puerto Rican music has an unique identity in the ocean of Afro-Caribbean music. Indeed, traditional music and dances have names unique to Puerto Rico, and thus the rhythms have nothing whatsoever to do with Cuban and other Caribbean or South American music.

The bassist is right in positing that you can hear it in the music of Ismael Rivera to William Cepeda, Papo Vázquez and Miguel Zenón, and, of course Alex “Apolo” Ayala. The fact is that we are also not simply listening to completely distinct kinds of rhythm instruments that are tuned differently. The percussion instruments are tuned differently; have a flatter sound as they are struck [or caressed] differently, with altogether unique accents and melodic sounds.

Like Brasilian music – the most Africanised of South American countries – the spirit of the Congo is never far from Mr Ayala’s music. However, while the rippling rhythms are powerful and magnetic you can always hear new things being expressed in the rhythmic motifs. The mélange of notes colliding between those of the Afro-American drum set and the traditional Puerto Rican drums is what gives this music an extraordinary eloquence. The glue is, of course the bassist’s thunderous harmonic and rhythmic lines, and the manner in which they intertwine the various drumlines has an inimitable personality.

The sharp and angular attack of the [shared] lead voice of the saxophonist Andrew Gould is highly expressive in a Puerto Rican-rhythm manner, emphasising the traditional inspiration through altogether new and flexible phrasing and subtle gradation. The performance is an intense meeting of musical minds, and you feel this intensity not only during the faster pieces, but especially in the apogee of the album – the Agonía Suite.

This suite is beautifully shaped by the bassist and empathetically – and idiomatically – interpreted [especially] by the high and lonesome saxophone lines that humanize the desperate agony of the characters and situation in Mr Ayala’s highly personal narrative. Each of the movements inhabits its own expressive world of pain, yet the musicians maintain a through-line that connects the overall journey. The quartet emerges as expressively explosive and always inhibits the heart of the music – not simply of the suite, but all of the repertoire such as Ngudi and the fabulous 3D Plena, the relative tenderness Bomba Pa’ Ana Luisa and to crescendo of Cuembé at the end.

But make no mistake, the ensemble effort makes for an unqualified success of this album, and it would be difficult to imagine a better group to interpret these compositions. However, let there be no doubt that this is so because each of the performers is completely attuned to the bassist’s vision and artistry. Mr Ayala provides the vibrancy with his powerful intonation and articulation, applying a burnished woody glow and penetrating urgency to every line in close alliance with the aristocratic fervour of the rest of the celestial cast of musicians.

^{Deo Gratis…}

^{from https://latinjazznet.com}