Jorge Cariglino: After the Storm

Spanish-Argentinian guitarist Jorge Cariglino has maintained an important influence on the jazz game in Madrid for most of his life. He teaches in there, plays with a variety of local and international masters and bolsters an under-reported community to new heights of experimentation and collaboration, despite an unusually slim catalogue of recorded works. After the Storm is more than just a welcome showcase of a talented musician reintroducing his craft to the rest of the world. It is also an impressive survey of varied styles in the Spanish scene.

After the Storm is a no-frills level-headed set of original compositions from Cariglino. Warm and smooth, but with an intelligent emotional candor that floats it far from the realm of Muzak, it is the guitarist's nimble changes in style that makes the record so buoyant. The title track grooves with a more mellow tropicalia-inflected rhythm, the guitarist tête-à-tête with organist Pat Bianchi, whose cooler muted solos complement the hot-blooded bandleader. Drummer Byron Landham completes the trio, and although he is not compelled to let loose often throughout the record, when he does, such as on "Dedication & Inspiration," he soars, complicating the boisterous strumming with his own bop inflections.

"Mirage" sends the group into an entirely different direction. It is a swooning sensuous ballad, and possibly Cariglino's most virtuosic performance. He is subdued and composed, like an older Pat Martino, but still endlessly curious as to the direction of the piece. As the composition speeds up, there is a genuine excitement at guessing where the group will take it next, and what other tricks they have up their sleeves. "Near You (Bells)" is another moody contemplative hit that blasts the players into their highest swinging forms. Bianchi, especially, diverts to long drawling passages, all sumptuous in their tonal troughs and crests, terribly easy for listeners to lose themselves in.

The two closing tracks, accompanied by saxophonist Bobby Martinez and Carlos Rossi on horn, are more of a mixed bag. Martinez's song, "And Let Them Say," is undeniably exciting, perhaps the only track to fully embrace the performers' boppier tendencies, and the tenor's pulsating pops and chirps are certainly welcome stimulants for the group to play with, however it loses the composure and grace of the rest of the record, and thus seems to leave the performers aimless by the end. Rossi's contributions to "Renouer" are admirable, yet the piece feels crowded with fits and starts, where it would have maintained the same cool tones to better effect with the original ensemble. Nevertheless, Cariglino still reveals himself as an able composer and a generous bandleader. Always the teacher, he allows his peers strange detours into unexpected territory, and even when those excursions are unsuccessful, a listener can feel that rare pleasure of peering into a classroom, witnessing ideas form from thin air.