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Jazz Articles about Dafnis Prieto
Luciana Souza and Dafnis Prieto in Conversation and Song
by David Bixler
After the GRAMMY-winning album, Back to the Sunset, and his pandemic sextet project, Transparency, drummer and composer Dafnis Prieto was in search of something new. This journey brought him back to his roots and he again began to compose songs with lyrics as he did in his youth. Collaborating with Brazilian vocalist Luciana Souza he has created his latest project, Cantar. I am joined in this episode with both Luciana and Dafnis as they talk about the genesis and future of this unique project. this episode features ...
read moreToday’s Latin Big Bands: Dafnis Prieto, Arturo O’Farrill, Miguel Zenon, David Murray, Antonio Adolpho and Bobby Sanabria
by Russell Perry
Cuban influences have been heard in jazz since the 1940s. The 1960s brought significant Brazilian sounds into the music. Today, musicians from throughout Latin America are shaping the music, never more vibrantly than in large Latin ensembles. Latin Big Bands lead by Dafnis Prieto, Arturo O'Farrill, Miguel Zenon, David Murray, Arturo O'Farrill and Bobby Sanabria in this hour of Jazz at 100 Today! Playlist Host Intro 0:00 Dafnis Prieto Big Band “A Triumphant Journey" from Back to the ...
read moreDafnis Prieto Sextet: Transparency
by John Chacona
In Cuban music, emotional grandeur and extravagant virtuosity is built on a foundation of inexhaustible rhythm. So, it's no surprise to find an abundance of juicy melodies and breathtaking drumming on Transparency from drummer and MacArthur “Genius" Fellow Dafnis Prieto. Yet for all the astonishing things he does behind the kit, what stands out on Transparency is the dazzling formal sophistication of Prieto's compositions. Eight of the nine composer credits are his and the outlier, an arrangement of ...
read moreDafnis Prieto Big Band: Back to the Sunset
by Troy Dostert
The astonishingly talented and prolific drummer Dafnis Prieto has done a lot since moving to the States from his native Cuba in 1999. He's made a host of sideman appearances with musicians of widely varying stripes, including Peter Apfelbaum, Michel Camilo, Steve Coleman, Marilyn Lerner, Brian Lynch, Henry Threadgill, Chucho Valdés, and John Zorn. He won a MacArthur “genius" grant in 2011. He published an influential instructional guide, A World of Rhythmic Possibilities, in 2016. And he's recorded a significant ...
read moreDafnis Prieto Big Band: Back to the Sunset
by Jack Bowers
The alliance of Latin music and American jazz ripened on these shores more than seventy years ago, nourished by pioneers such as Mario Bauza, Chano Pozo, Dizzy Gillespie, Machito, Tito Puente and others. It has been carried forward and enhanced since then by a succession of remarkable innovators including in recent years the Cuban-born drummer Dafnis Prieto who has chosen on his seventh recording as leader to honor a number of his forebears and musical heroes in a big-band format. ...
read moreDafnis Prieto: Back to the Sunset
by Patrick Burnette
Back to the Sunset, the new album by the Dafnis Prieto Big Band opens with “Una Vez Mas," a fairly traditional Latin big band workout. Don't let that fool you--this is not your padre's Latin jazz album. Half way through the decidedly more mysterioso second track, “The Sooner the Better," it's amply apparent that Prieto is willing to explore by-ways ignored by genre traditionalists. The result is a challenging album that requires attentive listening if its pleasures are to be ...
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