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Shelly Berg: Alegria
by Pierre Giroux
Shelly Berg's Alegria is a journey through the landscapes of love, joy and reflection. Joined by longtime collaborators bassist Carlitos Del Puerto and drummer Dafnis Prieto, along with tenor saxophonist Melvin Butler on a couple of tracks, Berg creates a sound that is bustling and approachable. The eleven tracks release are predominately Berg originals, with two reinterpretations of classics from Leonard Bernstein and The Beatles, each designed to offer a narrative that reflects Berg's connection to ...
Continue ReadingLuciana 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 ...
Continue ReadingDafnis Prieto: I'm a drummer because I love melody
by David Bixler
Today’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 ...
Continue ReadingDafnis 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 ...
Continue ReadingDafnis 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 ...
Continue ReadingDafnis 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. ...
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