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Jazz Articles about Diego Urcola
Miguel Zenón: Golden City
by Alberto Bazzurro
La musica contenuta in questo album trae spunto da una commissione ricevuta da Miguel Zenón per la composizione di una suite basata sulla storia di San Francisco e della Bay Area, evidenziando in particolare i contributi offerti da parte delle comunità giapponese, cinese, messicana e, ovviamente, afroamericana. Ne è nata così questa Golden City, presentata in anteprima al San Francisco Jazz Center nel 2022 e incisa poi a fine novembre dell'anno seguente. Per l'occasione Zenón (portoricano, lo ricordiamo) ...
Continue ReadingMiguel Zenon: Golden City
by Dan McClenaghan
The alto saxophone rose to jazz prominence in the 1940s, under the influence of Charlie Parker and the birth of bebop. Important players such as Art Pepper, Lee Konitz and Ornette Coleman took the horn in their own directions, crafting distinctive alto saxophone voices. Moving ahead to the new millennium, no alto saxophonist has entered the tradition with more style and panache than Miguel Zenon. His Alma Aldentro: The Puerto Rican Songbook (Marsalis Music, 2011), Tipico (Miel Music, 2017) and ...
Continue ReadingPablo Ablanedo: Christreza
by Glenn Astarita
This LP clocks in at around 38-minutes and is a bit of a tease since it progresses rather quickly and may leave many listeners wanting more. Here, Argentine-reared pianist/composer/educator Pablo Ablanedo's compositional gifts often take on cinematic film scoring intonations and developments, executed with jazz luminaries who the artist met while attending the Berklee College of Music in 1999. Owing to his heritage, the leader infuses subtle Latin jazz foreground grooves into several movements, whereas the opener “La ...
Continue ReadingDiego Urcola Quartet: El Duelo
by Mark Sullivan
The cover of this album shows Diego Urcola (trumpet, flugelhorn) and Paquito D'Rivera (alto saxophone, clarinet) back-to-back, as if about to engage in the titular duel. But the sound is that of two veteran players jointly taking a leap into the unknown. A quartet without piano is an unusual setting for both of them. D'Rivera's liner notes mention Gerry Mulligan's quartet with Chet Baker (represented by “ I Know, Don't Know How"), but Ornette Coleman's quartet is another, more surprising ...
Continue ReadingDiego Urcola Quartet: Appreciation
by AAJ Italy Staff
Come lascia facilmente intuire il titolo dell'album, con Appreciation il trombettista Diego Urcola ha voluto rendere omaggio ad una serie di musicisti verso i quali nutre ammirazione e riconoscenza. Grandi del jazz passato e presente (John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, ... ), ma anche dell'universo latino, sudamericano (Hermeto Pascoal, Astor Piazzolla, ...). Senza dimenticare i leader delle formazioni nelle quali ha militato (Paquito D'Rivera e Guillermo Klein). L'elenco è variegato e corposo. Per rendersene conto, è sufficiente scorrere la lista dei ...
Continue ReadingDiego Urcola: Musical Ecstasy
by R.J. DeLuke
Jazz music, its freedom and emphasis on self-expression through improvisation, has always had a strong pull on its practitioners, its artists. As fans and listeners, those qualities are also treasured. The infectious nature of those qualities is why jazz fans are passionate and loyal. It's music, born and bred in the United States, that has a fan base that stretches across the globe. In the case of a certain young musician in Buenos Aires, just a few decades ...
Continue ReadingDiego Urcola Quartet: Appreciation
by Charles Walker
Subtlety seldom brings rewards in the life of a journeyman jazz musician. In a field overcrowded with competent colleagues, plagued by spotty media coverage and half-starved by the problems facing the music industry more generally, a gimmick is often required to garner even scant attention. Argentinian-born, New York-based trumpeter Diego Urcola--a long-time member of Paquito D'Rivera's quintet and a stalwart of the late-night NYC scene--avoids the gimmicks on Appreciation, his fourth outing as a leader. Instead, he pushes his Sisyphean ...
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