Jazz Articles about Francisco Mela

About Francisco Mela

Album Review

Zoh Amba: O Life, O Light Vol. 1

Read "O Life, O Light Vol. 1" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
June 3, 2022

Since relocating to NYC from Tennessee, twenty one year old tenor saxophonist and flautist Zoh Amba has been keeping fast company. On her debut O Sun (Tzadik, 2022), in a sign of affirmation label boss John Zorn guests on one track, while O Life, O Light continues in the same vein as she helms a heavyweight trio comprising celebrated bassist William Parker and storied drummer Francisco Mela. Amba studied with David Murray, but her sound owes more to the raw ...

Album Review

Francisco Mela featuring Matthew Shipp and William Parker: Music Frees Our Souls Vol. 1

Read "Music Frees Our Souls Vol. 1" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
November 10, 2021

Music Frees Our Souls furthers Cuban drummer Francisco Mela's ongoing ventures in freely improvised surroundings. Already well-established with heavyweight leaders such as McCoy Tyner, Joe Lovano and Esperanza Spalding, as well as a series of dates under his own name, Mela has now enlisted pianist Matthew Shipp and bassist William Parker, two of the best in this particular business, in his quest for spontaneous magic. When joining such a long-lasting partnership, (Parker and Shipp first hooked up ...

Album Review

Jeff Pearring/Pearring Sound: Socially Distanced Duos

Read "Socially Distanced Duos" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
August 5, 2021

Jeff Pearring's background in jazz, classical, reggae and other genres has informed his creative process in ways that are not always apparent. That turns out to be a good thing as his ability to encapsulate influences without genuflecting is part of his music's appeal. The alto saxophonist, a Brooklyn-based Colorado native, is a Connie Crothers protégé with a similarly independent mindset. Billed as “Pearring Sound," the saxophonist surrounds himself with a rotation of players varying on three previous, self-produced albums, ...

Album Review

Santi Debriano: Flash of the Spirit

Read "Flash of the Spirit" reviewed by Paul Rauch

by Paul Rauch
January 15, 2021

Bassist/composer Santi Debriano has been prominently on the scene since the late seventies, when he worked for several years with saxophonist Archie Shepp. Born in Panama, and raised in Brooklyn from a very young age, his life was integrated with the many crosscurrents of jazz music in the Americas. He worked prominently with Sam Rivers in Paris for a few years, before heading back to New York to perform with the likes of Pharoah Sanders, Sonny Fortune, Larry Coryell, Freddie ...

Album Review

Drew Wesely/Kenneth Jimenez/Francisco Mela: Triangulate the Landscape

Read "Triangulate the Landscape" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
August 3, 2020

An interesting trio comprised of a well-established veteran percussionist, Francisco Mela, and two relative newcomers, bassist Kenneth Jimenez and guitarist Drew Wesely, the musicians behind Triangulate the Landscape are engaged in that age-old challenge of free improvisation: how to create a substantial musical conversation that combines separate, independently-determined voices into a larger whole. While the three players aren't consistently successful in this regard, the album offers enough moments of enticing collective purpose to render the project worthwhile. Mela ...

Album Review

Francisco Mela: Ancestros

Read "Ancestros" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
November 18, 2018

One of the many fine musicians coming out of Cuba, Francisco Mela is an accomplished drummer/percussionist and composer. On Ancestros, his debut on the vinyl-only subscription label Newvelle, he has contributed seven original compositions to a collection that includes covers from Andrew Hill and Paul Motian. The album name--and its title track--are appropriated from Mela's prior release Fe (Self-produced, 2016). On two of Mela's previous releases, Melao (Ayva Musica, 2006) and Tree of Life (Half Note, 2011), progressive jazz shares ...

Album Review

Francisco Mela & The Crash Trio: Fe

by James Nadal
August 30, 2016

Since departing Cuba to study at Berklee in 2000, drummer Francisco Mela has been on a meteoric trajectory throughout the jazz dominion. In 2005 he joined the Joe Lovano Quartet, and in 2009 the McCoy Tyner Trio, all the while releasing three critically acclaimed albums as leader. Fe is his first venture with The Crash Trio, a dynamic showcase of poly-rhythmic drumming and propulsive modernism. Fe translates into faith, and this is Mela's homage to his late parents, ...