Jazz Articles about Leonardo Osuna

About Leonardo Osuna

Album Review

On their often pulse-quickening, wholly improvised double disc, NBT II, the intrepid No Base Trio—alto saxophonist Jonathan Suazo, guitarist Gabriel Vicéns and drummer Leonardo Osuna— draw on their own inner tensions and tenacity for a roiling and immersive exploration of jazz's more open-ended, less categorized, freer regions. Picking up where 2020's cascading debut No Base Trio (Setola di Maiale) left off, NBT instigate and inhabit the shadowlands. Snatches of their native Puerto Rican folk dance roll like cumulus ...

Album Review

Jonathan Suazo / Gabriel Vicens / Leonardo Osuna: No Base Trio

Read "No Base Trio" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
July 10, 2020

There's an eery sumptuousness to the gravity-free, genre-less sound of No Base Trio that makes it incredibly difficult to get on with the day. The slant and tilt of modular sonic eruptions grab immediate attention. Its cascading, formless ambience affords strange new spaces to inhabit, explore, and contemplate during lockdown. Hailing from Puerto Rico, this debut recording features the imaginative, often volatile union of guitarist Gabriel Vicéns, alto saxophonist Jonathan Suazo and drummer Leonardo Osuna threading the free ...

Album Review

Gabriel Vicéns: Coming Back

Read "Coming Back" reviewed by Mark Sullivan

by Mark Sullivan
February 12, 2019

The rules for releasing music have been in flux for some time, and the digital single has made its way from pop music to jazz. Puerto Rican jazz guitarist/composer Gabriel Vicéns (now a New York City resident) presents an unreleased track from the recording sessions for his second album Days (Inner Circle Music, 2015). The guitarist found the rough mix of this song by accident and since he still related to the track he arranged for it to be mixed ...

Album Review

Gabriel Vicéns: Days

Read "Days" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero

by Vincenzo Roggero
April 6, 2016

Non ancora trentenne il chitarrista portoricano Gabriel Vicéns dimostra di sapersi muovere disinvoltamente nel mare magnum del modern mainstrem, con piglio autorevole nella conduzione musicale, con studiata scaltrezza nel variare mood e atmosfere, con intelligenza nell'assicurarsi i servigi di due vecchie volpi come il sassofonista David Sanchez e il trombettista Alex Sipiagin anche co-produttore del disco, pubblicato dalla etichetta discografica di Greg Osby. Il clima generale della registrazione non può non risentire della provenienza geografica del nostro, che ha tuttavia ...

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Album Review

Gabriel Vicéns: Days

by Chris Mosey
October 24, 2015

A varied mix of influences has gone into the songs on this, Gabriel Vicéns' second album. There are the the loves of the guitarist's young life, the vampires and werewolves of the horror films he enjoys and the everyday trials and tribulations of the working people of his native Puerto Rico. He says: “I wrote 'Days' as a tribute to ordinary people who need to wake up early and work hard every single day... doing the same ...

Album Review

Gabriel Vicéns: Days

by Roger Farbey
October 12, 2015

Gabriel Vicéns recorded his first album Point in Time in 2012, when the guitarist was only 23 and which featured jazz bass legend Eddie Gomez. Days, his second album was recorded in his home town of San Juan, Puerto Rico. He currently teaches guitar at a collegiate level in the Music Department of the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico. Thanks to its tight ensemble,"El Teatro" sounds like a big band arrangement with initial solos from Alex Sipiagin on ...

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Album Review

Gabriel Vicéns: Days

by Edward Blanco
October 6, 2015

Young Puerto Rican-born guitarist Gabriel Vicens unveils his second album as leader with the audacious Days documenting a nine-piece program of infectious modern jazz with a touch of the Latin flavor to make it interesting and quite appealing. A graduate from the Conservatorio de Musica de Puerto Rico, the twenty-seven-year old musician is currently professor at the Universidad Interamericana in San Juan and is widely recognized as one of the Island's up and coming rising jazz stars. Featured here are ...