Jazz Articles about Paquito D'Rivera

Paquito D'Rivera Quntet?: Funk Tango

by Joel Roberts
December 9, 2007

The question mark at the end of the group's name above isn't a mistake. It's Paquito D'Rivera's way of signaling that listeners shouldn't expect to hear just a traditional jazz quintet on his consistently excellent and continually surprising Funk Tango. Instead, the Cuban-born multi-instrumentalist leads an ever-shifting international ensemble that adds and subtracts members based on the needs of the material, expanding, for example, to a septet with two extra percussionists for a spirited Latin bop take on Coltrane's “Giant ...

Paquito D'Rivera, Count Basie and Nnenna Freelon at the Kimmel Center, Philadelphia

by Victor L. Schermer
October 10, 2007

Paquito D'Rivera Quintet; The Count Basie Orchestra; Nnenna Freelon The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Verizon Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania September 28, 2007

The first concert in the series of Mellon Jazz Fridays at the Kimmel Center kicked off in the midst of Phillies “fever, with our local baseball team vying to hold first place in the Eastern conference, so the concert was interspersed with updates of the scores of the Phils and the ...

Paquito D'Rivera Quintet?: Funk Tango

by Chip Boaz
June 29, 2007

Alto saxophonist/clarinetist Paquito D'Rivera presents his album, Funk Tango, under the group name “The Paquito D'Rivera Quintet?. “Quintet refers to his working group of trumpeter/valve trombonist Diego Urcola, pianist Alon Yavnai, electric bassist Oscar Stagnaro and drummer Mark Walker. The “? highlights the group's flexibility through use of additional musicians or smaller configurations. Guests include percussionist Pernell Saturnino, bandoneonist Hector Del Curto, cajon player Pablo Stagnaro and pianists Ed Simon and Fernando Otero. The assured playing of the core quintet, ...

Paquito D'Rivera at

by Javier AQ Ortiz
November 2, 2003

Sunday October 12 at 4:00 p.m., the Florida Marlins were the obvious focus of interest in South Florida. They were well on their way towards puncturing the Cubs’ failed dreams not far from Las Olas Blvd. and Huizenga Plaza, down the historic Riverwalk in downtown Fort Lauderdale. Unbeknownst to the undersized group of people in attendance at ¡Viva Broward!, the baseball fish would eventually roll over the Yankees harder than Don Zimmer’s porcine-like fall on the field after BoSox Pedro ...

Paquito D'Rivera with the WDR Big Band: Big Band Time

by Javier AQ Ortiz
October 9, 2003

Quick and to the Point: WDR’s Latin Big Band offering with D’Rivera, Roditi and others. Big Band Time is yet another showcase for the first-rate WDR Big Band (WDR), featuring Paquito D’Rivera and Claudio Roditi. Conducted and rearranged by Bill Dobbins, the material is familiar, although its treatment isn’t. The reconceptualizations of compositions mostly associated with the career of the Cuban saxophonist are ingenious and the WDR eats them up. All soloists do the same, as this is ...

Paquito D'Rivera with the WDR Big Band: Big Band Time

by Jack Bowers
September 25, 2003

This is one of those good old-fashioned power-laden big-band albums that begs the listener to crank up the volume and let 'er rip. Great songs and wonderful charts, essentially in a buoyant Latin groove, played to a fare-thee-well by Germany's superlative WDR Big Band, with electifying solos by Paquito D'Rivera, Claudio Roditi, other guest artists and members of the ensemble. D'Rivera and Roditi, who performed together in mentor Dizzy Gillespie's United Nation Orchestra and have continued to do ...

Paquito D'Rivera with the WDR Big Band: Big Band Time

by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
June 25, 2003

As much as I love the intimacy of trios, there's nothing like a big band--especially one with Latin rhythms, great charts and masterful soloists. Big Band Time has all of these, together with ample proof that D'Rivera is a fine writer as well as player (six of the ten tunes are his). The German WDR Big Band is tight, the arrangements are crisp, and the CD crackles with energy from that first flugelhorn blast from Claudio Roditi. As ...