Gabriel Vicéns: Coming Back

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 and mastered.

The song is an expressive blend of modern jazz with bomba (an Afro-Puerto Rican folklore music style). The instrumentation includes a "barril" (barrel drum) which is a Puerto Rico folk instrument. Later this year, Vicéns hopes to release his third album as a leader, which is going to be focused on this blend of jazz with Afro-Puerto Rican folklore but with different musicians, different instrumentation and informed by four more years of life experience.

Opening with rippling piano from Bienvenido Dinzey, "Coming Back" soon settles into a steady groove similar to "Breaking Through Shadows" on the Days album (that track and the title tune were the only ones with the large ensemble heard here). Trumpeter Alex Sipiagin solos first, followed by tenor saxophonist David Sánchez. As Vicéns begins his lyrical guitar solo the arrangement briefly drops back to just guitar and piano. After the return of the striking theme the song ends with the introductory music as a coda, this time played by the entire rhythm section.

The tune is clearly not a leftover, but the equal of the ones that made the cut for the original album. Furthermore the single was mixed and mastered by the same engineer as the album. It could easily appear as a bonus track in a future re-release of Days. For now it is a tasty sample of what Gabriel Vicéns plans to do next.