Ron Rieder: Dia Precioso!

Dia Precioso! is the second album of exuberant Latin Jazz designed by Massachusetts-based composer Ron Rieder, gliding in on the heels of his well-received debut recording, Latin Jazz Sessions (2024). As before, Rieder leads a more-or-less octet comprised of topnotch Boston-area musicians; and as before, Rieder's music is for the most part arranged by percussionist Ricardo Monzon.

While personnel remains roughly the same as on the earlier album, more brass (trumpeters Yaure Muniz or Greg Hopkins, trombonist David Harris) has been added to bolster the front line of tenor saxophonist Mike Tucker, flutist Fernando Brandao and (on two tracks) guitarist Claudio Ragazzi with Monzon, pianist Alain Mallet, drummer Mark Walker and bassist Fernando Huergo (replacing Oscar Stagnaro) in the rhythm section. Cellist Queralt Giralt and bandoneonist Alex Roitman are added on the graceful closing tango, "Volver a Amar."

The music is much the same too, using seductive melodies and strong Latin rhythms to erect a platform that is robust and fun to explore, starting with the breezy "Blue Skies" (Rieder's theme, not the well-known Irving Berlin standard) and continuing apace through seven more of his sunny original compositions, at least one of which, "I Fell Into a Meme," is based on a standard: "You Stepped Out of a Dream."

Tucker is an admirable soloist, while Hopkins, Harris, Mallet and Brandao make the most of their brief moments in the sun. It is the ensemble, however, that produces the more definitive statements, lending vibrancy and warmth to Rieder's handsome charts and Dia Precioso! its singular persona. If there is a downside, it lies in the album's meager thirty-three minute playing time. On the upside, none of that time is wasted. It is enough, however, to lower the over-all rating by one-half star.