Twenty years ago the pianist Danilo Perez was a precocious member of Dizzy Gillespies United Nations Orchestra, a clutch of musicians from the Americas and the Caribbean. That appointment, which ended with Gillespies death in 1993, was formative: Mr. Perez has said it gave him the conviction to seek out his own personal amalgam of jazz and Latin music, and in particular the folk music of his native Panama. From Gillespie, bebops peerless trumpet ambassador, he also learned a few things about the art of engaging an audience, even (or especially) when presenting them with a challenge.
All of which is worth remembering as Mr. Perez presides over 21st Century Dizzy, his new touring project, at the Jazz Standard this weekend. On its face its a scaled-back, updated iteration of the United Nations Orchestra, featuring the trumpeter Amir ElSaffar, the saxophonists David Snchez and Rudresh Mahanthappa, the bassist Ben Street, the drummer Adam Cruz and the percussionist Jamey Haddad. In its first set on Thursday night, the group was a study in roiling energy and collective incantation.
Repertory, for Mr. Perez, doesnt insist on any granite certainties. The program included three of Gillespies best-known compositions but they came in altered states, augmented or transmogrified. Meaningfully, too, Mr. Perez began with Suite for the Americas, a flash-point opus from his own 2000 album, Motherland (Verve). Its unpacking was a bit messy, but the solos, by each member of the front line, were fiery and focused. Mr. Perez, broadly smiling, fed the heat with his two-handed chordal attack.
All of which is worth remembering as Mr. Perez presides over 21st Century Dizzy, his new touring project, at the Jazz Standard this weekend. On its face its a scaled-back, updated iteration of the United Nations Orchestra, featuring the trumpeter Amir ElSaffar, the saxophonists David Snchez and Rudresh Mahanthappa, the bassist Ben Street, the drummer Adam Cruz and the percussionist Jamey Haddad. In its first set on Thursday night, the group was a study in roiling energy and collective incantation.
Repertory, for Mr. Perez, doesnt insist on any granite certainties. The program included three of Gillespies best-known compositions but they came in altered states, augmented or transmogrified. Meaningfully, too, Mr. Perez began with Suite for the Americas, a flash-point opus from his own 2000 album, Motherland (Verve). Its unpacking was a bit messy, but the solos, by each member of the front line, were fiery and focused. Mr. Perez, broadly smiling, fed the heat with his two-handed chordal attack.
