The Reckless Night Ensemble: Pan Americanos: The Songs of Raymond Scott & Lalo Guerrero

Led by guitarist Skip Heller and bassist Nick Ornelas, The Reckless Night Ensemble on Pan Americanos feature the music of composers Raymond Scott and Lalo Guerrero and simultaneously captures two of Los Angeles' historic sounds in musical daguerreotype.

A chameleonic jazz-blues guitarist and small ensemble roots music master, Heller ties several different musical threads together into Pan Americanos. In the early 2000s, he teamed up in Los Angeles with Lalo Guerrero, often called the Father of Chicano music, and a small band eventually named The Reckless Night Ensemble (RNE) to swing and sing through Heller's arrangements of vintage Guerrero tunes.

Fast-forward to 2018: The family of Raymond Scott, a trailblazer in composing for films and electronics who passed in 2005, asked Heller to perform Scott's music at the Raymond Scott music festival, Scottworks 2018. Heller looped the RNE into this engagement, which turned out to be such a blast for all concerned that he kept the band together to record this half-and-half tribute to honor both Guerrero and Scott.

In the first half of Pan Americanos, featuring Guerrero's music, the composer's son Mark exchanges the male vocal in his father's classics "Los Angeles" and "Me Gusta El Cha Cha Cha" (the first single) with female vocalist Angelica Villareal, whose voice embodies every meaning of the word "vivacious." "Los Angeles" sounds like a love song written by and sent from Mexico to California. It rocks back and forth like a lullaby on the simple rhythm of a strummed guitar. Pianist Anthony Lopez keeps the lines in "Me Gusta" clean and sharp, stepping out for a lively solo spotlight.

The instrumentation in Guerrero's "Barrio Viejo," one of this set's longest and most dramatic pieces, is somehow sparse and mysterious and rises in power as Villareal's voice climbs in volume.

After the ensemble wobbles through Scott's exhausted blues "Coming Back Down to Earth," his music powers this set through a joyous conclusion. "Powerhouse" glides and rumbles on jungle drums through several exotic movements, including definite hard bop behind the saxophone solo, and suggesting a swing big band chasing a riff tied to its tail. Trumpet leads the band through the cinematic blues "Naked City," a languid groove that slowly floats in a haze of blue smoke and mystery, and on the lovely melody of "Portofino."

A bonus EP by Orquestra Rene, highlighted by the sunny samba "Who Do You Love," which feels like it just strolled in from a Mexican beach, and a "Yeh Yeh" instrumental so monstrously swinging that it turns your hips into pistons, packs in even more fun.

Comments