Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Trio Mundo: Rides Again

317

Trio Mundo: Rides Again

By

View read count
Trio Mundo: Rides Again
Trio Mundo reconvenes following its '02 release, Carnaval , and this time reedman Steve Slagle, a guest on that recording and collaborator with guitarist Dave Stryker in the Stryker/Slagle Band, is more of a full-fledged member, performing on almost all tracks and contributing one composition to the programme of original compositions by Stryker, bassist Andy McKee and percussionist/vocalist Manolo Badrena. Trio Mundo Rides Again is a captivating album that moves Latin music into the 21st century with complete verve and innovation.

What makes Trio Mundo special is that, while Latin rhythms and constructs are the foundation on which it operates, the group has a far broader reach, even going as far afield as Africa for Stryker's upbeat "Africano" and India for the closing track, Stryker's compelling "Shanti." Their sheer enthusiasm is not only evident, it's overriding. Whether on Stryker's "Mundo Rides Again," which combines a Scofield-like melody with Badrena's vivid percussion including work on a drum kit for the first time, Badrena's African highlife-informed "Cameroun," or McKee's bossa-inflected "Dream Maurice," which takes a Ravel melody as its inspiration, there is an honesty, a total lack of affectation and complete commitment that makes this a difficult disk to take out of the player.

And while the group was formed originally as a showcase for Badrena, it is quite possibly Stryker who shines the brightest in a group of uniformly radiant players. Like guitarist Vic Juris, whose latest ZOHO release, Blue Horizon , comes out on the same day, this is a guitarist who is easily the equal of his more well-known contemporaries. With an appealing fat tone, broad harmonic knowledge and recognizable style, Stryker may have established a reputation for being a blues-drenched, soulful player who has backed such similarly-minded artists as Stanley Turrentine, Kevin Mahogany and Brother Jack McDuff—and there is no shortage of soul on tracks like McKee's "Hot Ice"—but the truth is that his reach is far wider.

Badrena, of course, emerged in the mid-'70s, and quickly became percussionist of choice for a wide variety of artists, including Joni Mitchell and, most notably, Weather Report (his association with Weather Report founder Joe Zawinul continues to this day in Zawinul's Syndicate). As a key member of Steve Khan's Eyewitness band in the late '80s and early '90s, he continued to keep the Latin tradition alive and contemporary. But it is with Trio Mundo that he is arguably given the most freedom, and that musical liberty pays big dividends on Trio Mundo Rides Again. Working regularly in the New York area as well as in Europe, Trio Mundo proves that tradition does not have to be synonymous with stagnation. The way music is moved forward is to take the rules of tradition, bend them and, on occasion, even break them, and Trio Mundo's respectful irreverence for the Latin tradition makes it a group that is absolutely vital to the furtherance of contemporary jazz.

Track Listing

Mundo Rides Again; Cameroun; Sweet Rhythm; Corazon; What You Want; Guille; Pinare

Personnel

Manolo Badrena (drums, percussion, vocals, nylon-string guitar on "Cameroun," "Pinare

Album information

Title: Rides Again | Year Released: 2004 | Record Label: Zoho Music

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Eternal Moments
Yoko Yates
From "The Hellhole"
Marshall Crenshaw
Tramonto
John Taylor

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.