There is no doubt that the sixteenth edition of the Polanco Jazz Festival, which is taking place this weekend at the Ángela Peralta Theater, in Lincoln Park, in polancohas jazz to delight all ears, however diverse and demanding they may be.
This is how he was seated during the first session of this meeting on a Saturday afternoon with generous weather. In the previous note, the writer told you about the first two presentations at the festival: Víctor Patrón and Roberto Arballo, two eminences, and the Omar Gardunho Trío, tasty and talented psychedelic jazz.
But let’s turn the page because the acts that followed justify the excellent curatorship of the festival. It is not for nothing that its sixteenth edition has come to fruition.
“And if I live a hundred years, a hundred years I think of you.” In the voice of the Veracruz Lucia Gutierrez Rebollosorecent winner of the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competitionin the United States, to give a reference to the self-knowledge of voice that has developed, it is inferred, empirically and then academically.
With a skilled group in the topics that we all know, the Mexicans that we love, “Cielito lindo” and “La llorona”, for example, Lucia Gutierrez Rebolloso He took over the stage as his voice reached the last spectator who, by this time of the afternoon, was already filling the space, with everything and the sun was shining hard on his back.
His connection with the public was so great that to introduce the son jarocho called “Las olas del mar”, he confessed that for a period of his life he had a flamenco love, and that is where the arrangements he made for the song came from, which also they allowed him to show off the range of his voice more. They are jarocho and flamenco in a rola. Those are the possibilities of jazz. Imagine you:
“I hear the waves of the sea / that do not stop for a moment (…) for any reason / I have stopped loving you (…) I am a prisoner in that room / just for wanting to love.”
Oh, how we like the ones that hurt!
It hardly seemed that his presentation was beginning when he was already saying goodbye. And the public did not leave her; she demanded. And there was an opportunity not for one but three more.
The first one, a son jarocho, one more, of course. “Rattle, if you don’t love me, I don’t live on your affection / your feelings as a child hide what you are.”
Oh, pain, you already hit me again!
In that song, he was accompanied by a musician who seriously began to play what seemed to be a jarocho requinto or son guitar. And he scratched him seriously, he scratched him firm and melodic. Well, he scratched him so well that he wrested another howl from that male who howled shamelessly at the group that preceded him.
After that song, Lucía sang “Cielito lindo” and, finally, at the request of the public, she closed with “La llorona”. Pure songs that all Mexican audiences carry in their hearts.
The teacher at the piano
To close, a teacher, Gabriel Hernandezfrom sister Cuba, with jazz as conceived in a sextet: the maestro on piano, accompanied by sax, trumpet, strings, drums.
Jazz has a foundation in composition, but it tends to be enriched by other elements accompanying it, such as uranium, although, on the contrary, jazz is on the benign side of things.
Maestro Hernández played the piano as if he had been born playing it, as a baker in his trade, as a scribe, as a sculptor. And sometimes he raised his right hand and, with a couple of passes, like a magician in his trade, indicated the turns of the musicians to throw a solo, or to indicate an entrance and an exit.
That is another of the benefits of jazz, which allows each instrumentalist to turn into a piece in itself, and let themselves be carried away by their craft and instinct. And each solo, as long as it should be, once it was over, was embraced by an explosion of instruments, as if applauding, as if enveloping the contribution. And every time a musician finished his turn, he turned to see the teacher, to confirm his departure, ask for his approval or greet him with a subtle chin lift… let’s say it’s the last option.
Víctor Monterrubio, on drums; Adrian Flores, double bass; Alejandro Delgado, on the trumpet; Luis Deniz, in total control of the saxophone. Until then, five musicians of the sextet are named so far in the note.
The singer Yaima Gutiérrez joined to put new tessituras to the thing. “Drume negrita”, Yaima sang, with beautiful lyrics, by the Cuban composer Eliseo Grenet, interpreted by whoever you want, Omara Portuondo, for example, to put the reference.
Then he announced one called “Things of Love” and, oh, pain, you had already taken me away. The penultimate song was “Danza ñáñiga”, wow, another of the songs shared by Chucho Valdés and Omara.
Yaima sang things like: “I don’t know how to cry, I don’t know how to laugh / The doors close on me if you’re not there.” I was going to say oh how we like to bleed from the wound!, but I prefer to say that music can stop the bleeding.
Maestro Hernández said goodbye with a bully phrase: “Music is for everyone and this is the way to share it.” Thank you for reading this far.
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