The saxophonist César López, i nspired by the genius of evidence summarized in the ordinary Cuban man, in that immense solidarity that characterizes him, in his daily life and in the richness of his music, finished his latest album, which brings together leading artists of Cuban soundscape as bassist Jorge Reyes and Rolando Luna, pianist of the Buena Vista Social Club.
¨Cu-bop Los Cubanos¨ (Egrem 2013) is a kind of melodic gift that Lopez gives to those who feel that sense of authenticity, of the genuineness of this island. That is why these nine singles allure us. Most of them are instrumentals, although the also leader of the band Habana Emsemble also surprises us by placing his voice in two of the songs of the album and thus he show us his singing skills (¨Son las cosas que pasan¨ and ¨Irresistible¨ ).
For captivating those listening carefully the CD, César has chosen an exquisite repertoire and there is where he displays the wonder of love for everything related to Cuba. ¨La tarde¨, a hymn to the most sublime feeling and written by Sindo Garay, carries on its texture a melodic beauty impregnated by its author, which is now combined with Lopez’s aesthetic vision and it is perceived through the mixing of instruments like the bass -with an accurate and very lucid arrangement that sets the tone of the single-, saxophone, piano, cello and percussion; it is a famous song of the traditional trova, a jewel in the album.
I’d like to clarify that jazz is the hallmark of this work and consequently it makes a reverence to American standards of the genre that have marked the international music scene. Thus, you can enjoy versions of ¨Lazy bird¨ by John Coltrane, ¨My little suede shoes, ¨ by Charlie Parker, and ¨Del sasser, ¨ by Sam Jones.
It is also emotive and judicious the selection made of Latin America and Cuba, with the election of the already mentioned ¨la tarde¨, by Sindo Garay, ¨Irresistible, ¨by Pedro Flores, and ¨Son las cosas que pasan¨, by Ela O’Farrill.
¨Cu-bop Los Cubanos¨ is completed with a sample of compositions belonging to some of the participants on the album, which confirmed the continuity of a genre closely linked to the Cuban artistic work by these times.
There are two singles of Cesar Lopez, who was also the music producer of the phonogram: ¨Cachaza y ron¨, which by its title draws us into two symbols of Cuba: sugarcane and our national drink, and ¨Keily san¨, which contains elements of the bolero, ¨filin¨ and Cuban popular music.
Cesar Lopez himself, during the introductory words, was who noted the concept handled in this already essential album, when describing it as “musical cocktail “, through which he satisfied old longings. One of them was precisely recording an acoustic CD, diverse and well thought that made us gravitate on contemporary jazz and to achieve this he had to drink from the essences of tradition, of our roots. Congratulations!
