David Virelles, Mboko, Sacred Music for Piano, Two Basses, Drum Set and Biankomeko Abakua

Pianist-composer David Virelles is up to something rather different on his album Mboko (ECM B0021717-02). Cuban born and bred, David has reimagined the music of Abakua, a traditional male initiation society in Cuba that has roots in West Africa. It involves masked dancing and the experience of a cosmic Divine Voice in musical sound.

The essence of Abakua in ritual sound comes to us in recomposed form in a series of ten ritualistic movements for piano (Virelles), two double basses (Thomas Morgan and Robert Hurst), drum set (Marcus Gilmore) and Roman Diaz on the four-drum biankomeko, a fundamental part of Abakua.

The music is not a recreation as much as a contemporary analog to the rite. A ritual feel is at the forefront with the majority of moments where Afro-Cuban rhythm dominates or, alternately, where a kind of musical incantation is at the fore.

Virelles solos over the hypnotic rhythms in a very modernized Afro-Cuban mode, both engaging Afro-Cuban pianistic tradition and going forward in a sort of post-Bley avantness.

He played on recent albums by Tomasz Stanko and Chris Potter so his jazz credentials are strong. This album expands his approach both backwards to ancient roots and forwards into the advanced present.

The result is long-formed development of sound-specific mood over a full-length program. It is a vibrant, singular disk that takes its time creating sound worlds very worthy of Afro-Cuban tradition yet in their own way an extension into high-art improvisatory realms.

Hearing Mboko brings you under a spell that engages a sacred spirituality. It does it with a definite personal touch that calls attention to David Virelles as an artist of real importance. I hope we get to hear much more from him in the years to come.

Mark Weinstein, Latin Jazz Underground

The idea of a "progressive" form of Latin Jazz has been with us for a while, yet less of it hits the light of day these days than some of us might wish. I for one am glad that Mark Weinstein's Latin Jazz Underground (Zoho 201403) has reached our ears, for it fully explores the progressive realm in its very own way.

On it we have some very hip tunes by pianist Aruan Ortiz (2), one by Weinstein, plus some less-played jazz standards by Sam Rivers, Andrew Hill, Ornette Coleman, and the evergreen "Nature Boy".

The quintet of Weinstein, Ortiz, plus Rashaan Carter on bass, Gerald Cleaver on drums and Roman Diaz on percussion makes sure everything is both advanced in the Latin and in the modern jazz zone. Weinstein plays the standard, the alto and the bass flutes with immediacy and finesse. Ortiz and his Latin-and-beyond pianism makes for a strongly effective welding of advanced and out. The rhythm section adeptly moves from Afro-Latin to free, swing and back with an ease and sureness that all but guarantees that this one hits its various targets invariably, with artistry.

Latin Jazz Underground is a winner in every way!