Tiempo Libre - Bach In Havana
2009

Timba (a.k.a. salsa on crack) to the rhythm of Bach? Absofuckinglutely!

Brought to you by TQMP
The Quality Music Project

This title provides a pun on the enclosed concept, through which Tiempo Libre, led by pianist and co-producer Jorge Gomez, connects the rhythms and melodies of Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz with the venerated melodies and harmonies of Johann Sebastian Bach. "What's interesting to me is that we revere Bach for his musical genius," explains Gomez. "But the fact that he was composing works for his contemporaries as a "popular" artist while also creating deeply religious compositions, and that he was fascinated by dance rhythms, makes him an even more powerful inspiration for me."

Bach in Havana celebrates genius, melodic or rhythmic, in every corner you look. The opening "Tu Conga Bach" cooks up a hot polyrhythmic conga from its first percussion flash fire. The horns and Gomez's piano create a rhythmic undertow by tossing the melody of "Fuga" (based on Sonata in D Minor, BVW.964) back and forth, like cresting ocean waves.

It's hard to convey how "Minuet in G," this Latin adornment of one of Bach's most famous and honored melodies, sounds both profoundly respectful and yet so different. Laying out piano notes like spreading a plush carpet before the ensemble, Gomez transforms the 3/4 minuet standard time into a feverish, compelling 4/4 guanganco that leaps and bounds through a musical kaleidoscope of vocals, congas, trumpet and saxophone.

Percussion and piano merge into a single voice in "Clave in C Minor" (Prelude No. 2 in C Minor), an intensely dynamic whirl of melody made indistinguishable from rhythm that grows even more powerful when the horns jump shotgun on this same groove.

It culminates with the genuinely sacred music of "Kyrie" (Mass in B Minor), which opens with a vocal choir and strings in a reverential mood unbroken when the percussion, piano, and other instruments join the procession. Gomez's piano part is breathtakingly gorgeous, distilling Cuban passion and romantic classicism into one single essence.

Bach in Havana is so good, so expertly conceived and executed, that it's almost ridiculous.
-- All About Jazz

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This project has an antecedent. In 1978, Chucho Valdes and Irakere (surprise surprise, I know) played a concert mixing Afrocuban music with classical compositions. The concert featured Cuban composer and guitarist Leo Brouwer playing a piece by Joaquin Rodrigo (Concierto de Aranjuez) and the band played from Mozart to Chucho's Misa Negra (Black Mass). It was released as an LP (Irakere con Leo Brouwer en vivo - Teatro Karl Marx) and later as a CD (Irakere - Coleccion Vol 2).
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Tracks
01- Tu conga Bach
02- Fuga
03- Air on G String
04- Clave in C Minor
05- Gavotte
06- Mi Orisha
07- Minuet in G
08- Olas de Yemaya 
09- Baqueteo con bajo
10- Timbach
11- Kyrie

EAC log and CUE sheet included.

Audio format: FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) 
http://flac.sourceforge.net/index.html 

Enjoy, seed and inhale!

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