Michel Camilo Force of r1ature: part 1 DAVE JONES seeks fresh insights into the piano playing and composition of the Dominican pianist once posited

as "a Latin Scott Joplin" and reports on a revelatory live show at Ronnie Scott's

M ichel Camilo is a formidable musi­cian who performs, composes and records in the worlds of jazz, clas­

sical, Latin, and ftlm music, and produces and records with international pop and merengue stars. In a recent interview with Michel I discovered more about his approach to piano playing and composition. It only really scratches the surface, but I have tried to fmd something that doesn't duplicate the usual biographical material and information about his technique. This is a two-part article - in this ftrst part I'll be looking at Michel's compositional style, and in part two I'll be looking at his approach to piano playing and performance.

I started by asking about Camilo's approach to composition on his piano trio albums, dating from his outstanding self-titled 1989 CBS release up to and including his 2007 release Spirit Of The Moment.

He says: "Each album expresses a particular moment of my life, the musical interests and influences I have been exposed to at that moment. Sometimes at the jazz festi­vals I listen to my colleagues while waiting for my turn to go on stage and that also triggers in me some kind of creative impulse. My sidemen have always inspired me to write music that would pose a chal­lenge to them both as performers and improvisers.

10 JAZZ JOURNAL MICHEL CAMILO

"I think of my trio compositions mostly as works of chamber music for rhythm section, since my approach has been to try and develop extended song forms by writing not just 'head' melodies, but also including interludes, tutti ensembles, unison sections, shout choruses, polyrhythmic counterpoint, etc. The vision of my trio is of an open canvas of orchestral textures, as I am always searching for the open possibilities in a new piece.

"Everything matters: ftrst of all the interac­tion among the players, then a particular cymbal tone colour, a brush stroke or cross­stick at the right moment, a harmonic from the bass, a lower or higher pitch fundamen­tal note, the doubling of a bass line, arco or pizz, the best dynamic to convey the song's mood - be it festive or intimate, how dense a tight groove or if not then a loose implied airy beat, and so on .. . All these elements are defmitely present in each one of my albums."

His comments regarding extended song forms remind me that his approach is not unlike that of Horace Silver on, e.g., Nica 's Dream. Like Silver, he also success­fully combines the rhythmic influences of his native country's indigenous music (merengue, in Camilo's case) with jazz har­mony.

JAZZING THE CONCERTO Camilo's "chamber music for rhythm section" approach to trio compositions partly explains the origin of his 2001 album with the BBC Symphony Orchestra for the classical label Decca, which showcased his monumental Concerto For Piano And Orchestra No. I.

"The concerto was commissioned by Leonard Slatkin and the National Sym­phony Orchestra when he was music direc­tor at the Kennedy Center. This work is written in three movements and is a kind of personal autobiography. Maestro Slatkin had heard my compositions performed by Katia and Marielle Labeque and came one evening to the Blue Note in New York as I was performing there with my trio.

"He challenged me to write a piece which would include some of the ideas he heard that night into a larger orchestral setting. In a way he wanted the orchestra to sound like a giant version of my trio. So I asked him to give me a year to compose the concerto. I still remember when we recorded the piece in London with the BBC Symphony Orches­tra ; it was a great recording session!

'The ftrst movement starts with ancestral sounds which I was exposed to in my child­hood: the mystery of the 'santeria' Afro­Caribbean religion, a traditional melody from the mountains in the Dominican Republic and the intense rhythmic percussive textures; as well as some blues and modal jazz har­monies. All of these interact with each other as this ftrst movement builds up into a cele­bration dance between piano and orchestra.

"The second movement expresses our yearnings and hopes for a new life as we (me and my wife Sandra) left our families and friends in order to pursue our dreams. This movement is full of wonderful and nostalgic memories.

"The third movement is a toccata represent­ing my encounter with the full energy and intensity of New York. It is polyrhythmic in nature and it is written in two parts which are clearly divided by the timpani solo which plays the mirror melodic inversion of the main theme. From then on the piece will state the melodic/harmonic mirror inversion of the ftrst half of the movement which eventually will develop into a big orchestral climax right before the restatement of the main theme and a grand fmale.

"I consider this work to be one of the high­lights of my life and I am really excited that I will be playing its lOOth performance at the end of this year."

The concerto is peppered with melodic phrases from Camilo's existing catalogue at that time, but this work is no mere novelty spin-off from his previous compositions for jazz combos of varying sizes, and highlights his prowess as an orchestral arranger as well as composer and performer. The music feels very cinematic in nature.

A particularly interesting aspect of the con­certo is that Camilo plays a number of improvised cadenzas - an important feature of piano concertos which is rarely evident in today's performances of the classical repertoire. Originally, cadenzas in the clas­sical realm were improvised by the pianist, who was often the composer as well; how­ever, this has all but disappeared in the modern-day interpretation of these works, where cadenzas are notated as part of the score. A rare exception amongst current classical performers in this respect is the organist and pianist Wayne Marshall, who uses improvisation in his interpretations.

SCREEN SHOTS A perhaps lesser known aspect of Camilo's musical output is his composition of sound­tracks and incidental music for f1lm. He's been widely involved :

"I have composed the soundtracks for two award-winning romantic comedies by Span­ish director Emilio Martinez-Lazaro, Amo Tu Cama Rica and Los Peon~s Anos de Nuestra Vida, as well as the soundtrack for Two Much by Fernando Trueba. I also appear on camera for the end credits performing my song Caribe at Lincoln Road in Miami Beach with an all-star sextet including Paquito D'Rivera and Cachao. I had also written some inciden-

Like Horace Silver, he successfully combines the rhythmic influences of his native country's indigenous music (merengue, in Camilo's case) with jazz harmony

tal music for the soundtrack of James Brooks' Broadcast News, as well as for George Romero's Knightriders.

"Finally, I was featured with my trio in the documentary Calle 54 by Fernando Trueba, where I perform with Anthony Jackson and Horacio 'El Negro' Hernandez my song From Within . This is truly one of those spe­cial moments.

"This year I will be a part of a new docu­mentary titled Playing Lecuona by Cuban director Pavel Giroud, with duo and trio performances of Ernesto Lecuona's music, as well as a three-piano encounter with Chucho Valdes and Gonzalo Rubalcaba."

THREE IN ONE Ed Morales, in his book The Latin Beat: The Rhythms And Roots Of Latin Music From Bossa Nova To Salsa And Beyond, has the fo llowing to say regarding Camilo's arguably unique compositional style, in particular reference to the tracks Yarey and Caribe from his self-titled 1989 CBS album:

"Rather than simply merging jazz technique with Latin rhythms, Camilo embraces the attitude and compositional approach of three traditions: Jazz, Afro-Cuban, and Domini­can. Yarey starts out with a funky jazz melody, then progresses to a walking bass line, a samba interlude, and an Afro-Cuban tumbao. The song palpitates with the crescendos that work off each rhythmic style.

"Caribe is influenced by the style of Cuban pianist Ernesto Lecuona. Amidst graceful folkloric fmgerwork, Camilo inserts expres­sionist rhythmic interludes, giving Caribe a hectic, ironic feeling. Picture a Latin Scott Joplin weaving in and out of mid-town traff1c. Camilo's work plays with a notion of transplanted roots - it's as if he's asking himself, how can I marry the courtly, man­nered tempos of the Cuban danz6n sound with life in New York City?"

Michel Camilo has a new solo piano album entitled What's Up, released on 14 May 2013 on the historic OKeh label. It features seven Camilo original compositions alongside four interpretations of standards. Michel says: "My love for film music textures is present in the beauty and intimacy of the most intro­spective ballads like Sandra's Serenade."

Michel Camilo

MICHEL CAMILO TRIO Ronnie Scotrs, 10 May 2013

Dave Jones encounters a force of nature in pianist Michel Camilo, his mix of musical fireworks and blistering cadenzas earning a standing ovation

My previous attempt to see pianist/com­poser Michel Camilo with his trio in April 2010 was foiled by a force of nature (the Icelandic ash cloud) , but on Friday 1 0 May at 8.30pm at Ronnie Scott's I encountered a different force of nature, this time a musi­cal one, in the shape of Camilo alongside drummer Cliff Almond and bassist Lincoln Goines.

On this occasion, Camilo's set (entirely of his own compositions except for Alfonsina Y El Mar by A. Ramirez) was drawn from three of his studio albums spanning over two decades (Mono A Mono from 2011 , Spirit Of The Moment from 2007, and On Fire from 1989), but it focused mainly on material from the more recent of these together with See You Later which was commissioned for and first performed at the 2002 San Francisco Jazz Festival, and appeared on his 2003 Live At The Blue Note album.

This was the first time that I'd heard Co milo on a club date, having previously enjoyed the BBC Proms UK premiere of his Concerto For Piano And Orchestra No. I in 2001 at the Royal Albert Hall with the BBC Sym­phony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin . What was striking at Ronnie's, despite the small-group context, was the often orchestral sound of his trio, and the huge dynamic range achieved from extremely delicate piano solo introduc­tions through to the musical fireworks of the exchanges between Camilo and Almond that punctuated this memorable set. Rarely have I heard Ronnie's so quiet during piano introductions, with the nature of Camilo's performance demanding the attention of the audience.

There's an element of performance drama about Camilo's part-functional mopping of his brow with one hand and playing the key­board with the other during solo piano intro­ductions, as if he were an operatic tenor recovering from a physically and mentally demanding period of singing during orches­tral interludes. It's really all part of the show from someone who with great success brings the performance demeanour of the classical concert hall to the jazz club. This was an intense, relentless and physically demanding performance of some 85 min­utes which the trio were to simulate later that evening. Given the demanding nature of his compositions and jazz piano style, it says much of Camilo that he has the pianistic stamina (born of a formidable technique) to sustain this level of intensity for so long.

continued on page 1 7

MICHEL CAMILO JAZZ JOURNAL 11