Paquito D'Rivera Quintet - Song to My Son
Let's inaugurate June with a milestone birthday that speaks to the sad, unavoidable fact that I just don't post enough Latin music whatsoever.
Today's special guest grew up in Castro's Cuba and defected in Spain as the 1980s began.
Before that he had been a driving force in one of the island's hottest groups, which is still beloved and influential to this day and was called Irakere.
People call him a gusano and whatever -- that's the Cuban worm term for those disloyal to Fidel -- but I personally don't give a fuck if he peed on Castro's cigars as long as the music is fire.
Disliking Paquito D'Rivera for not being sufficiently Communist enough would, for me, be like criticizing Steve Earle for not making concept albums about Leon Czolgosz and Eugene Debs.
Anyway in the 40 years since leaving, he's become a kind of ambassador for Afro-Cuban music all over the world, so there is that.
Born in 1948, he is 75 today so we'll fire up these two, half-hour Canadian radio segments that have him leading a pair of quintets in the mid-'80s.
Look out for the transcendent trumpet of Claudio Roditi, who just blows his brains out in both of these sets.
Paquito D'Rivera Quintets
Ottawa 1985 + Montréal 1987
01 Samba for Carmen McRae
02 Brussels In the Rain
03 Seresta
04 Song to My Son
05 Paquito
06 interview
Total time: 59:36
Tracks 01-03: Opera House, National Arts Centre Ottawa, Ontario Canada likely Summer 1985
Paquito D’Rivera - alto saxophone & clarinet
Claudio Roditi - trumpet
Michel Camillo- piano
Sergio Brandão - bass
Portinho - drums
Tracks 04-06: Festival International de Jazz de Montréal Le Spectrum de Montréal Montréal, Québec Canada 7.4.1987
Paquito D’Rivera - alto saxophone & clarinet
Claudio Roditi - trumpet
Daniel Freiberg - piano
Lincoln Goines - bass
Akira Tana - drums
master off-air FM cassette captures
edited, retracked -- with the two segments volume balanced & start of Track 01 slightly restored -- by EN, June 2023
372 MB FLAC/direct link
372 MB FLAC/direct link
I shall return next Friday with another indispensable Jazz hero's milestone b'day celebration.
Now hurry up and get your clave on for this treat from Paquito!--J.
