Representative members of the National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) have again used their infinite wisdom to select five CDs issued in past 12 months (October 2002 through September 2003) as the best of Latin jazz, vying for distinction as Album of the Year. What this title means is worth questioning. It certainly honors the creative efforts of the leaders, collaborative musicians, producers, engineers, art directors, album annotators and record companies involved. But do Grammy awards for such specialties as Latin Jazz -- category number 51 out of 105, in 30 separate "fields" -- which are not presented on the televised Grammy show, and often not mentioned in newspaper reports of the big winners, add much to sales? Do they confer special status on the finalists? Do they persuade knowledgable fans to pay further attention to artists about whom they have already formed opinions?

I think, "no," to all of those questions. But those "nos" aren't the faults of the finalists. Let's go to the tapes -- er, discs -- to check out what's up for consideration for the 2004 Latin Jazz Album of the Year Grammy.

New Conceptions by Chucho Valdés is sixth album for Blue Note by the Cuban modernist, pianist, bandleader and composer. As in each of his previous outings he proves to be a virtuoso of the keyboards and of Afro-Cuban polyrhythms; few living pianists have his power and dash. Valdés' keyboard skills equal those of Oscar Peterson at his peak, and bear favorable comparisons to the chops of Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, and Gonzalo Rubalcaba, among others. His repertoire ranges from Cuban classics by Ernesto Lecuona to jazz standards by Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Though he takes a lot of rhythmic liberties, he never drops the clavé. With guest instrumentalists including flutist Jacuinto Joaquin Olivero Gavilán, saxophonists Roman Filiu O'Reilly and Irving Luichel Acao Tierra, and cellist Maylin Sevila Brizuela joining Valdés' rhythm team of conga, bass and traps drums, this is a more gregarious program than last year's Fantasia Cubana: Variations on Classical Themes, which was also nominated for a Latin Jazz Grammy, if not quite so earthy as Briyumba Palo Conga, a nominee in 1999. Valdés captured the prize in 2000 for Live From The Village Vanguard, and this year again, New Conceptions is a strong contender.

Michel Camilo Live At The Blue Note, from Telarc, is a two-CD set by the Dominican pianist whose keyboard trademark is elegant exuberance. When he and Chucho toured together, they must have played a million notes per concert. Camilo's finger work is slightly (and I mean slightly) more dexterous than Valdés', but he is a smaller man, and though no weakling, he doesn't slam the beat as casually as the Cuban. His repertoire is playful, including a segué from "Happy Birthday" to the Kenny Dorham jazz tune "Blue Bossa" and a brief rendition of the '50s rock instrumental "Tequila." But his main focus is on his own catchy and well-crafted melodies, including "Why Not!," which Paquito D'Rivera introduced in the '80s, Manhattan Transfer covered with a vocal version that copped a 1983 Grammy, and Camilo himself featured as the title track of his album debut.

Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez is Camilo's imaginative, engaging drummer, and Charles Flores is quick on the bass. Clocking in at two-and- a-quarter hours, with most tracks running from six to eight minutes in length, Live At The Blue Note is an in-depth experience of the trio's music. Camilo's previous CD, Triangulo, was nominated for Best Jazz Instrumental Album in the 2003 Grammy Awards, and his duet Spain, with guitarist Tomatito, won Best Latin Jazz Album in the first-ever Latin Grammy Awards. Perhaps it's Michel turn to receive the coveted straightout Grammy statuette.

Jane Bunnett, the Canadian flutist and soprano saxophonist, and her husband, trumpeter Larry Cramer, won the Canadian Juno Award for Cuban Odyssey on Blue Note Records; they were Grammy-nominated in 2003 for Alma de Santiago (Soul of Santiago). With almost a dozen Afro-Cuban projects to their credit, the couple are among the North American natives who have immersed themselves most devotedly to the island's traditions and it's present -- they frequently working with Cuban-based musicians. Guest artists showcased in this documentation of their 2000 sojourn there (also released as a DVD) include pianist Guilermo Rubalcaba, congeros Changuito and Tata Guines, vocalist Merceditas Valdés (a track from 1997, prior to her demise), Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, Los Naranjos, and the righteous, ten-voice choir of Camagüey, Desandann. The disc also includes Toronto studio efforts featuring Bunnett and Cramer's young Cuban discoveries Vladimir Paisan and David Virelles.

Though steeped in a range of Cuban folkloric styles, Bunnett doesn't attempt to be anyone but herself on her instruments, and the effect of her collaborations is that of a true jazz interpreter connecting with genuine feeling to native purveyors of deep-dyed, regionally-based music. Cramer holds his own, too. Another likely candidate for this year's Latin Jazz Grammy.

The Caribbean Jazz Project won last year's Latin Jazz Grammy for The Gathering, featuring reedsman Paquito D'Rivera with longstanding CJP collaborators Dave Samuels (vibes and marimba) and Dave Valentin (flute). This year, on Birds of a Feather (also released by Concord Piquante), Samuels has taken full charge of the ensemble that comprises pianist Dario Eskenazi, percussionists Dafnis Prieto and Robert Quintero, bassist Ruben Rodriguez and brassman Ray Vega, with guest trumpeter Randy Brecker, guitarist Romero Lubambo, drummer Mark Walker and percussionist Café. This is emphatically a different kind of Latin jazz than the three previously discussed albums, nowhere near so funky as the projects of Bunnett and Cramer, and Valdés. The rhythms are not any less authentic, but the sound is breezy, tight and highly polished, thanks to melodic airs (five out of ten by Samuels) and arrangements that lend a guise of easy listening
to some meticulous, complicated music.

Brecker and Lubambo contribute sophisticated solos of real heft to Birds of a Feather, and the album's mix is gorgeous, at once transparent and lush. NARAS voting members may prefer Samuels' artful touch to the grittier efforts of Latins-to-the-music born. But aren't we lucky that our CD collections can contain both ends of the spectrum?

San Francisco-based pianist and composer Mark Levine has a distinguished jazz and Latin music past. Originally from Florida, he studied with Hall Overton, Herb Pomeroy and Jaki Byard prior to moving to California in 1966, spent a year in trumpeter Woody Shaw's quartet, and worked with mainsteam saxophonists Joe Henderson, David Liebman and Harold Land, as well as Latin leaders Mongo Santamaria, Willie Bobo, Moacir Santos, Pete Escovedo, and Cal Tjader (he's on the latter's Grammy-winning album La Onda Va Bien). In pursuit of further Latin music training, Levine attended Centro Nacional de Escuela de Arte in Havana in 1997. Isla is the third album the pianist has issued with his band The Latin Tinge, and earns Levine's first nod from the NARAS. The Latin tinge, which Jelly Roll Morton claimed was essential to real jazz, is ever-present, thanks in great part to the rhythmic foundation of percussionist Michael Spiro, bassist Peter Barshay and drummer Paul van Wageningen.

Levine gets a fine sound from his instrument, and infuses his melodic interpretations with blues licks as well as persuasive montuno passages -- though when compared to Valdés and Camilo, he's at a disadvantage. San Francisco reedsman Harvey Wainapel swirls through two tracks, and Sheila Smith comments vocally on the Kenny Garrett song "Ain't Nothing But the Blues." The rest of the program is an interesting mix of tunes by Cedar Walton, Duke Pearson, Donald Brown and Gene De Paul -- jazz guys -- with Dizzy Gillespie's Con Alma (introduction and interlude taken from a traditional Vietnamese air) and familiar-seeming Cuban motifs by Alberto Ruiz, José Lugo, Ernan Lopez-Nussa, plus a Latinized "Tea for Two." Isla is a respectable effort: accomplished, brightly recorded, if it wins the Grammy for Latin Jazz Album of the Year, proves the Recording Academy's openness to lesser-known artists showing how thoroughly Latin elements have come to inform jazz, wherever it comes from.

article by
Howard Mandel
Author of Future Jazz (Oxford University Press)
Editor of www.Jazzhouse.org
www.HowardMandel.com
hman@jazzhouse.org