Music

For Wayne Wallace, Intercambio doesn’t refer to a trendy idea or an optimistic gloss on difficult international relations. In his creatively charged body of music, intercambio, or cultural interchange, is a soul-deep communion, an ongoing and never ending intra-family conversation between the extraordinarily rich African Diaspora cultures of the United States and Cuba (and various Caribbean cousins). The fifth release by the twice Grammy-nominated Wayne Wallace Latin Jazz Quintet, Intercambio adds an enthralling new chapter to the dialogue. The album is slated for release on Wallace’s Patois Records on July 7, 2015.
Featuring percussion legend Michael Spiro, powerhouse bassist David Belove, versatile drummer and percussionist Colin Douglas, and ace pianist Murray Low, the Latin Jazz Quintet brings together some of the most formidable and sought after musicians in the Bay Area (though Wallace and Spiro now spend much of their time in Bloomington, where they’re professors at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music). These musicians are steeped in jazz, popular Cuban music and Afro-Cuban folkloric roots, but as American-born artists with no Caribbean ancestry, they became clave initiates in young adulthood. With no proprietary agenda “we have nothing to prove in that respect,” Wallace says. “It allows us to express our own voices in the music, and gives us a lot of license to explore the melding of the different styles.”

Special Guests
Mary Fettig, Mads Tolling, Jenna Barghouti, Joy Vucekovich, Benjamin Wagner, Graham Cullen, Joe Galvin, Dan Coffman, Brennan Johns, Sean Weber, Edgardo Cambon, Jesus Diaz and John Santos

Available July 7, 2015 on Patois Records.

More than a bit of word play, the title of the Wayne Wallace Latin Jazz Quintet’s revelatory new CD Latin Jazz – Jazz Latin represents the cyclical sensibility that animates Wayne Wallace’s music. Every tune reflects the inexorable flow of rhythmic currents between Caribbean and African-American communities, a diaspora communion responsible for unprecedented creative ferment. An invaluable creative catalyst on the Bay Area music scene since the 1970s, the five-time Grammy Award-nominee is revered as an educator, player, arranger, and producer with his label, Patois Records. Due out on June 4, 2013, Latin Jazz/Jazz Latin, is Wallace’s seventh Patois release, and the album displays all of the thrilling interplay, melodic invention, and blazing improvisational flights that distinguishes his music.

Released June 4, 2013 on Patois Records.

The Wayne Wallace Latin Jazz Quintet’s extraordinary musical journey continues apace with To Hear From There, a sizzling Latin jazz session that highlights the deep cultural currents flowing between West Africa and the Americas. San Francisco trombonist, arranger and composer, Wayne Wallace once again showcases his stellar quintet, featuring Murray Low (piano), David Belove (bass), Michael Spiro (Latin percussion and percussion arrangements), and Paul van Wageningen (trap drums) on a program of finely wrought originals and beloved standards.

Exploring Afro-Cuban folkloric themes, old-school descarga jams, clave-driven Latin jazz, hard-hitting timba, dance-inducing cha cha cha and more, the quintet puts a distinctive Bay Area stamp on an impressive array of rhythms. Incisive, often inspired solos abound, but Wallace designed the album as a forum for creative communion, and the musicians use the freedom to engage in a series of charged encounters.

One of the things I love about the quintet is that there s a constant conversation happening, whether between two or five players, Wallace says. I wanted to really highlight that. The band contains a lot of cumulative experience in a tremendous array of genres and styles. We’ve honed a unique sound, and I wanted to bring that to the forefront in the songs I composed and arranged, while giving plenty of space so people can hear what great musicians they are.

Released January 18, 2011, Patois Records.

Grammy-nominated and named one of DownBeat 2010’s best releases, ¡Bien Bien! is the second release of The Wayne Wallace Latin Jazz Quintet. ¡Bien Bien! is an intriguing collection of three Wallace originals, a Memo Acevedo tune, and five “straight ahead” tunes that Wallace has masterfully reconfigured into extremely satisfying Latin Jazz vehicles. He and his band mates Murray Low (piano); David Belove (bass); Michael Spiro (Latin percussion and percussion arrangements); and Paul van Wageningen (trap drums), have created another tour de force, and the presence of two special guests – the legendary trombonist Julian Priester and the up-and-coming virtuoso jazz vocalist Kenny Washington – beautifully augments the cohesion of this longstanding ensemble.

Released September 15, 2009, Patois Records.

Voted “Album of the Week” by Latin Jazz Corner, spending two weeks at #2 on Jazz Week’s “World Music Top 50 Charts” which led Nelson Rodriguez of Latin Beat Magazine to declare: “Based on this CD, Wayne Wallace has become my choice for the title of ‘Musician of the Year.’”

Infinity, Wallace’s fourth production on Patois Records, sparkles with the same signature energy that infuses all his work. Once again, Wallace has put together a fascinating collection of originals, standards, and Latin jazz classics, showing the how these genres interconnect to create a quintessentially American music. Wallace’s virtuosity on the horn really shines on this disc, and his masterful compositions and arrangements give everyone else a chance to cook as well. He and his band mates Murray Low, piano and keyboard; David Belove, bass; Michael Spiro, Latin percussion and percussion arrangements; Paul van Wageningen, Trap drums, are all venerated masters of Latin music and Latin jazz. They’ve collaborated consistently for years, and the cohesion of the ensemble is apparent in every track, from the tightness of the groove on Wallace’s red-hot “Songo Colorado,” to the laid-back spaciousness given to the gorgeous ballad “Memories of You.” Though this is technically a small group setting, the Quintet has an incredible fullness and complexity of sound. Wallace augments the group with a chorus on two tunes, and creates further big-band sonorities on a number of tracks by honoring the great trombone groups of Conjunto Libre, J.J. Johnson and Kai Winding, and Orquesta Revé, most notably on the originals “Songo Colorado” and “TBA”. Amazingly, Wallace is playing all the parts!