Tony Martinez and the Cuban Power

Tony Martinez è un giovane e virtuoso sassofonista originario di Camaguey (Cuba). Ha al suo attivo due importanti CD a proprio nome registrati per la Blue Jackel di NY: La habana vive e Maferefun con quale si aggiudica nel 2000 l'AFIM Award nella categoria Best Latin Recording. Di solida formazione classica (ha studiato con il M° Marcel Mule) e al Conservatorio de L'Havana, tiene tour europei (Austria, Germania, Danimarca e Olanda) con il gruppo Mezla collaborando successivamente con Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Julio Barreto, Julio Padron e Mario "El Indio" Hernandez (entrambi per oltre vent'anni con il gruppo Irakene, la migliore band cubana). Si trasferisce in Europa nel 1993 ove mette a punto il progetto Cuban Power riunendo alcuni tra i migliori specialisti della musica afrocubana provenienti da Cuba, Brasile, Perù. La sua musica è un mix travolgente di salsa, funky, rap reggae e jazz apprezzatissimo sia in terra statunitense che europea proprio per la sua capacità di fondere la vitalità dei ritmi caraibici con la raffinatezza del latin jazz neyorkese.
Si alterna al sax alto, tenore, flauto e pianoforte mettendo in luce le sue influenze coltraniane, cubane (PaquitoD'Rivera) e di Chick Corea, soprattutto negli arrangiamenti.
La band di dieci elementi è composta, come nella miglior tradizione cubana, da tre percussionisti (timbales, congas e batteria), una solida sezione ritmica (piano, chitarra e basso) e una front line di quattro fiati (sassofoni, tromba e trombone) in cui spicca il sassofonista Leandro Saint Hill.

WEB LINKS:
www.latinjazznet.com/reviews/tonymartinez.htm
http://www.bluejackel.com/jazz/maferefun.htm
http://www.52ndstreet.com/reviews/latin/martinez_habana.html
Ascolti real audio: http://www.cubanmusic.com/Bands/Tony%20Martinez.htm

Records

As he brazenly demonstrated on La Habana Vive, his 1998 debut for the Blue Jackel Entertainment label, Tony Martinez is among the most elite ranks of contemporary Cuban musicians. An artist with an exceptional understanding of his country's African-derived rhythms, he possesses an equally impressive awareness of how to incorporate elements of jazz, funk and other non-Cuban ingredients to achieve stylistic hybrids that produce uncommonly bracing results. His ability to meld primordial rhythmic and vocal elements with contemporary, jazz savvy values places him in the vanguard of today's most impressive and promising Latin musicians.
On Maferefun, his follow-up release for Blue Jackel, the 31 year old master musician, composer and arranger and his group The Cuban Power further advance their goal of defining a new way of using the dialect of traditional Afro-Cuban rhythms to forge a new music language for the next millennium. And the company Martinez keeps on the album speaks both of the high esteem in which he is held by many of Cuba's most important musicians and of their eagerness to contribute to the leader's imposing artistic quest.
Foremost among Martinez' colleagues on the session is the extraordinarily gifted piano virtuoso Gonzalo Rubalcaba, recognized throughout the world as one of the most important jazz innovators of his generation. Conguero Miguel "Anga" Diaz, a veteran of the seminal Cuban group Irakere, is a technically dazzling percussionist who is viewed as the kind of breakthrough conga player who comes along only once in several decades. Trumpeter Julio Padrón, also a graduate of the Irakere finishing school of Cuban jazz, is both a brilliant soloist and the consummate section member. Drummer Julio Barreto, a member of Rubalcaba's famous Cuban jazz quartet, is another star quality musician who, as with his cohorts on the session, enthusiastically conforms to the spirit of camaraderie Martinez has cultivated among his cast of guest musicians and regular band members.
In the Yoruba tongue, the album's title means "Blessing to the divine grace." The new music Tony Martinez regales us with on Maferefun is both divine and a blessing.

REVIEWS
2000 AFIM Award Best Latin Recording
Jazz Journalist Assoctiation - Nomination Best Latin Recording
*** TODAY I GOT THE NEWS: MAFEREFUN WILL GET AN AMAZING ***** (BEST) REVIEW IN AUDIO/OCTOBER. GERMANYS BIGGEST HIFI-MAGAZINE!
***Subject: Hear's Music In Review E-zine..August 1999 Issue Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 From: "Hear's Music" b.dornquast
- Tony Martinez and The Cuban Power: Maferefun
Martinez has an exceptional awareness of Cuba's African-inspired rhythms, and this album displays his talent for successfully mixing modern Latin jazz with age-old styles. With out a doubt, this is one of the best Cuban CDs of the year!

*** Creative Loafing -Atlanta GGA 8/25/99 Cuban fiesta BY JOHN C. FALSTAFF
The diversity and richness of musical treasures that pour out of Cuba year after year is staggering, even within a single genre such as son (the basis for modern salsa), If it's sizzling Afro-Cuban jazz you seek, look no further than Maferefun (Blue Jackel) by Cuban sax player and composer Tony Martinez and his band Cuban Power. The nine-minute opening "Tumbao Pa'mi Timbal" takes a seductive bed of sinewy bass, staccato piano and layer upon layer of great percussion and tops it all off with explosive horns from Julio Padron (trumpet) and Martinez himself. After an extensive and innovative workout of the memorable main theme, all return to base for a dramatic conclusion. The same is true -- on a lesser scale -- of the equally memorable "Pa' Lo' Latino" a few tracks later, while the blowing on the moody "Cha Cha Cha Para Mi Alma" suggests 1970s vintage Wayne Shorter. The Latin sounds of Chick Corea, Santana and others come to mind on some of the funkier cuts, perhaps a result of the Camaguay- and Havana-trained Martinez's 1990s move to Bern, Switzerland, and his current high profile on the European jazz festival circuit.

Artist: Tony Martinez & The Cuban Power Title: Maferefun
By: Ben Ohmart
Tony's true greatness is either the way he blows that sax, or his insatiable ability to surround himself with good workers. Or perhaps it's his class-act arranging and composing skills. Certainly the 7 minute 'Latin Funk' displays all these talents to the fullest. Horns, sax solo, rhythm, rhythms, voices in the back from the old days of 70s funk, but not of English words. It's all happening'. And another goodie seems to be 'Homenaje a Emiliano,' as you would expect, dedicated to Emiliano Salvador. Martinez is on piano now, sprinkling the notes down into the wild, simple mix of bass and drums, like salt on a dying otter's wound. Yeah, it's a splash.
The 8 songs here are nice and long, that's how jazz should be: enough time to slip into the costume, walkmaround, run, feel it next to your excited skin.. And you'll get 69 minutes of fast and near-fast Cuban jazz, played by a cast of 10s! Simply great stuff.
And it all starts with 'Tumbao pa' mi timbal,' almost 9 minutes long, with lots of solo slots to fill. Gonzalo Rubalcaba does a sublime job of finding all his lost notes on the piano. Martinez proves, by sax, just why he's at the front of the credits. He blows like kisses and popping popcorn. It's called traditional Cuban music, very danceable, and oh yes, they are right. Julio Padron on trumpet, and the rest of the horns (there must be more!) see to that!

TONY MARTINEZ: MAFEREFUN (BLUE JACKEL)
Recorded 1999 [TT: 69] --Rating: ****
Only 31 years old, Tony Martinez has already climbed to the elite ranks of contemporary Cuban musicians. But just as people the world over don't seem to be able to get enough of the Cuban sound, this young son of the island nation is busily molding and reshaping it into an even more complex and fascinating blend.
The title Maferefun is a Yoruba word that means, "blessing to the divine grace," a word brought to Cuba by Nigerians taken there as slaves during the Colonial period. This is Martinezís second album, the first being last year's La Habana Vive, previously reviewed here. This one is another keeper. The band is tight, the rhythms infectious, the technique and musicianship breathtaking, and the arrangements bright and straight forward. And other influences are apparent. The marriage of jazz and Afro-Cuban sounds has been a most compatible one for over half a century, but here we also hear contributions of fusion (check out the beginning of "Cha Cha Cha") funk ("Latin Funk"), and Brasilian influences. Compositions are based on many different forms, including the tumbao, son, conga, cha cha cha and rumba. The meld of primordial rhythmic and vocal elements (for example, the beginning of the 13-minute "Gracias Chucho," dedicated to Chucho Valdez), with contemporary instrumental and vocal harmonies (as in the thoughtful, sensitive "A Babalu Aye") is as innovative as it is pleasurable.
The centerpiece of the album is "Mr. Coltrane," a hard-driving, high-energy, nearly 14-minute tour de force. Soloists include congero Diaz and trumpeter Padron, both veterans of the seminal Cuban group Irakere, Martinez on tenor, pianist Rubalcaba, and bassist Penz. Martinez is equally facile and expressive on tenor and alto. The blistering pyrotechnics of Rubalcaba, to whom the album is dedicated, become no less amazing with familiarity.
The maturity and polish of Tony MartÌnez are again profusely apparent. A resident of Switzerland since 1993 and an artist much in demand in Europe, this multi-faceted young Cuban musician deserves more recognition and acclaim in the United States.
"Dr. Bîó J. Robert Bragonier, CompuServe Jazz Beat Forum