Rodrigo Recabarren, Pablo Menares, Yago Vazquez

Familia

Greenleaf Music

This piano trio offers a divergent path from the usual piano trio, which is understandable given the backgrounds of the three members. Drummer Rodrigo Recabarren and bassist Pablo Menares hail from Chile while pianist Yago Vazquez is from Galicia, Spain. On Familia, all three contributed compositions with Vasquez leading the way with four. The trio has been playing together now for a decade, taking this opportunity on the esteemed Greenleaf Music label to take a nostalgic trip back to their childhoods with folkloric melodies and other aspects of Pan-Latin Jazz. For Recabarren and Menares, that’s all things Chilean, with its folkloric traditions like “chin-chin” street rhythms or the musical legacies of icons like Violeta Parra and Víctor Jara left their indelible footprint under Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship. Meanwhile Vazquez is innately influenced by Galicia’s rich cultural history.

Recabarren’s “Santiago” opens as a nod to Recabarren’s son, set to Colombia’s cumbia beat the first example of how the trio combines Latin rhythmic structures with contemporary jazz melodies and improvisation. Later, in his other composition, he commemorates his life partner in “Lazo” which has a faint harmonious nod to the band Radiohead. Chilean Menares has three, beginning with the pensive, but consistently snappy rhythmically “Ritual,” a meditation of concentration, namely studying and making music. His rolling bass line is especially impressive. Much of the drumming is so light on the album that it often sounds as if Recabarren is wielding castanets. He stays in the contemplative vein with “Viaje,” inspired by caporales, the Bolivian folklore dance that subtly shifts between 3/4- and 6/8-time signatures within the 4/4 melodic framework of the song. Finally, to complete his trifecta is the sublime “Después de Todo (After All)”, which has the harmonic nuance of “Guinga” or the musical stylings of the legendary composer, guitarist, and vocalist Carlos Althier de Souza Lemos Escobar. It’s also in tribute to Chilean author Jorge Teillier, whose poem by the same name speaks to importance of communities.

Main contributor Vazquez begins his four, with “Terra” (Galician for “land”) floats between the region’s popular 3/4 xota rhythm, and the 6/8 energy of the chacarera beat that reverberates throughout Argentina. The tempo is just a bit faster than Menares’ compositions, and puts the focus on his nimble, rather stately pianism. The cool vamp at the end is familiar but this writer is unable to specifically identify it. The motoring “Aninovo (New Year’s Day)” with its tricky and shifting rhythmic sequences, celebrates the life of Vazquez’s grandfather who miraculously was born and passed away on January 1st several decades apart. This one puts a spotlight on the individual talents of the three collaborators and is a model of captivating dynamics.

Vazquez is steeped in balladry as well with his gorgeous “Minho” painting picturesque sonic imagery of the river dividing Galicia and Portugal, again building to crescendos and decrescendos as the piece unfolds. Returning to his animated strains, his joyous “Castro” takes us to the central park district within the city of Vigo, the site of the prehistoric landscape where the first inhabitants of Galicia settled. This one’s a feature for Recabarren’s brilliant kit work as well.

Throughout these melodies soothe and intrigue. It’s a trio album unlike most and one that will invariably demand multiple listens.

– Jim Hynes

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