UMass Amherst FINE ARTS CENTER Jorge Sylvester’s ACE Collective plays The Parlor Room Posted on December 14, 2015 by facweb by Glenn Siegel
My jazz loving friends and I often play the “whatever happened to?” game, where we trade information about musicians whom we haven’t heard from in some time. Where is Anthony Cox, for instance? (Marty Ehrlich informs me that the great bassist moved back to Detroit, has his real estate license and still plays locally.) Until he resurfaced in 2003 after a 35-year hiatus, Henry Grimes was a popular “whatever happened to?” subject. Does anyone know the whereabouts of the outstanding cellist, Abdul Wadud?
Matt Merewitz, the well-respected jazz publicist, asked me what happened to Jorge Sylvester. I’m here to report the alto saxophonist and composer is alive, well and playing at a very high level. His ACE (Afro-Caribbean Experimental) Collective performed a two-hour concert at a sold out Parlor Room in Northampton on December 11 as part of Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares.
Since moving to the States from Panama in 1980, the 61-year old Sylvester has released four recordings under his own name, been a member of the World Saxophone Quartet, Joe Bowie’s Defunkt Big Band, Frank Lacy’s Vibe Tribe and worked with poet Sekou Sundiata, Karl Berger, and David Murray, among others. But the creative music business being what it is, those high profile gigs are often not enough to keep one in the public eye. There is very little room on the head of the jazz pin. So highly skilled musicians like Sylvester keep plugging away, keeping faith that the music will provide.
That positivity was on full display on Friday as the Collective played many of the selections found on the band’s most recent release, “Spirit Driven.” The lyrics, written and sung by the evocative, highly musical vocalist Nora McCarthy, spoke often about truth, justice and beauty. Her dynamics, stage presence and varied vocal techniques (including some very inventive scatting), kept our attention despite the program’s length.
The electric bassist Gene Torres, a regular sub for Donald Nicks, was wonderful, easily negotiating the tricky contours of Sylvester’s shifting originals and soloing with a relaxed virtuosity. Torres, a long-time colleague of the Valley’s Terry Jenoure, appeared with Craig Harris’ 10-piece ensemble in the 2013 Magic Triangle Series at UMASS Amherst. Much of the music Torres makes these days tends towards funk, soul and other commercial music. He was thrilled to be able to stretch his skills playing music that demanded a different kind of attention.
Drummer Kenny Grohowski, a full generation younger than his bandmates, can be found making music with John Zorn, Andy Milne’s Dapp Theory, Haitian singer Emeline Michel, the black metal band Imperial Triumphant and the avant rock band, Secret Chiefs 3. That one instrumentalist can be effective in such varied settings shows that the industry’s tendency to box, label and compartmentalize, is irrelevant to creative musicians. His riveting drum solo closed the show and made me wish for more.
Sylvester was masterful throughout, judiciously using extended techniques to ratchet up the intensity, while wowing with fluid runs and stop-on-a-dime precision. His gorgeous tone at all registers was remarkable given that during sound check he had to replace the cork seal on one of his saxophone keys with rolled paper.
Here’s to indomitable, spirit driven musicians who uplift and provoke, even when the material rewards are meager and uncertain.
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"Trying to hear this music in terms of metrical beats would be like traveling along Arizona's magnificent Red Rock Scenic Road and only counting the mile markers rather than taking in the breathtaking scenery"
Ramsey Ameen - violinist, former member of Cecil Taylor's Unit
Jorge Sylvester ACE Collective is “an all-star jazz band that knows how to swing, to improvise with spontaneity and poise, and to respond to one another with telepathic immediacy and profound respect.
Their new double CD release Spirit Driven, on foUR Record is the result of a lifetime of spirit driven preparation by each musician – Jorge Sylvester: brilliant composer and arranger, virtuoso alto saxophonist; Nora McCarthy: daringly original, versatile, and fearlessly honest singer, composer, and poet; Waldron Mahdi Ricks: impeccably artful trumpet player, a jazz master in his own right; Pablo Vergara: astoundingly imaginative pianist, musically fluent on an encyclopedic, global scale; Donald Nicks: journeyman artisan of the bass, unfailingly, and always tastefully, providing the musical foundation; Kenny Grohowski: uncannily precise and inventive drummer and percussionist.”
Dedicated to the people of Haiti, Spirit Driven is a highly rhythmic and spiritually motivated compositional journey through the various cultures that make up the Caribbean Islands encompassing their significance and contribution to the present day advanced musical concepts in jazz and avant-garde/free music. It uses the “word” in the form of poetry and lyrics to convey each song’s spiritual and historical message.
“The music continuously flows and develops with a lithe bodily grace and expressive range, transfiguring its structural complexity and technical virtuosity into an intimate and honest gesture of oneness with each listener, only possible by virtue of consummate musicianship.”
(All quoted material by: Ramsey Ameen, 2012)
ALL ABOUT JAZZ
October 2013 Jazz Inside Magazine REVIEWS
October 4, 2013
Jorge Sylvester ACE Collective
SPIRIT DRIVEN— Four 001. UnseenRainRecords.com,
jorgesylvesteracecollective.blogspot.com
Construction No.2; Masouc; Paulina’s Prayer;
The Light of Truth’s High Noon Is Not for Tender Leaves; Obeahman;
Construction No.1; To Be With You; Remember Haiti; Cycle of Life
The Light of Truth’s High Noon Is Not for Tender Leaves; Obeahman;
Construction No.1; To Be With You; Remember Haiti; Cycle of Life
PERSONNEL: Jorge Sylvester, alto saxophone, producer, arrangements;
Nora McCarthy, vocals, producer, graphic design;
Waldron Mahdi Ricks, trumpet;
Waldron Mahdi Ricks, trumpet;
Pablo Vergara, acoustic piano; Donald Nicks, electric bass;
Kenny Grohowski, drums.
Kenny Grohowski, drums.
David Stoller, engineer; Ramsey Ameen, liner notes;
Steve Vavagiakis, mastering
Steve Vavagiakis, mastering
By Alex Henderson
Alto saxophonist Jorge Sylvester and singer Nora McCarthy have been collaborating musically for at least 12 years, and their collaboration continues to yield excellent results on Spirit Driven.
This two-CD set (which contains about 87 minutes worth of music) underscores the unpredictable, risk-taking nature of the Jorge Sylvester ACE Collective, which includes not only Sylvester and McCarthy, but also, trumpeter Waldron Mahdi Ricks, pianist Pablo Vergara, electric bassist Donald Nicks and drummer Kenny Grohowski. The music ranges from avant-garde jazz to post-bop, and Sylvester’s alto playing is soulful, heartfelt and convincing whether he is playing inside or outside.
McCarthy’s contributions to Spirit Driven are extensive. In addition to producing Spirit Driven with Sylvester, she wrote all of the lyrics and poetry. She also composed “The Light ofTruth’s High Noon Is Not for Tender Leaves,” and did the arrangement on “To Be With You.”
Sylvester composed the bulk of the music on the CD—“Construction No.2” and “Paulina’s Prayer” “Masouc,” “Construction No.1,” “Remember Haiti” and “Cycle of Life” by himself.
On Spirit Driven, McCarthy’s vocals can be divided into three main categories: (1) singing with lyrics, (2) wordless scat singing, and (3) spoken word poetry. And in all three, McCarthy has no problem getting her points across emotionally.
It’s easy to understand why this double-disc is titled Spirit Driven: the ACE Collective’s performances have a very spiritual quality. That spiritual outlook is as evident on “Cycle of Life,” “Masouc” and “Obeahman” as it is on “The Light of Truth’s High Noon Is Not For Tender Leaves.” The latter has a spirituality that recalls the late Abbey Lincoln, and McCarthy really soars with that Lincoln-ish mood.
“Remember Haiti,” one of the more avant garde offerings on Spirit Driven, is a gem. Sylvester and McCarthy wrote that piece in remembrance of the victims of the earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince, Haiti in January 2010, and McCarthy expresses herself with a combination of spoken word poetry and wordless scatting.
One of the appealing things about Sylvester’s albums is his ability to incorporate a variety of world music and make it all fit together. Sylvester, who is originally from Panama but now lives in New York City (also the home of Cleveland native McCarthy) has had no problem showing audiences the relationship between African, Caribbean and Latin music. And he does exactly that on the exuberant “Obeahman,” which is full of world music vitality.
Another one of Sylvester’s strong points is his determination to be consistently musical no matter how outside a particular song might become.“Masouc,” “Remember Haiti” and“Construction No.2” are among the more outside offerings on Spirit Driven, yet all of those selections are quite musical. Some free jazz favors atonality for the sake of atonality: instead of venturing outside, the musicians stay outside. But that isn't the approach that Sylvester is going for on this album. Sylvester, even on the most abstract parts of this album, thrives on musicality, melody and composition. He also thrives on rhythm, savoring the rhythmic traditions of the Caribbean, Latin America and Africa while maintaining his improvisatory jazz focus.
Spirit Driven is yet another rewarding collaboration from Sylvester and McCarthy
October 2013
| THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD CD REVIEW
September 28, 2013
by Sam Spokony
The musical relationship between alto saxophonist Jorge Sylvester
and vocalist NoraMcCarthy dates back 12 years to their first performance as the duo A Small Dream in Red (which takes its name from the 1925 masterpiece by Russian abstract painter Wassily Kandinsky). Each is a complete and free thinking performer in their own right, but it’s hard to deny that together they have developed a particularly powerful sense of interplay. This year, Sylvester and McCarthy are back as A Small Dream in Red, with a new record called In The Language Of Dreams, which they dedicate to both Kandinsky and Ornette Coleman, as “leaders of the avant garde movement”. The 12-track, 70-minute album covers plenty of ground, including several diverse duo originals, two of Coleman’s tunes (with poetry by McCarthy) and a decidedly trippy take on“April in Paris”. The album opener, an original called “Dizzy Bird”,is a perfectly paced starting point, as Sylvester bounces nimbly through bop-tinged riffs and McCarthy pays lyrical homage to Coleman and the historical context of his innovations. Both performers are really in their element on Coleman’s “The Blessing” and “The Sphynx”, stretching out into abstract territory and channeling their spiritual perception of the alto saxophonist’s forward-thinking messages while also maintaining their own confidently probing voices.Another original worth highlighting is the unsurprisingly loosely structured “Composition VII”, an especially minimalist free improvisation in which the pair beautifully explore longer held notes and more deliberately jarring choices in tonality. McCarthy returns as a compositional collaborator and performing member of Sylvester’s Afro Caribbean Experimental (ACE) Collective, for that group’s hefty two-disc, nine-track, 87-minute album Spirit Driven.The sextet - with includes trumpeter Waldron Mahdi Ricks, pianist Pablo Vergara, electric bassist Donald Nicks and drummer Kenny Grohowski - skips ably across the spectrum between ethereal free improv and tight, funky beats while often sticking with the typically dense harmonies of Sylvester and McCarthy’s writing, as well as pursuing unexpected paths within the rhythmic terrain of Afro Caribbean traditions. Nicks and Grohowski form a particularly strong backbone on“Construction No. 2” and “Construction No. 1”, which open the first and second discs, respectively. Both tunes are refreshingly accessible from an improvisational standpoint, beginning with relatively straight ahead grooves that gradually morph and reach farther outside the changes, with spontaneous yet swinging solos and McCarthy’s strong vocal presence. Sylvester’s somber tune “Paulina’s Prayer” is a great addition, featuring sensitive ensemble playing and a moving solo by the leader, as well as some good mute work from Ricks.And the creative duo of Sylvester and McCarthy come to the forefront once more on “Remember Haiti”, a jointly written and extremely inspired tune, which begins with chaos and coalesces into a unique verbal and aural documentation of the societal troubles faced by that nation.
The musical relationship between alto saxophonist Jorge Sylvester
and vocalist NoraMcCarthy dates back 12 years to their first performance as the duo A Small Dream in Red (which takes its name from the 1925 masterpiece by Russian abstract painter Wassily Kandinsky). Each is a complete and free thinking performer in their own right, but it’s hard to deny that together they have developed a particularly powerful sense of interplay. This year, Sylvester and McCarthy are back as A Small Dream in Red, with a new record called In The Language Of Dreams, which they dedicate to both Kandinsky and Ornette Coleman, as “leaders of the avant garde movement”. The 12-track, 70-minute album covers plenty of ground, including several diverse duo originals, two of Coleman’s tunes (with poetry by McCarthy) and a decidedly trippy take on“April in Paris”. The album opener, an original called “Dizzy Bird”,is a perfectly paced starting point, as Sylvester bounces nimbly through bop-tinged riffs and McCarthy pays lyrical homage to Coleman and the historical context of his innovations. Both performers are really in their element on Coleman’s “The Blessing” and “The Sphynx”, stretching out into abstract territory and channeling their spiritual perception of the alto saxophonist’s forward-thinking messages while also maintaining their own confidently probing voices.Another original worth highlighting is the unsurprisingly loosely structured “Composition VII”, an especially minimalist free improvisation in which the pair beautifully explore longer held notes and more deliberately jarring choices in tonality. McCarthy returns as a compositional collaborator and performing member of Sylvester’s Afro Caribbean Experimental (ACE) Collective, for that group’s hefty two-disc, nine-track, 87-minute album Spirit Driven.The sextet - with includes trumpeter Waldron Mahdi Ricks, pianist Pablo Vergara, electric bassist Donald Nicks and drummer Kenny Grohowski - skips ably across the spectrum between ethereal free improv and tight, funky beats while often sticking with the typically dense harmonies of Sylvester and McCarthy’s writing, as well as pursuing unexpected paths within the rhythmic terrain of Afro Caribbean traditions. Nicks and Grohowski form a particularly strong backbone on“Construction No. 2” and “Construction No. 1”, which open the first and second discs, respectively. Both tunes are refreshingly accessible from an improvisational standpoint, beginning with relatively straight ahead grooves that gradually morph and reach farther outside the changes, with spontaneous yet swinging solos and McCarthy’s strong vocal presence. Sylvester’s somber tune “Paulina’s Prayer” is a great addition, featuring sensitive ensemble playing and a moving solo by the leader, as well as some good mute work from Ricks.And the creative duo of Sylvester and McCarthy come to the forefront once more on “Remember Haiti”, a jointly written and extremely inspired tune, which begins with chaos and coalesces into a unique verbal and aural documentation of the societal troubles faced by that nation.
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OONachrichten Kultur Medien
Jorge Sylvester - The ACE Collective
Brucknerhaus Linz, December 6, 2010 ******
Brucknerhaus Linz, December 6, 2010 ******
Those who were expecting Calypso-singing Harry Belafonte clones must have been disappointed. The pieces composed by the Panamanian saxophonist use the rhythmic tradition as a basis for extended forays into the world of the contemporary. The young drummer Kenneth Grohowsky juggled the odd meters with exquisite ease. Sylvester's compositions are solid ground for exciting, improvisational excursions particularly by the singer and poet Nora McCarthy and the trumpeter Waldron Mahdi Ricks. The music could most readily be compared to Steve Coleman's Five Elements who made a big impression in St. Magdalena in October. In the next days the ACE Collective will record their new CD at Peter Guschlbauer's studio in Hagenberg. You have to look forward to that.
-Christoph Haunschmid
-Christoph Haunschmid
"Ace Collective enthusiastically received in Linz"
