12th Annual Panama Jazz Festival Led by Artistic Director Danilo Pérez Announces 2015 Lineup

Since it's inception in 2003, the Panama Jazz Festival has attracted over 220,000 jazz fans worldwide.

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Uniting internationally acclaimed jazz artists, renowned educators and jazz fans from around the globe, the 12th Annual Panama Jazz Festival will be held January 12-17, 2015 at The City of Knowledge in Panama City and the recently founded Danilo’s Jazz Club located at the American Trade Hotel in the Old Quarter of Panama City. The festival honors multi-instrumentalist Eric Dolphy, whose father was Panamanian.

Among the headliners for this year’s festival is Founder and Artistic Director Danilo Pérez and his recently assembled Children of The Light Trio, featuring bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade, who is also the first Resident Artist of the Festival.

Additional headliners include jazz legend Benny Golson Quartet, Ruben Blades, Miguel Zenón, Pedrito Martinez, Latin pop singer and songwriter Omar Alfanno, Brian Blade and The Fellowship Band, Chilean saxophonist Patricia Zarate with her band MapuJazz and special guest singer Claudia Acuña, and Phil Ranelin and Matt Marvuglio giving a special tribute to Eric Dolphy.

German duo Uwe Kropinski (guitar) & Michael Heupel (flute) will be featured, as well as international artists and clinicians such as Richie Barshay (USA), Ehud Ettud (Israel), John Patitucci (USA), Jorge Perez (Peru), Kevin Harris (USA), Marco Pignataro (Italy), Ricardo del Fra (France), Orion Lion (Chile), Shea Welsh (USA), Sissy Castrogiovanni (Italy) among many others.

Furthermore, the festival will host the 3rd Latin American Music Therapy Symposium, bringing music therapists from the Chile, Argentina, Panama, Venezuela, Costa Rica (among other Latin American countries) and the United States together to present on the therapeutic effects of music.

Since its inception in 2003, the Panama Jazz Festival has attracted over 220,000 jazz fans worldwide, has raised over 1 million dollars, and has announced over 3.5 million dollars in scholarships on an international level. Last year, the festival welcomed 2,000 students from around the world who participated in the educational events.

Participating educational institutions include Boston-based institutions, Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory, which will be holding auditions for admission and scholarships. The Berklee Global Jazz Institute will hold master classes, perform social work with Panamanian youth and perform in various settings throughout the festival. Berklee will repeat last years innovative program where students will earn college performance credit for the college. In addition to these various universities, Paris Conservatory (France) and Crossroads High School (Los Angeles, CA) will be participating in this year’s events.

For more information on the Panama Jazz Festival, click here

Tickets for the Panama Jazz Festival are available online here

 

Danilo Pérez: From Panama to Chicago, with love

Border Radio: September 19, 2014

Danilo is as inventive as ever as a pianist and improviser, but he's also still the generous individual that I met nearly 20 years ago.

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I've been meandering my way through this thing called the music business for nearly 30 years. It's really the only thing I know how to do, and it's certainly the only thing I want to do. I've seen a lot of excess and stupidity in that time, and participated in my share. More often, though, I've simply been lucky that working in this area in one capacity or another has continually exposed me to wonderful experiences and terrific artists.

One of those artists is the Panamanian jazz pianist Danilo Pérez. I was introduced to him in January of 1997 at the Jazz Educator's Association conference in Chicago, and I was immediately struck by his warmth and generosity. I've seen him perform at three different incarnations of the Jazz Showcase; the present location, the space on Grand Avenue in River North and, before that, the faded and shabby elegance of the Blackstone Hotel before it was renovated. I even got to host an in-store performance by him in support of his CD Panamonk when I ran the music department at the sadly departed Borders store on Michigan Avenue.

It's been over three years since I last saw him, so I was eagerly awaiting last night's performance at the Jazz Showcase for a few months. I was also fortunate that the Afro-Latin publication Agúzate let me write a show preview and review of his recent Panama 500 album, which you can read here. Writing that piece forced me to sit down and really listen to Panama 500 closely, and I was richly rewarded.

Pérez is as inventive as ever as a pianist and improviser, but he's also still the generous individual that I met nearly 20 years ago. His band on this visit includes his long-time drummer Adam Cruz (phenomenal as always) and two fresh young musicians from Jerusalem. Bassist Tal Gamlieli stepped up solidly in place of Ben Street, and Roni Eytan's harmonica evoked at various times the string arrangements from Panama 500, hints of Panamanian style accordion and even tropical bird calls. Danilo led all three musicians in what was clearly a joyous adventure, onstage and off.

Much of the evening was devoted to Panama 500, but the altered instrumentation and Pérez's intense need to open doors and explore ideas guaranteed that the approach to those songs was imbued with improvisational twists and turns. The same goes for his deep forays into Monk and Dizzy.  Two sets, two-plus hours of music, exquisite 'til the very last note.

In preparing for my Agúzate article, I had the opportunity to ask Danilo a few questions about his art and what I have long suspected was a special relationship with Chicago.

Don: Panama has been a central subject of much of your music going all the way back to Panamonk, and what strikes me most is how little it sounds like what is commonly known as "Latin jazz." What's different about Panama?

Danilo: Panama's strategic geographical position has allowed for the amalgam of many cultures. Panama is one of the most globalized countries in Latin America and therefore has a very rich and diverse history. The Bridge of the Americas located in Panama is a huge inspiration to me and I have been writing and performing music that is more related to global jazz using elements from Jazz, Classical and Latin American folkloric elements.

Don: I hear so much of the 'indigenous' in your music, And although Caribbean culture often references the mix of European, African and indigenous cultures, for me the African and European influences seem to dominate in most music, but this is not the case with you. Tell me a bit about that.

Danilo: The music I am hearing and writing required different tone colors. For Panama 500, my last project, I used the Guna's folkloric element, violin and cello, plus Panamanian percussion sounds. This added a fantastic color to the mix. Also with the narrations I used their voice and language as an inspiration to improvise and write music. To use music as a tool to send a message of dialogue and equality is very important to me, and as a UNESCO Artist for Peace it is already responsibility. Therefore in Panama 500 the Guna Indians taught me how little informed we are about history and that the discovery of the Pacific Ocean should be reviewed and studied as a rediscovery instead. Every project that I embark on I really like to focus on the elements that unite them: Africa, Europe and Latin American folklore.

Don: I hope I'm not being presumptuous, but Chicago seems to be a special place for you. I'm going back to at least Panamonk, when I first met you, but even your first totally independent project Live at the Jazz Showcase was recorded here. Am I imagining that fondness?

Danilo: No, you are right, it is a very special place because it has provided me with a lot of inspiration to write and play music. A lot of special commissions to write music and a lot of important collaborations in my musical life. I really have a special place in my heart for this amazing, creative city.

Don: At this point in your career you could almost exclusively be a concert hall performer, getting paid well for one night's work, but you are doing the full four nights, two sets a night at the Jazz Showcase this week. Why?

Danilo: It is important to me to keep experimenting, mentoring and reworking my craft, [and] the Jazz Showcase is an institution of jazz music and provides me with all these opportunities to keep developing.

Danilo Pérez continues at the Jazz Showcase through Sunday, September 21. It's a busy music weekend in Chicago, but you should really find a way to get there and experience this amazing music and person for yourself. Trust me, you'll be happy you did.

Panama 500 Review and Jazz Showcase Preview

Aguzate: September 17, 2014

Danilo Pérez is quite simply one of the most inventive jazz pianists of our time.

You’ll note that I didn’t qualify that with the word ‘Latin’. Yes, Pérez was born in Panama and his music has often been imbued with the sound and spirit of his homeland and the Caribbean. He first came to attention of American audiences through his work with Paquito D’Rivera (I have a handful of Paqito CDs from the early 90s when both Danilo and Chicago’s own Fareed Haque were in Paquito’s band), but he has also played with Wynton Marsalis, Joe Lovano, Jack DeJohnette and dozens of other artists from the non-Latin side. He was in a trio led by the great Roy Haynes and is also a long time member of Wayne Shorter’s quartet.

Danilo’s recordings have explored American jazz as deeply as that from the Caribbean, often at the same time, especially on the rather amazing Panamonk. As a conservatory trained pianist in the European tradition and a Panamanian, his take on the music of the idiosyncratic piano great Thelonius Monk was as original as its inspiration.

He’s been coming to Chicago regularly for over 20 years, and though he has made the occasional concert appearance at Symphony Center, his ‘home away from home’ has been the venerable Jazz Showcase. He even recorded 2005’s terrific Live at the Jazz Showcase with his trio there. That makes his return starting Thursday, September 18 an especially anticipated appearance. I last saw him at the Showcase in 2011. I reviewed that performance for Arte y Vida Chicago, and I remember not only the brilliant improvisational interplay of the trio (Pérez, bassist Ben Street and drummer Adam Cruz) but also the folkloric sound that two of the evening’s longer pieces evoked. There were also hints of mambo, sketches of samba and deep forays into Monk and Dizzy.

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Danilo Perez: Panama 500

Noho Arts District: September 16, 2014

Jazz in the 21st Century is in an interesting time, not necessarily stuck in a rut, but no one really knows what exactly is the next big step is for jazz, or where it should be going.

But what is apparent, is that jazz musicians understand the needs for the music to progress and move forward in order for jazz to continue being at the forefront of musical exploration and expression, and not be left behind and become recognized as the music of the past. And because there really isn't a set direction for the music, this is exciting times for jazz listeners and composers. Jazz in the 21st century is essentially a blank canvas for composers to do anything what they want. They have the ability to experiment, and explore new identities for themselves as jazz composers and musicians, and to explore a new identities for jazz as a whole.

One of those composers/musicians who are doing exactly that is a man by the name of Danilo Perez. He is helping push jazz into new direction, putting his own mark on jazz, and showing the world what can be done with jazz.

Residing in Boston, but forever dedicated to his home country of Panama. Danilo perez has created an album that celebrates Panama and it’s diverse culture, by exploring the many musical transplants that have come through and stayed in panama over the 500 years that Panama has been around.

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Children of the Light Trio Shines at Copenhagen Fest

Downbeat: July 22, 2014

The 2014 Copenhagen Jazz Fest, which ran from July 4–13, was chock-full of quality performances, but one of the superlative highlights was the Children of the Light Trio’s July 6 concert.

While pianist Danilo Pérez, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade have been playing together in saxophonist Wayne Shorter’s quartet since 2000, their recent foray as a working trio was auspicious. Longtime Copenhagen favorites, the three musicians seemed quite comfortable onstage together at the Betty Nansen Theater, and their two-set program was an unqualified success.

The trio’s moniker nods toward a few different things, including a biblical verse and Shorter’s composition “Children Of The Night.” Indeed, Shorter’s influence on this group was obvious throughout the evening. These musicians have only worked in this particular format for a short time, but the familiarity, confidence and trust between the three-piece was fully evident and can be attributed to their amazing time working alongside Shorter.

Drawing on material from Pérez’s recently released Mack Avenue solo album, Panama 500 (on which both Patitucci and Blade appear), the band put on a clinic of spontaneous, virtuosic improvisation and compositional integrity. Latin, Caribbean and Brazilian influences all played a part in their performance, and the trio’s musical dialogue ran the gamut from lighthearted to explosively intense.

Drummer Blade stood out, mixing a soft touch on the brushes, aggressive bursts with mallets and powerful interludes in response to Pérez’s lyrical improvisations. Patitucci alternated between acoustic and electric (6-string) bass and was a wonder to behold on both sides of the low-end spectrum. Bowing sensually with intense concentration, the bassist was responsive to the slightest inflection provided by the pianist, and his near-telepathic connection with Blade made for some amazing rhythmic flourishes and joyful crescendos.

Working without any material composed specifically for this trio, the bandmates explored some recent Pérez pieces, such as “Panama 500,” “The Expedition” and the hard-driving “Melting Pot,” as well as an extraordinarily beautiful ballad written by Patitucci. Reading some of the new music off written charts didn’t slow them down, as their well-established rapport overcame any unfamiliarity with the material.

In the course of their improvisational voyage, the band suddenly found itself on the brink of the Shorter composition “Dolores,” from Miles Davis’ album Miles Smiles. Ever in the moment, they naturally dove right into the iconic tune. In keeping with the ubiquitous Shorter vibe were melodic traces of “House Of Jade” (originally from the saxophonist’s 1964 album JuJu), which the band finally played in its entirety during the evening’s second set.

Responsive to the slightest sonic opportunity, Pérez took another page out of the Shorter handbook by rhythmically mimicking an audience member’s heavy footsteps, and he delivered a playful, whistling call-and-response segment with the crowd.

Despite the reliance on compositions written by Pérez, this band is an intentionally leaderless trio with a nonproprietary sense toward the music itself. Their combination of composition and improvising—which they call “compromising”—is a souvenir of their long tenure with Shorter.

The Children of the Light Trio’s future will hold even more surprises once its members start composing tunes specifically for this collective. Until then, bring your sunglasses to the show, because there’s more than enough light to go around.

Children of the Light Trio review – Wayne Shorter's rhythm section fly when solo

The Guardian: July 16, 2014

Ronnie Scott's, London – Pérez, Patitucci and Blade showed what an intelligent and original trio they are.

Just what the Wayne Shorter band would sound like without Wayne Shorter was the tantalising question for this one-night UK visit – the Children of the Light Trio being Shorter's revered rhythm section, consisting of pianist Danilo Pérez, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade. As with the absent sax giant's gigs, complex writing and quick-thinking group improv were inseparably mixed. But for extended episodes, this trio unfolded a rhythmically probing chamber recital, the melodies often revealing Pérez's broad-church pan-American approach and profound knowledge of folk and classical forms, as well as explicitly African-American traditions.

Before the trio emerged, the club's managing director, Simon Cooke, reminded the full house of recent jazz losses Horace Silver, Charlie Haden and long-time Evening Standard critic Jack Massarik – the rousing applause for Massarik particularly testifying to how much his directness and honesty were valued by London jazz fans. Pérez then settled to a quiet, delicately dissonant piano melody in chords, varied by fragmentary runs; Patitucci played almost-hooks on bass guitar that Pérez displaced with soft-touch classical raptures, as percussive folk-themes suggesting the pianist's Panamanian roots surfaced and submerged; before finally Patitucci swung into a blues solo while the ever-fascinating Blade mixed reassuring shuffles and disruptive cracks.

Themes segued without breaks – sometimes as Chick Corea-like dances, sometimes with a McCoy Tyneresque percussiveness – and an eloquently cinematic motif explored by Pérez and Patitucci was a showcase for the latter's pure-pitched, cello-like double-bass sound with the bow. Eventually, glimpses of Wayne Shorter themes flickered through increasingly dense and urgent collective improv at the climax of a set in which this intelligent and original trio had slowly revealed its character in frequently byzantine ways – but the proof lay in the rapt attention of the audience from the first note to the last.

Children of the Light Trio, Ronnie Scott’s, London – review

Financial Times: July 15, 2014

The jazz virtuosos proved themselves to be more than Wayne Shorter’s rhythm section

Children of the Light Trio are three band-leading virtuosos who regularly convene as the rhythm section of Wayne Shorter’s quartet. The saxophonist formed his band in 2000, and the trio’s ability to second-guess Shorter’s oblique turns while delivering surprises of their own is legendary. Here, though, they performed without their leader, and it was pianist Danilo Peréz who set things in motion with his fragments of scales, scatterings of chords and rhythmic motifs.

As with Shorter’s band, the music unfolded at angles, smouldering grooves came with melodramatic thumps and the collective invention was intense. There were vague hints of the Shorter repertoire – a pulled-out-of-shape “Footprints” in the first set; a lovely mid-tempo lope led by bassist John Patitucci in the second.

But this wasn’t just the Wayne Shorter quartet playing without Wayne Shorter. Recent Peréz recordings have explored the evolution of Latin American musical traditions, and the trio referenced these concerns in both sets. The long first piece was a carousel of styles that opened with stark piano harmonies, the swoosh of drummer Brian Blade’s cymbals and counterpoint bass guitar. Peréz darted from classical fugue to African chant and from indigenous song to Latin pulse, while Blade and Patitucci added thoughts of their own. They settled on a slow burn and finally ended with three sharp chords and a roll of drums.

The set continued with whisper-quiet chamber jazz – Blade played drums with his hands – and concluded with a dark-toned construction of discordant piano fragments scattered over Patitucci’s trenchant bowed double bass. It turned this way and that before rampaging out over an impulsive Blade shuffle.

The extended second set continued the three-way conversation, was more upbeat and settled more easily. The first number implied swing and elliptically quoted Charlie Parker’s “Billie’s Bounce”, there was a lovely reverie, an oblique and funky samba and a sedate and moving memorial to bassist Charlie Haden, who died last Friday. Each piece shape-shifted, changed pulse and periodically locked into a groove. They ended with the cultural melting pot of “Chocolito”, a Peréz composition that takes in African blues and classical romance, retreats in volume and then roars into a Latin groove to end on a high.

Bridging Cultures and Dimensions of Jazz

All About Jazz: June 3, 2014

Whether with his own ensembles or as a sideman, Danilo Perez has long been an iconic jazz pianist, but above and beyond his success as a performer and recording artist, he has become a manifestation and symbol of cross-cultural dialogue.

His music brings together mainstream and Latin influences in a unique way. He always brings something new into the mix, whether early on with Dizzy Gillespie, Jon Hendricks or Wynton Marsalis, his award-winning CD, Panamonk (Implulse, 1996), and more recently with the Wayne Shorter Quartet as well as his own groups featuring Brian Blade, John Patitucci, Ben Street, Adam Cruz, and others. His most recent recordings, Providencia (Mack Avenue, 2010) and Panama 500 (Mack Avenue, 2-14) are in homage to his home country of Panama, yet they incorporate elements of Cuba, straight ahead jazz, European impressionism, African, and other musical heritages.

Perez sees music as a multi-dimensional bridge among peoples. He has dedicated himself to making a better world through his efforts as an Artist For Peace with UNESCO, Artistic director of the Berklee Global Jazz Institute, the Panama Jazz Festival, the Danilo Perez Foundation, and other organizations. In everything he does, Perez is always seeking unity, meaning, healing, and the betterment of mankind. He is truly a musical innovator and humanitarian, as this interview illustrates.

Read the complete interview

Danilo Pérez – Panama 500

London Jazz: April 2, 2014

It’s 500 years since the ‘discovery’ of Panama and pianist Danilo Pérez calls this album a ‘rediscovery’.

He draws together modern jazz with European Classical and indigenous Guna music into an aural image of his country’s history. ‘I have been working for years to make music that has an identity very similar to the role that Panama plays in the world.’ Pérez is perhaps best known as Wayne Shorter’s pianist, and drummer Brian Blade and bassist John Pattitucci from Shorter’s band join Pérez for several tracks on this album; the rest comprises his regular trio with Ben Street and Adam Cruz, melding jazz and traditional Panamanian rhythms, to ‘expand on the idea of clave’, as Pérez puts it.

Traditional Panamanian music, chants and percussion sometimes stand alone in short tracks; mostly Pérez has created music around their rhythms.Rediscovery of the South Sea opens the album with composed violin lines (Alex Hargreaves) teasing out the inner harmonies of the piano chords. It’s like a miniature orchestral piece, with sinuous Eastern violin lines draped around the local La Denesa dance rhythms, dense harmonies and playful improvisations. (Guna chant from Roman Diaz and percussion from Ricaurte Villarreal) There’s a free section where Perez asked Street and Cruz to play ‘as if they were lost in the jungle,’ like Spanish explorers. ‘When the piano brings the melody back,’ Pérez says, ‘I’m trying to play like it’s two o’clock in the morning and the left hand is drunk.’ Gratitude, written for his loved ones and fellow musicians, has a joyful calypso feel, with deliciously rustling drum texture, the final ringing chord unleashing all the piano’s deep shadowy overtones.

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Danilo Pérez: Panama 500

Pop Matters: March 28, 2014

Jazz pianist Danilo Pérez works in the rarified air of modern jazz much of the time.

He plays with the Wayne Shorter Quartet, a space of daring and thrilling jazz abstraction. What that music “means”, beyond its own thrilling vocabulary of feeling and musical exploration, is hard to say.

But Pérez also often works on music – also jazz but not just jazz – that comes with a story, the story of Pérez’s home in Panama. And Panama 500 is the remarkable follow-up to 2010’s Providencia, which refracted Panamanian folk music through jazz and classical lenses to create something bracing and new.

Again, Pérez aptly showcases his outstanding trio (with Ben Street on bass and Adam Cruz on drums) on most tracks, supplementing the band with strings, voices, percussion, and particular musical elements from the native Guna culture. The trio from Shorter’s group also plays on four tracks here, moving and responding to each other with characteristic sympathy and musical ease.

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Danilo Perez receives Medal of Jerusalem

Usonica: March 21, 2014

The Panamanian pianist Danilo Perez was awarded yesterday to the "Jerusalem Medal" in recognition of his contribution to music and peace. The ceremony was held at City Hall at a meeting of the Committee on Culture of the City.

DaniloPerez, 49 years old, is an artist for peace by UNESCO and cultural ambassador of the Republic of Panama, he studied music at the Berklee College of Music, is founder of the Panama Jazz Festival and started playing at three years accompanied by his father (also a musician). Perez is considered one of the wonders of modern jazz piano, who throughout his career has played with numerous jazz musicians frontline.

In this regard, Perez recalled his first contact with Israel in 1999, a trip during which claims to have felt "a tremendous connection has grown stronger day by day." "I do not expect this is a very nice (...) gesture is always a liability than having a prize, it's a wonderful thing," he said at the ceremony, adding a reflection on the importance of "being present and bring the message that music serves as a platform for peace "because" is one of the most effective ways to practice diplomacy tools, and are here to offer ideas and perhaps develop joint to a peaceful future projects, and eventually provide stability in this country. "

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Danilo Perez weaves jazz tapestry of Panama past and present

The Bay State Banner: February 20, 2014

Pianist Danilo Perez’s music presents complexity, exuberance and a definitive sense of place expressed through tone and rhythmic authority.

“Panama 500” is the most recent CD recording by Perez, an exacting, often didactic collection of tunes that touch on politics and cultural hegemony. It is, as most of his works, a unique jazz achievement — a post bebop meditation that explores one of South America’s important countries.

“Panama 500” is a both celebration and a lament. At once it is a musical history of the country, a chronicle of its people and their contribution to world culture and invention. At the same time it is a tale of invasion and military conquest by the Spanish in the 16th century and the domination of the land’s indigenous people.

“Yeah, they discovered the Pacific,” said Perez, but he also noted that native people in the area were as advanced as the explorers Rodrigo de Bastidas and then, Christopher Columbus who found the country 500 years ago.

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Jazz Brimming With Ideas

The New York Times: February 7, 2014

Danilo Pérez began his early set at the Jazz Standard on Thursday night with a busily efficient overture, laying out many of his themes and protocols for the ensuing hour.

Within the first minute of the piece, “Rediscovery of the South Sea,” there was an intriguing bramble of push-pull tensions between bass, violin and percussion; a more spacious motif that Mr. Pérez unhurriedly teased out at the piano; and a hale-sounding Yoruban chant by Roman Díaz, providing his own punctuation on a batá drum.

The evening’s program had been adapted from “Panama 500,” Mr. Pérez’s highly plotted, superarticulate, breezily ambitious new album (Mack Avenue). A distillation of ideas developed over roughly the last 15 years — mingling elements of classical form, jazz flexibility and Latin-American folk melody — it’s impressive for both its design and its execution, and for the strong implication that those two qualities are inextricable, even indivisible.

Mr. Pérez built the album around the expressive rapport of two longtime rhythm sections: one featuring the bassist Ben Street and the drummer Adam Cruz, members of his working trio; and the other featuring the bassist John Patitucci and the drummer Brian Blade, his fellow travelers in the Wayne Shorter Quartet.

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Panama's history set to music on "Panama 500"

The Boston Globe: February 3, 2014

The 47-year-old Boston jazz pianist, composer, and educator Danilo Pérez (currently at Berklee) has long explored the music of his native Panama in different settings. “Panama 500” may be his most accomplished piece yet.

Commemorating the 500th anniversary of Spanish explorer Balboa’s “discovery” of the Pacific Ocean on Panama’s west coast as well as the 100th anniversary of the Panama Canal, Pérez tells the history of his country through its music, from the chants of the indigenous Guna people and folkloric dance rhythms through modern jazz.

But rather than offering a strict chronological retelling, Pérez juxtaposes and layers different musical vocabularies. Atop the ancient percussion rhythms of the introductory “Rediscovery of the South Sea,” he sets not just modern instruments (like violin and his own piano) but also pungent modern harmonies. It’s history in the present tense, experienced as a memory. Alternating his long-standing trio of bassist Ben Street and drummer Adam Cruz with his rhythm mates from the Wayne Shorter Quartet, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade, Pérez adds percussion and strings. Through tuneful set pieces and improvisations, the music remains focused and evocative.

Danilo Perez celebrates the pulse of Panama

The Chicago Tribune

Twenty years ago, two relatively unknown jazz musicians made their Chicago debuts before a smallish audience in a long-forgotten North Side club called Quicksilver.

They played exceptionally well that night in April, 1994, suggesting the world would hear more about them and their boldly international perspectives on how jazz can be re-imagined.

Since then, Panamanian pianist Danilo Perez and Puerto Rican saxophonist David Sanchez have become major musical figures, each still imbuing jazz with the sounds of their homelands. Perez has played periodically in Chicago through the years, especially in large venues such as Orchestra Hall at Symphony Center and often in the company of saxophonist Wayne Shorter. But Perez hasn’t played a club date here in years, so his return to the Jazz Showcase on Thursday evening marked a significant occasion – a rare chance to hear
the eminent pianist at close range, leading his own quartet.

Not surprisingly, a large audience turned out, listeners paying close attention to Perez’s experiments in interweaving music of his native Panama and his adopted home, the United States. Perez returned the compliment by delivering scores of considerable complexity and sophistication, rightly assuming his fans were more than willing to take a journey with him into unfamiliar sounds.

Danilo Perez, world-class pianist out to change the world

The Boston Globe: April 28, 2013

The Boston GlobeThis jazz giant has faith that music can contribute to humanitarian work. Now it’s up to his Berklee College students to prove it.

Danilo Perez has just finished a clinic for young jazz players, and it’s time for his next gig. He slips out of the auditorium, crosses a narrow street, and ducks into a rehearsal room crawling with trumpeters, guitarists, singers, and more than a half-dozen percussionists. Like nearly everyone else at January’s weeklong Panama Jazz Festival, in his native Panama City, the musicians are waiting for him, a blur in a navy button-down, black pants, and thick-frame glasses. Everybody wants a piece of Danilo.

Haggard from a punishing schedule, the renowned composer, pianist, and educator is growing sicker by the day. Tomorrow, the big band he leads will close the festival before a sea of fans on a former American military base near the Panama Canal. Then he will check into a hospital, barely able to breathe. But today they must practice

The band begins rehearsing a Perez composition, Patria, or Homeland, written as a tribute to his country. The horns and drums build, but he waves them off. “The feeling is not there,” he says. He needs the ensemble to evoke, with its tones and rhythms, Spain’s colonization of Panama.

They start anew. Again, he stops the song. The music — too flat, too cold — dies. “This is important!” he says, pleading for more drama, more emotion. “You guys didn’t watch movies, man?”

The rehearsal goes on like this, with Perez standing over an electric piano, a gold cross dangling from his neck, frustration growing with each bloodless start. It’s not their musicianship he questions. He’s after something less tangible. “You know how to play correctly? That doesn’t mean anything,” he says. “That’s like when a machine washes clothes correctly.”

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