Wynton Marsalis and members of the Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra recently visited Danilo Perez Foundation in Panama for a master class.
To check out the photos of their visit, click here
DANILO PEREZ NAMED PANAMANIAN CULTURAL AMBASSADOR
Danilo with his wife, Patricia, Panama VP Isabel St. Malo and husband at the opening of the Forum of the Americas in Miami
The Panamanian Government, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the framework of Cultural Diplomacy to raise the international image of Panama, has appointed Omar Alfanno and Danilo Perez as Cultural Ambassadors Ad Honoren.
The official presentation was given on January 14 at the Gala Evening of the Panama Jazz Festival, held at the National Theatre. During the meeting, the Vice President and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Isabel de Saint Malo de Alvarado, stressed the importance of having representatives from the likes of Perez and Alfanno to promote the cultural values f the Panamanian nation abroad.
The Vice Chancellor highlighted the immense contribution of these Panamanians to music, as their compositions and performances positively influence the lives of thousands of people around the world. Throughout their fruitful and extraordinary careers, they have used their recognition to benefit the children and youth of Panama through scholarships and programs that seek to train young Panamanians in music, enabling a source of income and leading to productive lives.
As cultural ambassadors, Omar Alfanno and Danilo Pérez’ honored mission will be continue to promote the image and culture of Panama for the equitable development of its people.
To read the original article in Spanish click here
Review: Children of the Light jazz trio lights up Spivey Hall with jam-infused musicianship
ArtsATL.com: February 12, 2015
Children of the Light break out of Wayne Shorter's shadow.
April can’t come soon enough.
During a concert by the Children of the Light on Saturday at Clayton State University, pianist Danilo Pérez said the trio — which includes drummer Brian Blade and John Patitucci on acoustic and electric bass — will head to the studio this spring for its first recording sessions.
The musicians have been playing as a unit for 15-odd years supporting Wayne Shorter, most recently on 2013’s Without A Net live recording, but this new disc would present the trio as a cohesive ensemble. Last year at the Rialto, the musicians had already proven their relationship with Shorter isn’t at all subordinate; during the enthralling performance, Pérez, Patitucci and Blade weren’t simply accompanying a music master, but were participating in an organic, collaborative music-making process.
Pérez, Patitucci and Blade easily move in lockstep. This familiarity and appreciation of common musical goals helped create a level of jazz club intimacy even in Clayton State’s Spivey Hall.
The group has only recorded one studio album with Shorter, 2003’s Algeria, though together they have logged countless hours of live shows and three live recordings. But capturing in the studio the spontaneity and the electricity the three musicians unleashed at Spivey would seem to be a difficult task.
Saturday’s concert, without the headlining presence of Shorter, was a bit more subdued, and the band was able to craft its own identity. Pérez’s aesthetic — at times classical and florid, with one graceful, curving line flowing into the next — led to pieces full of twists and turns, each of them introducing myriad changes in direction and mood. Pérez juxtaposed his buttery, pianistic passages with rhythmic ostinatos; when the music demanded it, he even played clustered jumbles of notes with his forearms and fists.
The tunes, for the most part, swapped melody for shifting vamps, and here is where Shorter’s influence became most apparent. The conceit lended a spontaneous feel to the evening — an almost jam-like presentation — that gave an unexpectedness to the tunes that is missing in a lot of modern jazz played today.
The musicians are master technicians, but flashy playing was refreshingly absent from the performance. Electric bass in hand, Patitucci could have imbued each song with a prog-ish fusion vibe, but he expertly interlaced dizzying passages of notes with a deep respect for the music. Even his keep-the-tempo background playing on acoustic bass added depth and brilliance to the music.
On the drums, Blade’s driving goal was not rhythm, but musicality; his use of dynamics and subtle shading belied the sheer amount of sound he could create. Blade doesn’t seem like an overly physical drummer, but early in the evening, a somewhat faulty snare drum stand couldn’t bear the quiet force of his drumming. Blade handled the equipment malfunction in stride, never losing a beat, even with his snare drum resting on the stage.
Patitucci delivered the most poignant tune of the evening, picking up his electric bass for “Ballad for a Nobleman.” With the song, he said a subdued but joyful good-bye to the late Atlanta Symphony Orchestra bassist Doug Sommer, a longtime friend. The touching tribute rejected mawkish sentimentality for captivating musicality, echoing the overarching theme of the evening.
Aiming to Create a Jazz Capital
The New York Times: January 18, 2015
Danilo Pérez Builds a Magnet for Musicians in Panama
PANAMA — In the wee hours of Friday morning, Danilo Pérez climbed onstage at his jazz club here to play a set. Mr. Pérez, the Panama-born pianist and composer who has for more than a decade been a member of Wayne Shorter’s acclaimed quartet, had already headlined shows for the Panama Jazz Festival, which he founded 12 years ago. There he had performed alongside the Puerto Rican saxophonist Miguel Zenón and his fellow Panamanian, the salsa singer Rubén Blades, and in the festival’s gala concert at the 106-year-old National Theater.
And here he was, at 1:30 a.m. Friday, sitting behind the grand piano in the intimate Danilo’s Jazz Club, the city’s only performance space dedicated exclusively to jazz, now packed with friends and visitors. He was joined by John Patitucci, the Shorter quartet bassist, and a host of international musicians and students, eager to improvise alongside the masters. Nêgah Santos, 24, a Brazilian powerhouse in denim shorts, gave her congas a workout; Samuel Batista, 24, a Panamanian in his third year at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, drew full-throated cheers with his saxophone. The jam lasted until closing time, and afterward Mr. Pérez gathered his young charges at a cocktail table to dispense encouragement and wisdom. “This kind of thing wakes you up, right?” he said, grinning.
Even in jazz, which has a long tradition of mentorship, Mr. Pérez, 49, has emerged as a singular figure. Nearly 30 years after he left his native Panama to study jazz composition at Berklee, he has made promoting musicianship in Panama — using music as a springboard, cultural unifier and teaching tool — his life’s work. In 2005, a year after he started the jazz festival with his family, he created the Danilo Pérez Foundation, a nonprofit center for music education and outreach; the festival, which draws as many as 30,000 people over its six-day run each January, provides money for the foundation. The club, which opened last February at the new American Trade Hotel, a luxe outpost of the Ace Hotel chain, is, in his view, the last piece of the puzzle.
“Having a club really helps to focus the work,” Mr. Pérez said, “to provide a space to connect with all these people who are eager to hear more music.” For musicians, a year-round place to perform is “a double blessing,” he added. He had Mr. Shorter’s sound engineer develop the acoustics with the aim of recording there, à la the Village Vanguard. “We hope that with the club, Panama becomes the capital of jazz in Latin America,” Mr. Pérez said.
Already, he has changed the lives of students, especially those from poor backgrounds, like Mr. Batista, handing them a horn and heaping on support, helping some study at Berklee or the New England Conservatory of Music, which hold auditions here during the festival week. (Mr. Pérez leads the Berklee Global Jazz Institute, splitting his time between Boston and Panama.) The conservatories send their own students, too, making for a musical cross-pollination with rising Latin artists. The festival has also been a model for other programming in Panama and South America, where jazz festivals are not as numerous as they are in Europe and the United States. A Chilean delegation visited to study this year’s edition.
“He has proven that you can be successful at it,” said Mariana Núñez Haugland, the director general of Panama’s National Institute of Culture, which sends students to the daily classes that are part of the festival. Mr. Pérez’s efforts, she added, have convinced sponsors and governments that music helps young people “be better citizens.”
Jason Olaine, director of programming and touring at Jazz at Lincoln Center, who has often booked Mr. Pérez as a performer, said his infectious energy may be well suited to link institutions with the musical street culture of Latin America. “He’s just an incredible talent and visionary,” Mr. Olaine said.
For Mr. Pérez, the connection between music and community was taught early, by his father, Danilo Sr., a bandleader and educator, he said during a tour of the foundation on Friday. It is in the former music conservatory where the young Mr. Pérez took his first piano lessons; by 12 he was a working musician. “My happiest days, I passed them here,” he said.
Run on a tight budget, the foundation took donations of instruments from colleagues like Mr. Patitucci and the Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés. Similarly, the festival is staffed by hundreds of volunteers, said Patricia Zarate, its executive director, a saxophonist and Mr. Pérez’s wife. A festival of this scope would likely cost $1 million to $3 million to produce, she said, “and we do it with less than $500,000.” The musicians are paid on a sliding scale, and backing comes from the Panamian government and sponsors like Copa Airlines.
For Mr. Batista, who picked up the saxophone as a teenager, studying at the foundation “changed everything,” he said. He earned a full scholarship to Berklee, one of only two international slots for that program annually. He double-majors in music performance and music therapy, teaches at the foundation in summer and runs auditions at the festival. “The way that they open the doors makes you feel that you need to do the same,” he said.
Though he’s comfortable with Mr. Pérez — known to many here simply as Maestro — improvising onstage with him at the club “was terrifying,” Mr. Batista said afterward. “I’m still in shock.”
It was the good kind of shock, he added. Watching him invent harmonies with Mr. Patitucci, “you realize the work never ends,” Mr. Batista said.
Chale Icaza, 37, a local professional drummer who was mentored by Mr. Pérez, sees the club as a new artistic challenge, and a responsibility. “You can’t just go into that place and play all right,” Mr. Icaza said.
The idea for the club first came up about five years ago, Mr. Pérez said, in conversations with K. C. Hardin, the developer who owns the foundation’s building. When Mr. Hardin, an American transplant here, connected with Ace Hotel, the Portland, Ore., chain known for injecting a dose of studied cool into unlikely places, the notion finally came to fruition. At American Trade, a grand 50-room hotel in what was once a derelict gang stronghold in Casco Viejo, the historic colonial district here, Danilo’s Jazz Club sits next to the hotel lobby. Mr. Pérez’s foundation is just across the street.
Ace’s management took the collaboration seriously, even hiring a researcher to delve into Panama’s roots in Afro-Cuban jazz. It was also Ace’s idea to invite WWOZ, a New Orleans jazz radio station, to live-stream the festival, which Mr. Pérez welcomed as a way to broaden the music’s following.
To worries that the hotel — among the city’s most expensive — has contributed to gentrification in Casco Viejo, Mr. Pérez said he hoped a well-heeled audience could help support the club. With an eye toward accessibility, tickets to some shows are $5.
The festival’s populist mission was clear at the daily clinics, which host about 2,000 students of all ages. On Friday, the virtuoso Cuban percussionist Pedrito Martínez held court in a sweaty classroom, below a diagram of Bach’s chorales, pounding out polyrhythms and inspiring a singalong. Then he answered questions about religion, folklore and history for a rapt audience, many of them grade-schoolers.
The closing concert on Saturday, free to the public, also drew thousands, even on a rainy day. People picnicked and danced to salsa, samba, son and jazz. Alongside his students, Mr. Pérez played piano and keyboards in an all-star jam at the end, upstaged only slightly by three kids whose horns were half their body size. When the stage show ended, another percussion jam started up on the wet grass, and people lingered into the night, not wanting the music to end.
To read the original article click here
Panama 500 Boston Globe's #1 Jazz Album of 2014
Jon Garelick's of the Boston Globe released his year end list of 2014's top jazz albums. AT the very top of his list is Panama 500.
Here's what Jon had to say about the album - "Pianist, composer, and Berklee prof Pérez commemorated the 500th anniversary of Balboa’s “discovery” of the Pacific Ocean on Panama’s west coast, as well as the 100th anniversary of the Panama Canal, with this vibrant exploration of varied musical languages, from ancient dance rhythms to modern jazz. Deploying various ensembles, Pérez conveyed history as living memory."
To see the rest of the list click here
Bill Clinton and the Forum for the Americas
Danilo and his wife Patricia recently attended the "Forum for the Americas" hosted by Clinton Foundation. They had the pleasure of meeting President Clinton himself!
Happy Musician's Day
Aprovechando que hoy es 22 de noviembre 2014 día del músico , me gustaría enviar un recordatorio a todos mis colegas y artistas de todo el mundo acerca de nuestra misión en esta tierra.
"Somos los guardianes del proceso creativo que ayudaran a los seres humanos a encontrar propuestas vanguardistas de gran importancia pedagógica, artística y social con el fin de hacerle frente al reto de vivir en paz, dignidad, justicia y libertad".
Feliz día del músico
Danilo Pérez
On nov 22 2014 Musician's day I would like to sent a reminder to all my musical colleagues and artists from all around the world about our mission on this earth .
We are the Guardians of the creative process who will enable humans to find adventurous proposals of great pedagogical , artistic and social significance in order to stand up to the challenge of living in peace , dignity, justice and freedom.
Happy musicians day
Danilo Perez
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Danilo Perez receives Medal of Jerusalem
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. "
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.
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.