Agua Dulce Ensamble performs an ideal live performance with visitor Eleazar “Chuco” Soto on saz.

I don’t normally cowl the identical band twice in a row, however that is an uncommon circumstance. The circumstance is that I reviewed Agua Dulce Ensamble’s  new album ,LIVE, final week, and this week they performed in my city with a pal of mine guesting on his sax.  I couldn’t resist.

The live performance was on the La Cochera Cultural, a versatile venue that additionally serves as an artwork heart, schooling heart, and venue for music and dance. Due to the specter of rain (which didn’t materialize) the band was in a lined space, with a number of the the viewers seated outdoors trying into the lined space, which is brick and has nice acoustics.

Agua Dulce is one among Mexico’s premier jazz teams.  4 musicians – Chen Quintero on guitar, Juan Manuel Ayala on bass, Guillermo Núñez on drums, and Cuervo Gonzales on keyboard. They invited Eleazar “Chuco”  Soto, one of many Mexico’s high sax gamers to affix them. Chuco can also be the music director at La Cochera Cultural and chief of the native jazz group Trialogo.

The mix of Chuco’s sax and the group’s polished jazz was heavenly…and good. Everybody who was not videoing them on their cellphone was sitting with their eyes closed.

Every one of many musicians is a star in his personal proper, and every one among them was completely in sync with the others. The band consists of winners, however no prima donnas. They work collectively like a well-oiled and really clever machine. The sheen of the machine is Chen Quintero’s custom-made guitar, Quintero caressed the strings and evoked notes ss clear as glass and sharp as diamonds – or as mushy and delicate as fog drifting by forest.   And even down actual low like a bass harmonica.

Cuervo Gonzales tracked the guitar completely on the keyboard, filling within the areas between notes at instances, echoing them at different instances, and generally taking the foreground with a solo that soared as Gonzalez grinned whereas he strikes throughout the Yamaha 88.  

Juan Manuel Ayala created a curtain of bass notes. Due to the wide-ranging drum adventures of Guillermo Núñez, Ayala usually saved the beat. Everybody onstage and off unconsciously tapped their ft to Ayala’s fingers. However he saved the beat nearly invisibly more often than not. And he would solo and everybody wakened and mentioned “wow!”  as his fingers flew and his mouth talked the notes. Most bass gamers (aside from metallic bands) are within the shadow, out of the stage lights, simply strumming away. Not Gonzales;  though all the time a part of the workforce, he was something however invisible, supporting your entire band with clean rhythm and solos.  And in contrast to most bassists, he was not afraid to step out and introduce songs and discuss to the followers.

After which there was Guillermo Núñez on the drums. Top-of-the-line drummers I’ve encountered in jazz or another style. Exact, correct, managed – and completely wild. He’s so good that he can do something; and he experimented with it on the fly and it labored. I misplaced depend of the strategies he introduced ahead, the combos and the improvements that appeared like he was “simply doin’ his factor”.  The impact was electrifying when he needed it to be, and invisible when the music referred to as for it. Many jazz drummers sustain counter beats and combined tempos in opposition to the melodies; Núñez did that with a feather-like finesse. However he additionally stepped ahead to name and reply with Quintero’s guitar or  Gonzalez’s keyboard. After which he would take off –carrying the band in a brand new, course and a brand new vitality.

Chuco Soto stepped simply into this tranquil musical maelstrom generally following, generally main, all the time including a wealthy coloration, just like the northern lights. Whether or not he was wailing or accenting, Chucko’s sax flowed, and introduced a brand new dimension to the music, a coloration that was his personal and but the band’s on the identical time. I’d say they need to maintain him, however we would like him to remain right here.

The live performance wrapped up with a standing ovation and a band as completely satisfied because the viewers.