Samuels' jazz style grips Utahns

DAVID SAMUELS, Sheraton City Centre, Monday

As it turns out, there's a lot in a name when it comes to Dave Samuels' current venture, the Caribbean Jazz Project. And Utahns got to hear what it was all about Monday night when the group played in Salt Lake City as part of the Jazz at the Sheraton series.

Samuels has a really interesting thing going. With most of the charts most of the time, he'd take a Latin/Caribbean rhythm base, add to that some complex jazz harmonies and top it off with a smooth jazzlike melody — with the unusual instrumentation of jazz organ, vibes/marimba, electric bass, drums and percussion.

The result is a lot more complex than either smooth jazz or traditional Latin/Caribbean music, and more "world music" than straight-ahead jazz.

While Samuels retains some of the musical sensibilities from his time with Spyro Gyra and other bands, what the audience heard on Monday was completely his own.

There was a whole lot going on in the textures and rhythms — and even in the depth of many of the harmonies (although the general pattern was to repeat chord progressions).

Not surprisingly, this unique sound was most prominent in Samuel's original tune "Afro Green."

The Caribbean Jazz Project also played an arrangement of Miles Davis' "Nardis" (from the group's most recent album), among others.

It was fun and interesting to hear a jazz organ in that context —played by Alain Mallet — and a whole lot of fun to hear Samuels letting loose with his mallets.

Percussionist Robert Quintero deserves mention for a terrific solo on the maracas — which received a standing ovation in the middle of the piece by some audience members.

Who'da thunk you could do all that with maracas?

The rest of the band was made up of Vence Cherico on drums and Lincoln Goines on electric bass.

---

E-mail: rcline@desnews.com