A fortysomething New Yorker of Panamanian and Dominican descent who studied with Yusef Lateef delivers here with an appealingly no-nonsense solo piano album. What’s here is neither clinical nor samey.
‘Break Bread’ has an almost Abdullah Ibrahim sense of solemnity and balm to it even though the idioms used are more AfroCuban and free-jazz inspired than South African or Ellington flavoured.
There’s great detail in the intricate trilling build up conveyed on ‘Have Mercy’ and a real spiritual feel organically arrived at.
The album includes a radically reconfigured version – that goes pretty wild by the end – of the chugging Afro Peruvian piece by Caitro Soto – ‘A Saca Camote.’
Monk’s ‘Eronel’ written with Idrees Sulieman and Sadik Hakim is also interpreted. The way Marcelo plays it is more Bud Powell-like. The remainder of the tunes that have an open improvised flavour to them – whether notated or not it doesn’t matter – are by the pianist himself. But the definitive, swinging, reading of ‘Eronel’ in relatively recent years a world away stylistically is by Eric (now Scott) Reed on 2011’s The Dancing Monk.
‘1010 Wins’ makes me think of the style of Marta Sanchez (a more proficient player technically) on David Murray’s Francesca a bit. And yet there’s great mobility here where Marcelo is able to put his own stamp on proceedings.
‘Chroma’ has a lot of weight to it; while ‘Dance Around the Sun’ finds a more transcendental mood that works well and lifts the mood to another space entirely. And on ‘Drifting’ there’s a lilting modality that unfolds into something of a carefree statement that’s extremely appealing.
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