Espejismo

£31.99

Format: LP, Vinyl

In stock

Genre:
Format: LP, Vinyl
Grade: New (About gradings)
Number of discs: 1
SKU: 57189
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We Are Busy Bodies have reissued the rare and sought after 1973 Venezuelan jazz album Espejismo (‘Mirage’) by Virgilio Armas Y Su Grupo, a rare and pleasing body of work that centres itself between cool, modal and Latin styles of jazz. The output sounds as though Horace Silver were to have made a record in Latin America: his funky and percussive style of piano playing sounds strikingly familiar to Virgilio Armas’, counterpointing rich harmonies with slick, highly rhythmical phrasing and a well-defined left hand. Little is known about Armas and his group who recorded this date in 1973 with Rodolfo Buenaño on contrabass, Guillermo Tariba on drums, Tata Guerra on perc and Domingo Moret on flute. It is a rare and sought after record on both the rare jazz and latin circuits, an album that has raised eyebrows since its reissue and has left the most knowledgeable diggers and scenesters clueless as to what it is, and why they may have missed it.

 

Espejismo offers up a window into the Venezuelan jazz scene in the early seventies, which, up until now, was largely undocumented due to the musical dominance of Venezuela’s far larger southern neighbour: Brazil. In the early seventies, Venezuela was one of the most affluent countries in Latin America largely due to oil revenues. This period would bear witness to a boom of record labels and pressing plants, many of which would release independent music that would only be available to the Venezuelan market, such as this particular title. It is a brief window into the Caracas jazz scene, which Armas was a prominent part of—having spent years playing in clubs in the Altamira and La Castellana districts of the capital. Influenced by both American and Latin American styles, Armas weaves intricate and well-balanced patterns in an acoustic format, realised with gentle flutes, earthy percussion, throbbing upright bass and deft keys. Furthermore, the music imbibes trademark Venezuelan sonority that draws from the American jazz tradition and the unique rhythmical character of the Caribbean and Latin America. The music fuses numerous styles; Latin jazz, post bossa swing (known as balanço), with native Venezuelan hybrids of son Cubano, montuno, merengue, orquides, estilo, vals, pasaje and gulpe. Musically, it is a good decade off the pace: the output sounds as though it could date back to the mid fifties, and it certainly doesn’t share in the same technological, recording and stylistic advancements of contemporary American jazz which was more forward looking in its approach by this time. Espejismo seems to be more of a retrospective, acoustic variant, which, while not necessarily aligning musically with the contemporary direction of American-led jazz, expresses an individualistic and authentic expression of Venezuelan sensibilities that flies in the face of conventional wisdom, rooting itself firmly in the traditions of both American jazz and Latin American music. As a result, the sound world is unspoiled and untainted, standalone material that sounds like it might have been recorded 15 years earlier, a low-budget, lo-fi session recorded with outstanding musicians.

 

Highlights include Caracas Moderna, an estilo with some exiting chromatic clambering from Armas and sugary flute accompaniments, and Barlovento, a merengue anchored by native percussion, the absence of a kit drummer for much of the track enabling a truer Latin rhythm section to dominate the rhythmical register. As the drummer enters the frame, the entire nature of the track changes from a song that sounds like an Afro Blue take to a Brazilian infused outing, reminiscent of some mid-sixties Balanço or bossa dura. Sueño Indio is another listener favourite, a syncopated yet rigid outing with percussive upright from Armas and groovy melodic lines and lyrical hand percussion adding a tropical lilt. Sobre el Orinoco, a track that was included on the Jazzman compilation Spiritual Jazz Volume 5, is a waltz in 6/8 that plumbs spiritual territories with atmospheric flute and an energised keys solo from Armas that sounds achingly similar to Horace Silver. At the midway point, the song crescendos into a higher tempo where the sounds of hard bossa and the influences of Brazilian balanço are less subtle undertones, more so fully-fledged components herein.

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