tag:www.oscarperezmusic.com,2005:/blogs/latest-news?p=2Latest News2019-05-02T08:11:47-04:00Oscar Perez Musicfalsetag:www.oscarperezmusic.com,2005:Post/35025162015-02-03T14:12:55-05:002020-03-01T17:57:09-05:00Profile PodcastCheck out this <a contents="PODCAST" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.podcasts.com/jazzcorner.com_innerviews/episode/oscar_perez_-_new_wave_of_latin_jazz_musicians" target="_blank">PODCAST</a> I did on Innerviews, produced by JazzCorner.comOscar Perez Musictag:www.oscarperezmusic.com,2005:Post/34374362014-12-25T17:29:59-05:002020-02-13T05:50:55-05:00Article that ran in Chamber Music Magazine<a contents="click here to read..." data-link-label="Press" data-link-type="page" href="/press">click here to read...</a>Oscar Perez Musictag:www.oscarperezmusic.com,2005:Post/34373712014-12-25T16:01:13-05:002019-07-30T18:55:18-04:00My Review of Vintage Vibe electric pianos in Downbeat Magazine<a contents="Click here to read..." data-link-label="Press" data-link-type="page" href="/press">Click here to read...</a>Oscar Perez Musictag:www.oscarperezmusic.com,2005:Post/21325312013-11-29T10:03:05-05:002020-02-06T08:24:58-05:00JazzEd Mag - What's on Your Playlist?Pianist/composer/educator <strong style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Oscar Perez</strong> is part of a new generation of musicians busy erasing the old distinctions between straight-ahead and Latin jazz, forging new group concepts by blending Afro-Caribbean rhythms and postbop idioms. With his second album, <em style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Afropean Affair</em>, Perez places himself firmly in the forefront of this rising movement. Featuring his stellar young band Nuevo Comienzo, the CD focuses on the pianist’s original music, which he wrote to showcase his group’s prowess. Balancing poise and power, the combo features some of the most prodigious young players on the scene.<br><br>Click <a contents="HERE" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.jazzedmagazine.com/2696/articles/whats-on-your-playlist/what%E2%80%99s-on-your-playlist-oscar-perez/" target="_blank">HERE</a> to visit the JazzEd Website and read the rest of the article.Oscar Perez Musictag:www.oscarperezmusic.com,2005:Post/20721672013-11-18T22:15:16-05:002020-03-01T17:55:40-05:00Jazmusic.com CD Review: Oscar Perez - Nuevo Comienzo: Afropean Affair<b style="line-height: 18px;">by C.J Bond<br>Style</b><span style="line-height: 18px;">: Afro-Cuban Latin Jazz</span>
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<br><b>Label</b>: Chandra Records<br><br><b>Musicians</b>: Oscar Perez - <i>piano / Fender Rhodes</i>; Greg Glassman - <i>trumpet / flugelhorn</i>; Stacy Dillard - <i>tenor / soprano saxophones</i>; Anthony Perez - <i>bass</i>; Jerome Jennings - <i>drums</i>; Emiliano Valerio - <i>percussion</i>; Charenee Wade - <i>vocals</i>.<br> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="padding: 4px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; position: relative; float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EMlax0Ofinw/TrzP0ZW_EQI/AAAAAAAAAQk/ct1mWv0fwZg/s1600/oscar+perez.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img src="//4.bp.blogspot.com/-EMlax0Ofinw/TrzP0ZW_EQI/AAAAAAAAAQk/ct1mWv0fwZg/s320/oscar+perez.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="240" style="border: 1px solid transparent; position: relative; padding: 8px; background-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 0px; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px;" width="320" /></a></td> </tr>
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<td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 10px; text-align: center;">Oscar Perez - Nuevo Comienzo</td> </tr>
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<div style="border: medium none;">CD Review: <b>Oscar Perez's CD: Nuevo Comienzo - Afropean Affair,</b> showcases new, exciting developments, and the brilliant cutting edge concepts of uber-talented young musicians, currently populating the Afro-Caribbean Latin Jazz scene. Pianist <b>Oscar Perez</b> sits firmly on the crest of this progressive movement. <b>"Afropean Affair"</b> is a dance of fiery circles rising out of Perez's European, African, American and Caribbean influences, with an intensity fueled by energy from teachers like Post-Latin Jazz, iconic musicians such as Panamanian pianist <b>Danilo Perez</b> and keyboard master <b>Chick Correa</b>.</div>
<br><b>"Nuevo Comiezo</b> <i>(New beginnings)</i> - <b>Afropean Affair" </b>is replete with harmonic and melodic richness in the opening mix of effulgent, hot-bop-inspired horn sounds from <b>Greg Glassman</b> <i>(trumpet),</i> <b>Stacy Dillard</b> <i>(Saxophone),</i> and the band's engaging, authentic Latin-Jazz rhythm section. <b>Stacy Dillard</b> does double duty adding the body, breadth and succulence that prepare the listener's musical palate for <i>(The Illusive Number)</i> of rhythmic condiments enriching this sophisticated, savory, melodious stew.<br><br>There are seven original compositions on the CD, which add extra strata of modernity, freshness and innovative fascination, quite in keeping with the forward-looking concepts embedded in the band's stated mission of a <i>"New Beginning."</i> Other transparent features are cohesiveness and collective, improvisational ability <i>(Canario</i>), as Perez's poignant piano leads and supports each player through on-the-move compositions, painting uncontrived colors that weave and swirl provocatively between the Latin and jazz genres.<br><br>The ensemble's rich tapestry of sounds is expanded in the even, steadfast flow of <i>(As Brothers Would), </i>a composition by Perez that is almost elegiac in graceful simplicity, yet subtly expressing a heartfelt, emotional kinship achieved as a result of their seven-year professional association. This piece provides a spring board to other interesting textures and colors<i> (Paths and Streams),</i> that flow from <b>Greg Glassman's</b> flugelhorn during an energetic exchange of ideas with saxophonist <b>Stacy Dillard, </b>and Oscar Perez's authoritative, straight ahead keyboard immersion into the jazz idiom.<br><br>The addition of vocalist <b>Charenee Wade</b> brings the compelling beauty of added lyricism to the CD's centerpiece: <b>The Afropean Suite</b>; a set of three extended compositions, commissioned by <b>Chamber Music America,</b> and premiered at the<b>Jazz Gallery</b> in September 2009. It brings all the influences of composer Perez through a three-piece progression, integrated with exotic vocal colors from <b>Charenee Wade</b>. The first piece <i>(Cosas Lindas Que Viven Ahora)</i>is bathed with a signature, swaying wordless Brazilian-style glow by Wade, as the band flows seamlessly between a jazz and Latin tempo connecting two genres with a double tether of avant garde ideas from Perez's piano and <b>Anthony Perez's</b>(Oscar's brother) bass. The second movement <i>(Last Season's Sorrow),</i> obtains a complete change of mood and tempo, with ensemble and voice painting even, flowing, lyrical colors with noiseless depth. The third movement is a beautifully choreographed harmonic dance of piano, voice, percussion and horns <i>(A New Day Emerging)</i> with a repeating inter mixture of patterns that develop gradually and deliberately to a climax.<br><br><b>"Afropean" </b>combines the most striking aspects Afro-Caribbean Jazz, Post-Latin Jazz and straight ahead modern jazz. It is exciting, electrifying, and its compositions reflect a refreshing, imaginative boldness that augur well for the artistic future of this boundary-stretching group of musicians, and listeners in general.<br><br><b>Track Listing</b>: The Illusive Number; Canaria; As Brothers Would; Paths and Streams; The Afropean Suite: <i>Cosas Lindas Que Viven Ahora - Last Season's Sorrow - A New Day Emerging</i>.<br><br>Recorded and mastered by Paul Wickliffe at Skyline Productions Warren NJ</div>Oscar Perez Musictag:www.oscarperezmusic.com,2005:Post/20649492013-11-17T20:29:26-05:002019-09-25T08:15:39-04:00Blog Critics Music Review: Oscar Perez/Nuevo Comienzo – Afropean AffairBy <a href="http://blogcritics.org/author/Jordan-Richardson/" rel="author" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); -webkit-transition: all 0.2s ease-in; transition: all 0.2s ease-in;" title="Posts by Jordan Richardson">Jordan Richardson</a> <br><br>Oscar Perez<span style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); font-family: 'PT Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">, with his band Nuevo Comienzo, blurs genre lines with his </span><em style="border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); line-height: 22px;">Afropean Affair</em><span style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); font-family: 'PT Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">. The album is the pianist’s second.</span><br> <p style="border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px 0px 2.4rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6; color: rgb(85, 85, 85);">Perez throws a bit of everything into the basket with this recording, tossing post-bop with Afro-Caribbean and Latin jazz. This is an interesting distinction given the constant incidental blurring of the lines taking place in pop culture, a process that isn’t particularly helpful in preserving certain strands of art but can be benefitted from nonetheless.<br><br><span style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.6;">Many people know about the Recording Academy’s decision to eliminate the Best Latin Jazz Album, for instance. While this development could easily be taken with the rage it richly deserves, the other side of the coin is that genre meanings are becoming more fluid. Besides, we should probably count our lucky stars that they’re recognizing jazz at all.</span><br><br><span style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.6;">In that context, then, sits </span><em style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.6; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Afropean Affair</em><span style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.6;">.</span></p>
<p style="border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px 0px 2.4rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6; color: rgb(85, 85, 85);"><br><span style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.6;">Along with Perez (piano/Fender Rhodes), Nuevo Comienzo includes Greg Glassman (trumpet/flugelhorn), Stacy Dillard (tenor and soprano saxophones), Anthony Perez (bass), Jerome Jennings (drums), Emiliano Valerio (percussion), and the occasional vocal services of one Charenee Wade.</span></p>
<p style="border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px 0px 2.4rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6; color: rgb(85, 85, 85);"><span class="font_regular">Perez says assembling Nuevo Comienzo was a process of finding players who could bring their own dishes to the table. “The concept I’m going for filters everything through the writing,” he says. “In picking the members of the band, they needed to have their own sounds.”</span></p>
<p style="border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px 0px 2.4rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6; color: rgb(85, 85, 85);"><span class="font_regular">Throughout the record, each individual player really does provide a distinct flavour. Jennings, for instance, plays with fierce grooves, no matter the convention. His drive on “The Illusive Number” sets the balance for the other players, letting Valerio slide into percussive bliss and giving Perez’s sharp piano spots a place to land.</span></p>
<p style="border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px 0px 2.4rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6; color: rgb(85, 85, 85);"><span class="font_regular">Or there’s “Paths and Streams,” a suitably sinuous piece that finds the whole company rising and falling to the composition’s 7/8 tempo.</span></p>
<p style="border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px 0px 2.4rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6; color: rgb(85, 85, 85);"><span class="font_regular">At the core of the album is the three-piece “Afropean Suite.” The suite was commissioned by Chamber Music America and features Charenee Wade’s work in the form of lovely wordless lines. The movements work through some wondrously naturalistic arcs and tones, packing a vibe that, at times, calls to mind the work of Chick Corea.</span></p>
<p style="border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px 0px 2.4rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6; color: rgb(85, 85, 85);"><span class="font_regular">Thanks to complete, organic movements and lively jaunts, Perez’s <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Afropean Affair</em> really does blur genre lines. It does with boldness, not out of some form of sorrow, and stands as a sumptuous reminder of how beautiful any form of music can be when it doesn’t confine itself behind senseless borders.<br><br><a contents="http://blogcritics.org/music-review-oscar-pereznuevo-comienzo-afropean1/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://blogcritics.org/music-review-oscar-pereznuevo-comienzo-afropean1/">http://blogcritics.org/music-review-oscar-pereznuevo-comienzo-afropean1/</a></span></p>Oscar Perez Musictag:www.oscarperezmusic.com,2005:Post/20451122013-11-13T21:37:29-05:002019-08-08T09:21:26-04:00Profile Piece by Jazz Times writer Andy Gilbert Pianist/Composer Oscar Perez Introduces the Latest Wave in Post-Latin Jazz on New CD Afropean Affair Available October 11<br><br><br> “This is a musician that has his own voice. Both his compositions and his improvisations are evidence of this.” — Dan Miele, Jazz Improv Magazine<br><br><br>“The pianist’s writing and arranging is smart, tradition inspired Latin jazz with an emphasis on jazz chords and colours. It’s an addictive, sultry sound, rich with concise improvisations that always tell a wise tale and tell it well.” — Joseph Blake, The Times Colonist<br><br><br>The widespread outrage spawned by the Recording Academy’s decision to do away with the Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album has obscured a far more interesting development. A new generation of musicians is busy erasing the old distinctions between straight ahead and Latin jazz, forging thrilling new group concepts by blending Afro-Caribbean rhythms and postbop idioms. With his second album, Afropean Affair, pianist/ composer Oscar Perez places himself firmly in the forefront of this rising movement. The CD will be released on October 11.<br><br>Featuring Perez’s stellar young band Nuevo Comienzo, Afropean Affair focuses on the pianist’s original music, which he designed to showcase his group’s improvisational prowess and conservatory-honed facility for interpreting extended compositions. Balancing poise and power, the combo features some of the most prodigious young players on the scene, including the commanding saxophonist Stacy Dillard on tenor and soprano, silver-toned Greg Glassman on trumpet and flugelhorn, resourceful percussionist Emiliano Valerio, deeply funky drummer Jerome Jennings and harmonically deft bassist Anthony Perez (who also happens to be Oscar’s younger brother). <br><br>“I grew up listening to my father’s albums of traditional Cuban music,” says Perez, 36. “But we’re American jazz musicians and we’re not trying to be anything else. The concept I’m going for filters everything through the writing. In picking the members of the band, they needed to have their own sounds. Jerome is a drummer who just loves to groove. He’s not playing straight Cuban rhythms. He’s always mixing it up, which is true for all of us.” <br><br>From the brisk, mercurial opening tune “The Illusive Number,” which bobs and weaves through various time signatures, to the gorgeously flowing melodic line running through “Paths and Streams,” which has all the makings of a jazz standard, Perez displays a real gift for crafting memorable tunes. Adding to the band’s singular sound is Perez’s acute textural sensibility, seen in his artful use of the Fender Rhodes. <br><br>The album’s centerpiece is the texturally expansive three-piece Afropean Suite, a work commissioned by Chamber Music America that Perez premiered at the Jazz Gallery in September 2009. With the addition of the soul-drenched vocalist Charenee Wade, who contributes beautifully calibrated wordless lines, the suite traces an evocative emotional arc that flows from the soaring, sanguine first movement, “Cosas Lindas Que Viven Ahora” (Pretty Things That Live Now) to the nostalgia-laced “Last Seasons Sorrows” to the beatific closer “A New Day Emerging.” <br><br>“My writing gets influenced by everything I listen to,” Perez says. “In the new stuff I hear a lot of Chick. We’ve become a lot more adventurous the more we’re not thinking about being a traditional Afro-Cuban band. We’re looking at that early Return To Forever model, not so much drawing on Brazilian influences as playing on the edge, with that quiet intensity. We try to get as tight as possible, but I don’t want it to be super-tight so it can go anywhere we want.” <br><br>As the album’s title suggests, Perez sees his music as a cultural confluence where Europe, Africa, America and the Caribbean flow seamlessly together. Not surprisingly, he traces his group concept back to his studies with Danilo Perez, the brilliant Panamanian pianist who is ground zero for what can be called post-Latin jazz, with a roster of students that includes trailblazing artists such as Puerto Rican tenor saxophonist David Sanchez and altoist Miguel Zenon, Peruvian bassist Jorge Roeder, Colombian percussionist Tupac Mantilla, Argentine vocalist Sofia Rei Koutsovitis, among many others. <br><br><br>Born in a middle class neighborhood in Queens, Perez grew up immersed in Latin American music. His Cuban father fled the island in 1966, though he decided to strike out on his own in New York City rather than joining the exile community in Miami. His mother was born and raised in Colombia, and brought her love of Latin music to New York. A dedicated violinist while attending the LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts (the school made famous by “Fame”), he also studied piano with two illustrious classical pianists, Julliard’s Robert Harris and NYU’s Edgar Roberts. On his own time he played guitar in various garage rock bands, while his guitar teacher Tony Romano turned him on to Jim Hall via the classic Sonny Rollins album The Bridge.<br><br>When he arrived at the University of North Florida’s vaunted Jazz Performance program Perez made the jump back to piano, transferring his newfound jazz insight from the fretboard to the keyboard. Before long he had developed enough facility to hold his own with jazz masters such as Bunky Green, George Russell, Curtis Fuller and George Garzone. But his most profound epiphany took place his senior year, when he caught a performance by Danilo Perez in Chicago with bassist Avishai Cohen and drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts. That’s how he ended up at New England Conservatory in Boston. <br><br>“I wasn’t even planning on going to grad school,” Perez recalls. “But Danilo made such an impact I told my friends, I’m going to study with that guy. I think the reason so many people get traced back to him is that he truly loves all his students. Even now when I go hear him play I’ll still get a lesson from him. People just connect through him. He has one foot firmly set in education, but he’s an ambassador of the music.” <br><br>While completing his MFA at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College under the guidance of piano legend Sir Roland Hanna, Perez studied composition and arranging with Phillip Michael Mossman. A highly sought after sideman, he’s performed and toured widely with trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, saxophonist Virginia Mayhew, trombonist Steve Turre, and vocalists Charenee Wade and Cathy Elliott. He also spent three years accompanying the late, Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Phoebe Snow. <br><br>After many years performing at St. Edward’s Church in Harlem, Perez was recently appointed music director for the congregation. His long-standing gig as accompanist for the Nightingale/Bamford Gospel Choir embodies his commitment to sacred music. And Perez has found several paths to explore his passion for education, including teaching privately, offering master classes through Jazz at Lincoln Center, and teaching at vocalist Melissa Walker’s community program Jazz House Kids, which brings music to underserved children and adults in Newark. <br><br>But his most fully realized creative outlet is Nuevo Comienzo. Perez traces the band’s origins to an opportunity that arose in 2003, when he was hired to assemble a group for a tour of cities in Russia’s far east. He had been working with Stacy Dillard in various bands around New York, and had developed a close musical connection with Greg Glassman in college. Taking full advantage of the opportunity, he wrote a sheaf of new music for the ensemble, and had it well rehearsed before heading out on tour. <br><br>Upon returning to New York, Perez figured the time was ripe to document that band. Since he’d been working with Wycliffe Gordon and Peter Bernstein he invited them to join the session as special guests, which resulted in his heralded 2005 debut recording Nuevo Comienzo.<br><br>“We played six concerts in Siberia in these beautiful concert halls,” Perez recalls. “We had write ups in magazines, and really got the star treatment. Three weeks before, I’m playing weddings and schlepping my stuff on the subway. That’s the jazz life.”<br><br>www.oscarperezmusic.comOscar Perez Musictag:www.oscarperezmusic.com,2005:Post/20451112013-11-13T21:35:33-05:002019-10-03T06:29:15-04:00Some Quotes...."whatever"<em><span class="font_regular">“Perez can be heard at his best on track two entitled, Baile de K in which (if the listener has ears) one can hear a respectful nod to the great Bud Powell. This is a superb Latin Jazz recording. 5 Stars”<br>- John Gilbert, eJazznews<br><br>“Perez shows his ample skill on this first album, incorporating the stylistic elements of Tyner, Hancock and Chucho Valdes. …It’s just a matter of time <br>before his name enters the jazz public’s consciousness.”<br>-Matt Merewitz, All About Jazz<br><br>“Prolific pianist and composer Oscar Perez delivers an amazing bouquet of Latin jazz compositions. Perez blends his rhythmic Cuban roots and American jazz with high skill.”<br>-Dr. Ana Isabel Ordonez of JazzReview.com<br><br><br>“The pianist’s writing and arranging is smart, tradition inspired Latin jazz with the emphasis on jazz chords and colours. It’s an addictive, sultry sound rich with concise improvisations that always tell a wise tale and tell it well”<br>-Joseph Blake of The Times Colonist<br><br><br>"This is a musician that has his own voice. Both his compositions <br>and his improvisations are evidence of this"<br>- Dave Miele, Jazz Improv Magazine<br><br><br>“This CD has a nice fusion of Latin, jazz... Special guests, Wycliffe Gordon on trombone and Peter Bernstein on guitar, bring an extra dimension <br>to this emerging jazz ensemble.”<br>-Dr. Roberta E. Zlokower, Roberta on the Arts.com<br><br><br>“His latest album, Nuevo Comienzo, featuring eleven Perez-composed jazz tunes, is one of those rare albums that successfully combine Latin rhythms with <br>aggressive jazz tunes and skillful improvisation.”<br>-Jeff Eason, The Mountain Times<br><br>“Pianist Perez' website is bursting with enthusiastic reviews for <br>his new CD, Nuevo Comienzo - and justly so.”<br>-Paul Blair, Hothouse Magazine</span></em>Oscar Perez Music