Francisco Mela 'Calipso' from album 'MPT Trio Volume 1' due Jan 15, 2021 via 577 Records

Francisco Mela
Releasing the album MPT Trio Volume 1
January 15th, 2021 via 577 Records
BUY: 577records.ban...
December 10 - Calipso by Juanma Trujillo (Adaure Publishing, BMI):
MPT Trio’s Volume 1 opens with the most distinctive sounds of time-honored Caribbean calypsos, a regional musical tradition that pivots between easygoing ballads and cutting political commentary, told through hazy tropical melodies and steady rhythms. In both its spelling and its musical composition, the MPT Trio’s “Calipso” offers a delightfully fresh interpretation of each, incorporating classic percussive hooks from the Afro-Caribbean steel drum tradition, accompanied by avant-garde jazz instrumentation from Francisco Mela’s tempered drumming, Hery Paz’s improvisational saxophone, and Juanma Trujillo’s steady guitar-and offering a playful synthesis of two major musical traditions. “Calipso” sets a joyful tone for a stylistically diverse album, reflecting the tremendous creative rapport between the musicians and the influences they're inspired by.
ABOUT THE ALBUM
Emerging from sun-soaked Caribbean folk music and the shadowy foundations of Free Jazz, the MPT Trio, led by Francisco Mela (Joe Lovano, McCoy Tyner, John Scofield, Esperanza Spalding, George Garzone, Kenny Barron, Gary Bartz), presents a stylistically innovative sound on their debut album, Volume I. In an impressive first release, the group curates a set of eight original songs that explores the scope of their concept as a band, blending diverse musical traditions with contemporary and avant-garde jazz structures.
Over the course of two and a half years, Francisco Mela, Hery Paz and Juanma Trujillo came together for rehearsals and periodic performances, both improvising and composing, to create a sound that transcends genre. The album features the band leader Mela on a variety of drums, Paz on saxophone and Trujillo on guitar, with each artist using their instrument in innovative ways, demonstrating their artistic curiosity and the deep collaborative connection between the band’s members.
The album's eight tracks vary widely in their structure and atmosphere, offering divergent interpretations of their influences. Many songs are rooted in traditional song forms, like the bright opener "Calipso" which features distinctive steel drums reminiscent of Caribbean calypsos. Similarly, the ballad "Naima" is grounded in a more traditional structure, opening with a yearning saxophone solo and slowly building towards familiar guitar chord progressions. Other tracks like “Sustain” are far more textural and experimental, deconstructing easy harmonies and rhythms in favor of a more challenging, discordant jazz that displays their creative range. Likewise, songs like “Vino” and “Baldor” represent the explosive possibilities of the group’s less restrained sounds, building up towards crescendos that border on rock, propelled forward by aggressive rhythms. The album’s centerpiece, "Suite for Leo Brouwer" is a slow-paced meditation through a series of musical vignettes, showcasing the ensemble's refined orchestral sensibility and its capacity for complex arrangement.
Throughout the album, Mela, Paz and Trujillo render their compositions as a unit, exploring their sound with confidence and ease. Creating dense events full of bright tones as well as remarkable moments of minimal instrumentation, the trio returns to many of the same reprises, rhythms and melodies that have come to define the Afro-Caribbean musical genre while carving out their own unique niche in a genre-fluid music world.
Album Credits:
Francisco Mela: Drums
Hery Paz: Tenor Sax
Juanma Trujillo: Guitar
About 577 Records:
577 Records is proud to be celebrating its 20 year anniversary.
The legendary music master Daniel Carter was one of the first people 577 cofounder Federico Ughi met soon after arriving in New York from Italy, after a brief stint in London. It was a meeting of like minds and shortly thereafter the two started a series of house concerts at 577 Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn, the apartment where Federico was living at the time. The spontaneous nature of the concerts along with the incredible caliber of the deep downtown underground music they were able to present inspired them to bring the unique nature of what they were doing to a wider audience and they founded the label 577 Records to further that mission.
“Guided by a mission to capture the ephemeral, to keep jazz relevant, and to foster a collaborative community of artists, the music 577 releases is timeless, masterful, and mystical.” - Bandcamp
“the music of new possibilities, full of spirituality and introspection, an alternative that did not need volume or screaming at the top of your lungs to position itself, and coupled with a deep sense of pulse and the blues.” - Free Jazz Blog
577 Records is an independent record label based in Brooklyn, New York operating since 2001
www.577records.com