Concert Preview: Brian Lynch and Bobby Sanabria

If you head over to Harvard this Saturday night, you'll have a rare chance to hear, for a modest price, two modern masters of Afro-Cuban jazz bang out Dizzy Gillespie's masterpiece "Manteca," Stan Kenton's quirky "The Peanut Vendor," and a whole lot more great Latin jazz. Trumpeter Brian Lynch and drummer/percussionist Bobby Sanabria will perform at 8pm in Lowell Hall with the Harvard Jazz Orchestra.

Lynch has played with the legendary Eddie Palmieri for the past 20 years. In addition to deep roots in the Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz worlds, Lynch has strong ties to the straight ahead, post-bop tradition. He's been a part of Phil Woods quintet for the past 15 years and joined the final incarnation of Art Blakey's legendary Jazz Messengers (it would take the balance of this post to list the jazz greats who have served with the Messengers, Blakey's "graduate school of jazz"). And Lynch is joined by South Bronx (Fort Apache) native and Berklee alum Bobby Sanabria, who's has played with the likes of Tito Puente, Paquito D'Rivera, Mario Bauza, and Dizzy Gillespie.

Lynch just put out a new album with his friend, mentor, and boss: Simpatíco by The Brian Lynch / Eddie Palmieri Project. Check the sample track and video below. It's a great introduction to Afro-Cuban jazz and comes complete with a few bonus, straight ahead tracks. Lynch put this out through ArtistShare, an artist controlled, internet distributed resource for musicians and fans alike. And Lynch also supports alternative modes of music promotion, journalism, and artist-fan interaction, including music blogs. Ironically, a few of the most prominent jazz blogs were just profiled in the New York Times on Wednesday in a piece about "the year's most animated public discourse on jazz, a democratic exchange" between artists, fans, and scholars that led to the creation of an alternative, wiki-based, open source "alternative canon" of '70s and '80s jazz.

Bostonist had a chance to chat with Brian Lynch this week about his new album, emusic and other forms of digital distribution, alternative music media, and Eddie Palmieri's endearing/annoying (depending on your perspective -- Bostonist is firmly in the endearing camp) habit of growling along to his piano solos ("the Palmieri effect").

Lynch noted that the title Simpatíco refers to the special connection between long-time members of Palmieri's band who came together for Lynch's new album. Reflecting his straddling of the Latin and post-bop jazz worlds, Lynch mixed tracks from those two traditions into his new joint (its a rare treat to hear Palmieri burn through Lynch's straight ahead, swinging composition "Jazz Impromptu"). Lynch also talked about jazz and Latin music being "two rooms in the same house" (as Dizzy Gillespie put it), and how that perspective informed not only the the writing and recording of Simpatíco, but also Another Kind of Blue: The Latin Side of Miles Davis and The Latin Side of John Coltrane projects put together by Lynch and trombonist Conrad Herwig.

Latin jazz fanatics and curious newbies alike are in for a treat Saturday night: Brian Lynch and Bobby Sanabria with the Harvard Jazz Orchestra: 8pm, Lowell Hall, Harvard.

Purchase Bobby Sanabria CDs | Purchase Brian Lynch CDs | Watch "The Palmieri Effect" video on YouTube. | Listen to "The Palmieri Effect" album track | Listen to the podcast of Bostonist's interview of Brian Lynch.

Post contributed by Matt Durutti