(Reprinted from the August 2021 issue of New York City Jazz Record)
Let’s say you like swing more than salsa, or vice versa, or both equally. To accommodate, singer Rubén Blades offers three different editions of his newest album, a pulsating, horn-driven release with his frequent collaborators, the Panama City-based bandleader Robert Delgado and his Orquesta. The first edition, called SALSWING!, contains the record’s full gamut of swing and salsa numbers interspersed. The second, SALSA PLUS!, offers up just the salsa tracks with a smattering of the swing. And the third, SWING!, features just the swing tunes with a couple of the salsa numbers thrown in. This genre-on-demand approach to curation—implemented through Blades’ self-titled record company—isn’t a gimmick so much as a statement: Blades, not the marketplace, defines his artistry.
Blades the artist escapes easy categorization, which is why he intrigues. Known primarily as a salsero, or salsa musician, when he first started singing and composing in the 1970s, by the 1980s he was performing popular music with the likes of Elvis Costello, Lou Reed and Sting; playing Broadway in Paul Simon’s The Capeman; and winning his first Grammy Awards for Latin music. In 1983, too, he launched what would become an impressive acting career, going on to appear in such notable films as Robert Redford’s The Milagro Beanfield War, Spike Lee’s Mo’ Better Blues and HBO’s The Josephine Baker Story. Somewhere in the midst of all this productivity, he found time to earn degrees in political science and law from the University of Panama and Harvard. (The three honorary doctorates would come later.)
With such an expansive resume, it’s easy to see why Blades would balk at any whiff of stereotypical limitations. “Perhaps the most important point is to exemplify that, as artists, we address our music to the world, not just to a specific segment of its population,” he said in the new album’s press release.
What he exemplifies on SALSWING! is a cross-cultural deftness that he calls “mixtura”, an amalgam, in this case, of two related but discrete musical styles. With Blades’ crisp vocals in the foreground, Delgado’s big band provides the rhythmic heat that smooths any jarring dissimilarities in the singer’s musical statements. Thus the ferocious percussiveness of “Paula C.” complements the infectious sway of “Do I Hear Four?”, both of which appear in all three editions, while tunes like the adrenalized “Contrabando” and a crooning “The Way You Look Tonight” land on opposite ends of the salsa-to-swing spectrum. The required sonic leap is nothing short of thrilling.
Though best known for her tongue-in-cheek pop hit “Midnight at the Oasis” from the 1970s, multi-award-winning vocalist Maria Muldaur has spent much of her career singing American roots music—early blues, jazz, jug band, bluegrass and Appalachian folk. You can hear all of these influences on “Let’s Get Happy Together” (Stony Plain Records), a 12-song retrospective of traditional music from the 1920s and 30s. Backed by the New Orleans band Tuba Skinny, Muldaur soars on the syncopated ebullience of the title cut, digs into a gritty blues on “Got the South in My Soul”, and gives a winking turn on the upbeat “Big City Blues”. Her vocal timbre, darker after four decades of performing, suits these earthy songs, wrapping them just the right amount of smoke and shine.
Every August, the Vermont Jazz Center offers a week-long jazz workshop that gives singers an opportunity to absorb “bebop to free bop” wisdom directly from jazz legends Sheila Jordan and Jay Clayton. This year, too, Camille Thurman, a rising star vocalist in her own right, joins the faculty to teach sax and flute. With this lineup, it’s a pity to miss both the in-person teaching with these vocal masters and the final concert they’d present. But you can still catch all three on stage elsewhere: Clayton plays Maureen’s Jazz Cellar on Aug. 7, Thurman will be at JALC's Bryant Park concert on Aug. 14 and at Drom on Aug. 19, and Jordan headlines at Jazz in the Park at the Peekskill Riverfront on Aug. 22.
Other jazz mainstays around town: pianist/singer Champian Fulton will grace the Birdland stage Aug. 12-14; Paul Jost performs at Soapbox Gallery on Aug. 10 and then Pangea on Aug. 25; and Samara Joy sings at Jazz Forum Arts on Aug. 13-14, followed by her mentor, Alexis Cole on Aug. 27-28.