For his Stateside debut as a leader, Edsel Gomez could have introduced his wonderful keyboard facility, deft touch and advanced sense of harmony to American jazz fans in a more conventional piano trio setting. Instead, he aimed much higher. With Cubi [+]For his Stateside debut as a leader, Edsel Gomez could have introduced his wonderful keyboard facility, deft touch and advanced sense of harmony to American jazz fans in a more conventional piano trio setting. Instead, he aimed much higher. With Cubist Music, an auspicious debut that showcases his expansive musical vision, the native of Puerto Rico and resident of New York City puts theory into action with wholly satisfying results.
Accompanied by a world-class crew consisting of clarinetist Don Byron, tenor saxophonists David Sanchez and Greg Tardy, alto saxophonists Miguel Zenon and Steve Wilson, bassist Drew Gress and drummer Bruce Cox -- all bandleaders and composers in their own right as well as being among the most important players and improvisers of their generation -- Gomez fully explores his concept for which this album is named. "The basic principle of Cubist music is very simple and can change the way a musician improvises instantly," he maintains.
In essence, Gomez's idea of Cubist music is a translation of Cubist art from visual to aural perception. "In very much the same way a Cubist painting portrays an image by combining cubes or building blocks, this concept consists of a search for melodies or patterns that are perceived to have a beginning and an end," he explains. "I call these melodic motifs or complete unit patterns we search for 'unitifs.' For this recording, musicians were requested to search for these unitifs within their improvised lines and build their solos by juxtaposing and contrasting different unitifs just like cubes in a Cubist painting."
Edsel adds that his first Cubist music epiphany came to him sometime after moving to New York in 1997. "I would go out to different places and hear so many great players who have so much music to offer. Everywhere you go in New York, even on the subway, you find somebody playing great. So I would hear all of this stuff and remember what somebody would play -- maybe one phrase that caught my attention. And I would think, 'If I could just play one idea and then construct another idea to this one where one is fueled by another; if I could take the ideas that I like and just make a music out of those little ideas, that would be something unique.'"
He began experimenting with the conce
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