Customer Reviews

Underground

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This is Castellanos' second effort as a leader. The general comparison to early 60's Blue Note is apt, as is the more specific comparison to Lee Morgan; however, Castellanos infuses his jazz with not only soul, but a Latin flavor, too. Castellanos' work also recalls Clifford Brown with his dexterity and Freddie Hubbard with his swing. His arrangements have a "big" sound, perhaps shaped by his work with the Clayton Hamilton Jazz Orchestra. These original compositions are top-notch; I especially liked "High Febvre." This album is as good as straight ahead jazz gets and his sidemen (including celebrated guitarist Anthony Wilson and Kevin Kanner, a drummer with big time hard bop chops) are more than up to the task in this session.

Underground is a truly inspired collection of music. The sound is very reminiscent of Lee Morgan (he even covers a Morgan song) and early 1960's Bluenote. Though I think the most remarkable aspects of this CD are the original compositions. "Marlo" in my opinion is a classic. It stands up to anything ever written by the hard bop greats. There are very few great jazz musicians who are technically gifted and at the same time recognize the importance of great tone, Gilbert Castellanos is one of them.

The indie spirit so often associated with rock music began tapping a small collective of young jazz musicians during the late 1980s. In the Crenshaw District of Los Angeles, Billy Higgins's World Stage Gallery became square-one for the re-discovery of hard bop. A group named Black/Note gave the nightclub its publicity via a number of solid major label releases during the early '90s, all of which complimented the afro-roots vibe of acts such as Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul and the films of Spike Lee. Black/Note members such as Eric Reed, Gilbert Castellanos and Willie Jones III have since sprung to form their own unique bands. But it all served to inform jazz's own underground... a sound that was as contemporary as it was old school.

Ever since Herbie Hancock's 1977 neo-bop album V.S.O.P. LIVE (a tribute to Miles Davis), strands of bebop have re-entered the fray of jazz nightclubs and jazz recordings. During the '80s, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis made a grand attempt to legitimize funds for a near-extinct form of American expression. His music remains skillful and soulful, despite sometimes stuffy audiences. As such, Marsalis became a mentor and bandleader that hoisted many young talents on his back during the '80s (including Eric Reed and Willie Jones III of Black/Note). Marsalis was a prominent name that flew in the face of fushion, smooth and other forms of slick jazz. The idea being to capture the feeling of an old-time jam session... that all-nighter club vibe, with its contemporary improvisational spirit. If it all sounds too intellectualized, the sounds therein are anything but. Which is why '90s groups like Black/Note, B Sharp Jazz Quartet and other Angelenos associated with free-jazz drummer Billy Higgins and Horace Tapscott developed such an amazing underground from which to grow.

This is the environment that Gilbert Castellanos came out of. With this new album, he has grown leaps and bounds from the primitive feel of the first Black/Note recordings. These tracks teeter back and forth between '40s bebop, '50s hard bop and '60s modern jazz. There are all kinds of exciting Latin flourishes too, as Castellanos gives his bandmates a lot of space to improvise. "High Febvre" is a noir-ish highlight, while "Trapped" is one-part Afro-Cuban, two parts swingin' bop, with doses of Mariachi inspiration.

I for one can't wait to hear what this artist will do next.