The Foreign Affair - Hector Martignon

Nov

20

The Foreign Affair - Hector Martignon

≡ Category: 2000s, Jazz Funk, Latin Jazz, Post Bop, Recommended, Reviews |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

JAZZBO NOTES RECOMMENDED RECORDING

Rating:

Pianist Hector Martignon imay be from Colombia, but it is too easy to merely peg him as a Latin Jazz artist. For evidence, examine Foreign Affair (released on the Candid Records label).

The first track, Benitez Sez, is basically a funky jazz tune. The only evidence you would have that Martignon is Latin would be the powerful rhythmic thrust of his playing. It’s a blistering track, and Martignon’s solo bristles with intelligence.

He does go Latin on My One and Only Love. Martignon mutates the standard into a joropo, a dance form from the Savanahs between Colombia and Venezuala. It’s a surprisingly choice, but Martignon pulls it off with consummate taste. Personally, I’ve heard this tune so many times, I’d just as soon not hear it again unless somebody is going to do something extraordinary with it. Bravo.

How much you enjoy La Propuesta will depend on your tolerance for sentimental Latino vocals, in this case by Ruben Blades. It seems that La Propuesta is a famous Brazlian ballad. Okey dokey. Hey, it’s not my thing, but I’ve got to admit that the tune is impeccably performed. Martignon’s respect and affection for the tune is obvious. His adaptations to the jazz idiom are minimal and his solo is tender and full of feeling.

Martignon introduces some surprisingly poppy flavors into Some Day My Spring Will Come. It’s a pretty tune with some gospel-ish touches. You can hear echoes of Keith Jarrett in his solo, which is a compliment.

You get a few bars into Blues For Leticia before you even realize it’s a blues. It’s pretty darn funky, and there are lots of harmonic interpolations that enrich the form, but the blues is there. Martignon’s solo is ingenious. Like the tune itself, it delves into the blues, but goes all sorts of other places, from bebop runs to funk to gospel to pop and everywhere in between. Here his training with Latin bands like Tito Puente, Ray Barretto and Mario Bauza shows, but not in any kind of obvious way, but rather in how he can turn rhythmically on a dime.

Sadly, the quality of The Foreign Affair declines somewhat as it proceeds. Unwritten Postcards is pretty enough, I suppose, and well played, but it somehow sounds generic and slippery. None of the melodies or harmonic sequences catch in the imagination. You’ll have trouble remembering a phrase within five minutes of hearing it.

The modified jazz samba As Heard, which closes the date, also doesn’t leave much of an impression. It meanders without much purpose. A lot is going on in the tune, and it doesn’t offend the ear, but neither does it engage it.

New Morning Mambo is a little better. It’s pretty catchy as a funky mambo. Too bad soprano saxophonist Donny McCaslin has such a thin, wimpy tone and nothing much to say. I can only imagine what the great Wayne Shorter could have done with this tune. He would have burned the house down. On the other hand, Luis Bonilla’s tasty trombone solo makes up for the lost opportunity to some extent.

Interestingly, I find Martignon even less compelling when he arranges for larger forces, as on the eponymous tune The Foreign Affair and Hermeto Pascoal’s Sorrindo. I cannot pin it down exactly, but Martignon can’t seem to find a way to make the orchestrations either bold and striking or featherweight caresses. Instead, they’re mushy and add nothing to the tunes they’re supposed to support. Also, Don Byon’s clarinet tone on Sorrindo is screechy and unpleasant. On the same tune, Randy Brecker contributes a fine solo on trumpet, but one wishes he were gracing a better arrangement.

Bach’s Prelude No. 8 in Eb Minor is marred by Satoshi Takeshi’s ham-fisted drums. He doesn’t seem to know what to do with this ballad and so he overplays, adding distracting martial flourishes. It’s a pity because Martignon’s interpretation is sensitive and engaging.

The funny thing is, in spite of all of these flaws, I would still recommend The Foreign Affair on the strength of four or five very strong tunes. Hector Martignon is a prodigiously talented pianist with interests in many areas of music. It’s not terribly surprising that he would lose focus here and there, given the depth of his ambitions. This is definitely a guy to keep an eye on.