BRATTLEBORO — Drums from Martinique and Cuba mingle with rhythms of Turkey and Bulgaria in the jazz world of percussionist/composer Julian Gerstin.
Living in Martinique for two years, Gerstin studied the unusual tanbou drum, played with both hands and one foot. To bring this instrument home, he composed music for a jazz setting, where musicians can improvise and create on the basis of tradition. He draws also on his experiences traveling and working with musicians from Cuba, Brazil, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, and Egypt.
Gerstin's compositions combine rhythmic drive with melodies that sneak jazz complexity into singable, even catchy, lines.
“Dig It Deeper,” for example, combines the Martinican rhythms bèlè and danmyé with a bluesy, funky melody. The composition also includes a quote from the Martinican folk song “Pani pasé lamen oswé-a,” (“We're not fooling around tonight”), alluding to the island's heritage of resistance.
“That song gives the composition a depth that Martinican audiences will understand,” Gerstin said in a news release, “and it fits the mood I wrote in. Besides, I really love that melody."
To bring these compositions to life, Gerstin has assembled a powerhouse of creative like-minded musicians.
Anna Patton, clarinet, has a grounding in Bulgarian and Macedonian music as well as jazz, trumpeter Don Anderson is a salsa veteran, and pianist Eugene Uman has worked extensively in Colombia and brings the rhythms of that country to his music. Bassist Wes Brown has spanned the history of jazz styles working with giants from Earl “Fatha” Hines to Wadada Leo Smith, and drummer Ben James has ranged from rock's Camper van Beethoven to free jazz great John Tchicai.
The Sextet recorded its first CD in March at nearby Guilford Sound. Eleven songs range from the lively Cuban rumba “Child Left Behind,” to the intense “Kaiman ka modé” (“Biting Crocodile”) based on a Martinican gran bèlè rhythm, to the CD's title track, “The One Who Makes You Happy,” a Balkan lesno (slow dance).
There will be a release party on Friday, July 7, from 8 to 10 p.m., at the Vermont Jazz Center on Cotton Mill Hill in Brattleboro. Tickets are $15 ($10 students). For reservations and more info, contact [email protected].