Weekly Latin Jazz: Yosvany Terry and Dafnis Prieto

Some musicians cross paths repeatedly during the course of their career, resulting in a variety of artistic paths. Musicians often meet on the bandstand through pure circumstance. When they play in the same location over the course of several years, they undoubtedly spend time on gigs, building at least some camaraderie. Musicians that play in the same genre run into each other through a variety of situations. They might play in a festival, they might open a large concert for a major act, or they might share the same gig, giving them a relationship.

These types of casual crossings sometimes result in good music, but they rarely provide the long-term collaborations that fuel memorable performances. Other musicians simply find each other through shared interests and background, creating an artistic chemistry that cannot be broken. The come from the same set of influences, similar upbringings, or common cultural backgrounds.

They develop similar artistic visions that push each other into greater heights. They learn each other’s performance approaches, finding new ways to support and inspire their peer. They learn each other’s phrasings and anticipate upcoming improvisational ideas. Any sort of artistic bond helps build a stronger musical community, but the latter type of collaboration often drives musicians to do great things.

Saxophonist Yosvany Terry and drummer Dafnis Prieto are two artistic peers that share a good deal of common traits. Both musicians grew up in Cuba during the Fidel Castro era with a limited access to musical genres and styles; their love for jazz and American popular music was a hard earned passion. These two musicians both received extensive classical trainings at some of Cuba’s finest conservatories, exposing them to a wide range of compositional techniques and highly refined technical abilities.

At the same time, their hearts remained in jazz and they worked hard to learn the music on top of their regular studies. They both created unique identities on their instruments and found work with some of the island’s best jazz musicians. They came together in one of Cuba’s best jazz groups, Columna B, and applied their shared knowledge during some truly amazing performances. The two musicians found their way to United States shores at different times, but their impact was profound in similar ways.

During their time in the States, they’ve proven themselves as interesting performers, insightful composers, influential bandleaders, and rising stars of the Latin Jazz world. Although they’ve both built impressive careers as leaders, they often support each other as sidemen. Both musicians have built a collaboration that has helped them grow and turned them into fantastic leaders, sitting at the forefront of the future Latin Jazz world.

These two musicians had already shown a great deal of influence in the music world – upon each other and upon the greater Latin Jazz scene – the future only holds more potential.
http://www.chipboaz.com/blog/2009/09/29/weekly-latin-jazz-video-fix-yosvany-terry-and-dafnis-prieto/