Cuban drumming phenom Dafnis Prieto

Ralph A. Miriello, Contributor
Freelance Jazz Journalist
01/04/2018 04:28 pm ET

There is something very stirring about a big band playing Afro-Cuban jazz. The music has a rhythmic core that is the armature upon which the horn and reed arrangements just swirl. Cuban born drummer Dafnis Prieto has been on his own personal musical adventure, utilizing his formidable rhythmic skills to create a unique vision for his Afro-Cuban inspired jazz. Since arriving from Cuba back in 1999, Prieto has brought an energy and flare to the music that is all his own.

In 2011 his gift for being able to incorporate multi-rhythmic variations into his music was recognized by his receipt of the prestigious MacArthur ‘genius” grant. The drummer has taken his music a step further, writing and arranging a suite of big band charts that both pays homage to those who have inspired him while also blazing a trail forward into explosive new ground. The sound he creates is both imaginative and a primer of what we can expect further from this percussive hurricane.


Set to be released the first week of April ,Back to the Sunset is the culmination of his most recent energies. It features a suite of nine compositions played by the Dafnis Prieto Big Band and featuring some special guest soloists. Anchored and directed by a distinctly Latin rhythm section, the band includes Prieto on drums, fellow Cuban pianist extraordinaire Manuel Valera, the Puerto Rican bassist Rickey Rodríguez and the Venezuelan percussionist Robert Quintero on congas and percussion.

There is an all American trombone section of Tim Albright, Alan Ferber, Jacob Garchik and Jeff Nelson; a trumpet section of Americans Michael Rodríguez, Nathan Eklund and Josh Deutsch and Russian born Alex Sipiagin and a reed section containing fellow Cuban Román Filíu, and Americans Michael Thomas, Peter Apfelbaum, Joel Frahm and Chris Cheek. This is one talented group and under Prieto’s direction and drive they make magic.

read more at: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cuban-drumming-phenom-dafnis-prieto-scores-big-band_us_5a4e99a9e4b0f9b24bf315b7

Dafnis Prieto: Experiments in Spontaneity

By 

R.J. DELUKE, 

Published: October 16, 2012

Improvisation—music in the moment, eloquently once called "the sound of surprise"—takes place in genres besides jazz. But in America's indigenous art form, it is a cornerstone. The degree to which a song might contain improv varies greatly. Sometimes it's hard to tell in a highly arranged piece where the musicians are taking liberties. Other times its obvious an elongated solo is being composed on the spot.

Consider the idea of a band that's pretty much making everything up on the spot. Not free jazz, where the cacophony can be off-putting to many. Even annoying. And in a way different from some of the bands on the current scene that are really playing in the moment, reacting to one another as if linked in spirit, like Medeski, Martin & Wood, or nearly anything led by saxophonist Joe Lovano.

Making up everything—right now—is what young drum phenom Dafnis Prieto is doing with his band, Proverb Trio. Prieto, a native of Cuba, has already been making a name for himself in bands that he leads, as well as playing with others like saxophonists Steve Coleman and Henry Threadgill, clarinetist Eddie Palmieri and pianist Michel Camilo. The Proverb Trio, which has a recording out this year by the same name on the drummer's Dafnison Music, is three people fully engaged in improvisation. But in a tuneful way. Grooves are used, but Prieto uses all kinds of rhythms that are in his soul and come out through his talented hands and feet. Textures change. Tempos can shift, all at the whim of the players. One is Jason Lindner on keyboards, one of the fine players on the New York City scene, and the other is a vocalist, known as Kokayi.

What? Improvising melodies and words, derived from scratch. Surely there must be a sketch of an arrangement so the vocalist has some idea what words to use and musical direction to go, yes? No.

"It is very challenging. The three of us are completely improvising, being spontaneous in the performance," says Prieto. "That's why Kokayi impressed me the first time I saw him, because what he mostly does is free-styling, which means the spontaneity of improvising with words and everything else that he does. It is very interesting. Every time I do it I feel impressed with how he does it and how the whole thing becomes as a unit and it has one sound. Even though we're going in so many different directions and dimensions. He has his own sound, by himself. And to come up with very specific stories on the spot, of what to develop within what we're doing. It's very impressive."

The new recording contains twelve tracks that one would never expect were not preordained. "Into the Light Love" is riveting, with the polyrhythms of Prieto driving the effort and Lindner molding the melodic base with electric keyboards, over which Kokayi intones a perfectly sensible lyric. It's sophisticated soul. Funky jazz. No moniker really fits, but it's moving and hip. Lindner starts off "In War" with a spacey intro that moves into a layered harmony. Prieto listens for a bit, then adds what he feels will augment it. Eventually, Kokayi jumps in with a staccato lyric that even has a reggae flavor to it. Drums get more intense as voice speaks about the woes of war. It sounds, weird, but it works. A remarkable achievement.

Prieto said the germination for the group started out as a duet between himself and Kokayi at a jazz festival. He enjoyed it, but felt it best to add another element. "I needed to go wider and in more directions in terms of sound and possibilities within the idea. We kept doing performances as a duo and we had guests. Steve Coleman was one of the guests. Also Henry Threadgill. After that came the thought of having a third person continuously with us. Somebody who was going to be part of the band. I called Jason."

Prieto had played with Lindner in a variety of bands and felt a strong musical affinity. It worked, and the Proverb Trio came to be—three musicians making up melodies, rhythms and stories on the spot. Walking a tightrope, in a sense, but enjoying it. When it came time to record, the same philosophy was used, but with two different approaches.

"The first part of the recording I wanted to have the way we do it normally in a performance. So we play, and everything comes out very open. There is not really an amount of time set for how much we should be doing or not. The tunes might last 20 or 25 minutes, or 15 minutes," Prieto explained. The only change for the rest of the CD was to put a shorter time limit, about three to five minutes, to see what the group could do with the same open form, but with a time constraint in mind.

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=43040#.UH307bQlYhQ

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/