Concerto in Beans and Rice
WHEN PAQUITO D’RIVERA and his jazz quintet began their set at the Jazz Forum supper club in Tarrytown, New York, one evening last December, the audience stopped its clatter at the cheerful pop of a single chord, struck by pianist Alex Brown. After a pause, Brown played a sparkling melody that became a geyser of cross-hatched harmonies and syncopated rhythms as the rest of the quintet joined in. Chattering like a skylark on his clarinet, D’Rivera carried on a rollicking musical conversation with Brown, Diego Urcola on valve trombone and trumpet, Oscar Stagnaro on bass, and Mark Walker on drums and percussion. The surge in tempo from allegro agitato to presto in the final section prompted audible gasps from some members of the audience. “That piece was written by a great Puerto Rican composer—Frédéric Chopin,” D’Rivera quipped. “It’s called ‘Fantasie-Impromptu.’ ”
During the remainder of the set, the quintet served up a mélange of jazz, classical, and Latin music that included a piece D’Rivera composed for Ballet Hispánico based on the a popular dance form from his native Cuba; a blues that Urcola wrote to honor the Argentine tango master Astor Piazzolla; and Brown’s jazz arrangement of a bolero by the
