Jorge Sylvester ACE Collective

Brucknerhaus Linz, December 6, 2010 ******

Those who were expecting Calypso-singing Harry Belafonte clones must have been disappointed. The pieces composed by the Panamanian saxophonist use the rhythmic tradition as a basis for extended forays into the world of the contemporary. The young drummer Kenneth Grohowsky juggled the odd meters with exquisite ease. Sylvester's compositions are solid ground for exciting, improvisational excursions particularly by the singer and poet Nora McCarthy and the trumpeter Waldron Mahdi Ricks. The music could most readily be compared to Steve Coleman's Five Elements who made a big impression in St. Magdalena in October. In the next days the ACE Collective will record their new CD at Peter Guschlbauer's studio in Hagenberg. You have to look forward to that.

Christoph Haunschmid

"Ace Collective enthusiastically received in Linz"

CD REVIEW JORGE SYLVESTER MUSIC 

Following the line/Live in New York City.

The expressive and very emotional style of Jorge Sylvester reminds  sometimes of the great Albert Ayler. The music comes from the bottom of his heart and leads you to the roots of that almost forgotten felling we used to call Afro-American music, simply - Jazz. He gets through the performance a great support from his fellow musicians which understand how to make this deep rooted music reach the open minded listeners.

Very recommended.

Jorge Sylvester's distinctive alto saxophone sound is imbued with the volatility of Caribbean basin's complex mosaic, transformed and focused by the probing musical linguistics pioneered by the great saxophonists of modern jazz. Jorge's composer's imagination is the matchless structural coherence of his improvisational work.

In the Ear of the Beholder

Jorge Sylvester's Afro-Caribbean Experimental Trio

(JAM 2003, 2001).

                     "If Ornette Coleman had be born and reared in Nassau, his music would have sounded like this."

 

THE VISION X FESTIVAL, JUNE 14TH - JUNE 19TH, 2005 

ConceptualMotion Orchestra:

Considering that this was the tenth annual Vision Festival, it was indeed a most historic event. Although, the festival location had to be changed at the last minute to the Angel Orensanz Center (172 Norfolk St.), that undeniable Vision Fest spirit persevered. It worked out better anyway with a larger, more spacious room inside one of the oldest synagogues in Manhattan. It was the site of a previous Vision Fest, a number of years back. Every year I tell myself that they can't possibly beat the previous year's line-up, but every year Patricia Parker & her committee amaze me/us once more. Some years have been too long at 10 days, but this year seemed to be just right at 6 days. There were some six sets each night with a few sets also added on Saturday afternoon. The music went from about 7pm til 1am each night, sometimes a bit later. Yes, this is a great deal of music for one evening at about 6 hours per night, well worth the $25 admission per night, cheaper if you buy a festival pass. I attended all but one night with my lady-friend Huguette and we both felt that we had experienced something very special, quite magical, that transformed us all, giving us hope for a new world, a new vision.

Day one began, as usual, with an invocation from Joseph Jarman & Chris Chalfant. Peaceful sounds, chanting and words to help us stay calm in a violent world. The first set featured Jorge Sylvester's Conceptual Motion Orchestra and they were grand. Great writing, superb singing from Nora McCarthy and a number of inspired solos from Jorge on alto sax. I was only familiar with a few of the members (Curtis Fowlkes & Hayes Greenfield), but there were a number of fine solos from players unknown to me.

In the Ear of the Beholder

Jorge Sylvester Afro-Caribbean Experimental Trio | Jazz Magnet Records

Jazz artists often approach Afro-Caribbean music from a reductionist rhythmic standpoint, neglecting the richness of the tradition. But Jorge Sylvester takes care to present the whole picture on In the Ear of the Beholder. Taking various Afro-Caribbean styles and paring them down to a raw trio format (sax/bass/drums), he compels each player to bring something unique to the mix. Much of the improvisation on In the Ear explores individual traditional styles in step-by-step fashion. "Tambor—The Mix," for example, works its way through theme and variations, emphasizing Afro-Brazilian rhythms. Sylvester's saxophone voice pursues tangents off of a tonal center, gradually evolving with the bass and drums in and out of moments of sheer pulsing energy. Toward the end of the piece, the three musicians emerge into raw three-way polyrhythm. Subsequent tunes incorporate ideas from traditional Panamanian, Mexican, Afro-Cuban, Jamaican, and Afro-American music. The most notable thread running through all these pieces is a surprising fluidity of motion: while the trio may explore odd meters or complex melodic interaction, the overall "feel" remains unswervingly organic. As a true hybrid of traditions, the music on In the Ear also incorporates a healthy dose of North American ("Afro-American") influence as well. Particularly in the more involved saxophone improvisations, hints of Getz, Rollins, and Coltrane appear. "King's Highway" operates around of a Pastorius-inspired bassline. Thus the trio expounds its self-proclaimed "experimental" edge. And as a consequence, the music is hardly easy listening. It's propulsive and dynamic, but also quite intellectually involved. There is no easy classification, no simple reductionism, and nothing primitive about In the Ear of the Beholder. Track listing: Tambor--The Mix; Sly Mangoose; Corazón Rebelde; Por La Clave; In the Ear of the Beholder/Por La Clave Part II; Songoajira; King's Highway; Tropicando. Personnel: Jorge Sylvester: alto saxophone, hand claps, voice, cuica voice effect, maracas, and cow bell; Donald Nicks: electric bass guitar and fretless bass guitar; Bobby Sanabria: drums and bells.

CD Reviews from the June 2001 issue JAZZ TIMES MAGAZINE

JORGE SYLVESTER AFRO-CARIBBEAN EXPERIMENTAL TRIO

In the Ear of the Beholder (Jazz Magnet)

There are no cliched romantic notions of breezy island music on this bold adventure led by Panamanian alto saxophonist Jorge Sylvester. With his edgy rhythmic pulse and diamond-hard tone prancing atop drummer Bobby Sanabria's furious polyrhythms and Donald Nicks' molten-hot bass lines, Sylvester has crafted an album that boasts the same sort of Herculean, calypso-driven improvisations of Sonny Rollins and the lofty intentions of Julius Hemphill and Oliver Lake's 1970s Arista Freedom dates. Nicks' resonating bass and Sanabria's infectious rhythms buffer Sylvester's propensity for the outer reaches, as demonstrated on the lively calypso "Sly Mangoose" and the rhapsodic ballad "Corazon Rebelde." The trio keeps the passion hot throughout In the Ear of the Beholder, though their hyperactivity can become a bit draining. Still, the majority of the album's dancing rhythms will compel you to keep coming back. -John Murph

In The Ear Of The Beholder

Jorge Sylvester's Afro-Caribbean Experimental Trio

Sylvester's alto work is deeply rooted in bebop but fluent in the most modern of horn vocabularies.

With this album, he makes his mark as one of the more advanced, imaginative voices in Afro-Caribbean jazz.

Jorge Sylvester's Afro-Caribbean Experimental Trio

In The Ear of the Beholder Jazz Magnet Records CD JAM-2003, 2001 (75:54) Dan Macintosh, 9 December 2001

Jorge Sylvester practices a musical form of contraction, which is described as the mathematical search for what is essential and true by way of discarding the inessential, according to liner note essayist Ramsey Ameen. But while it's at times tricky, Sylvester's Afro-Caribbean experimentalism is by no means a cold exercise in trigonometry with a beat. Sonny Rollins is said to be a primary influence on Sylvester, but the ears of this beholder also hear a lot of Ornette Coleman in some of the underlying sadness of his alto playing, and especially in the machine-gunning rhythm tandem of bassist Donald Nicks and drummer Bobby Sanabria in parts of "Tambor - The Mix." Layered percussion, including cymbals and cow bells, may give a song like "Por La Clave" a traditional Caribbean feel, but modern jazz, contemporary funk and hints of Be Bop are also filtered through Sylvester's musical perspective. The aforementioned "Por La Clave" builds into a full-on battle of wills between Sylvester's mad improvisation and drummer Sanabria's primitive pounding. Sylvester playfully acts out a cat-and-mouse-like musical game on "Sly Mongoose," which is a Jack Edwards composition most notably recorded by Charlie Parker. But the trio's take on it is anything but the straight bebop variety, as Nicks can be heard plucking his way funk-aly throughout. The only other non-Sylvester composition is Alberto Barreto's bolero "Corazon Rebelde." Backed by minimal rhythm accompaniment, Sylvester slides his way through its sinuous melody. Here, his tone and musical passion shine brightly. Much like "Corazon Rebelde," "Songoajira" is one of the few cuts on this album to follow a relatively predictable musical path. It draws its unhurried rhythm pattern from Cuban songo and guajira (hence it's name, a combination of these two styles), yet Sylvester sounds just as inspired as he does on his more experimental flights. Whether he's pushing the envelope, or maneuvering within its relatively broad confines, Sylvester will find appeal with the ears of various different kinds of beholders.

Performers:

Jorge Sylvester ,alto sax, hand claps, voice, cuica voice effect, maracas and cow bell; Donald Nicks, electric bass guitar and fretless bass guitar on "King's Highway"; Bobby Sanabria, drums and all bells

Songs:

Tambor - The Mix · Sly Mongoose · Corazon Rebelde · Por La Clave · In The Ear of the Beholder - Por La Clave Part II · Songoajira · King's Highway · Tropicando

MUSIC REVIEW ( IN FRENCH )

IN THE EAR OF THE BEHOLDER

JORGE SYLVESTER ACE TRIO

MUSIC REVIEW

IN THE EAR OF THE BEHOLDER

JORGE SYLVESTER ACE TRIO

CD REVIEW

IN THE EAR OF THE BEHOLDER

JORGE SYLVESTER ACE TRIO

" CD REVIEW BILLBOARD SPOTLIGHT

February, 24 2001 "

PANAMANIAN-BORN , NEW YORK-HONED ALTO SAXOPHONIST JORGE SYLVESTER HAS PRODUCED A SET OF CHALLENGING ISLAND-ACCENTED JAZZ WITH HIS APTLY NAMED * AFRO-CARIBBEAN EXPERIMENTAL TRIO *

*IN THE EAR OF THE BEHOLDER * BESPEAKS VARIETY IN THE FORM,  WITH EACH TRACK OPENING UP A DIFFERENT VISTA

MusiCollage CD REVIEW

February , 12 1996

FROM NEW YORK CITY BY WAY OF

COLON, PANAMA WITH STOPOVERS IN

MADRID, SPAIN AND WOODSTOCK, NY.

COMES JORGE SYLVESTER , AN ALTO SAXOPHONIST DESTINED FOR GREATNESS

** MusiCollage CD REVIEW February 1997 **

ONE OF THE MOST CREATIVE, UN-CLICHED RECORDINGS TO COME MY WAY THIS YEAR IS THIS DARING AND INVENTIVE DEBUT RECORDING OF PANAMENIAN ALTO SAXOPHONIST JORGE SYLVESTER PERFORMING ALL ORIGINAL MATERIAL .

HE IS ASSISTED IN THE FRONT LINE BY THE WELL- KNOWN BRAZILIAN TRUMPETER CLAUDIO RODITI . ALSO INCLUDED IN THE BAND ARE VIRTUOSO BASSIST SANTI DEBRIANO VIBRAPHONE PLAYER MONTE CROFT THE ABSOLUTELY KILLING DRUMS OF GENE JACKSON, PERCUSSIONIST BOBBY SANABRIA, AND GUITARIST MARVIN SEWELL.

THE MUSIC IS AN INTRIGUING BREW OF ODD METERS , OSTINATO BASS LINES, BEBOP , PERCUSSIVE DISPLAYS AND A REMARKABLY COHERENT GROUP SOUND AND APPROACH . JORGE SYLVESTER'S PLAYING STYLE IS AS UNIQUE AS HIS APPROACH TO WRITING.

HIS MOST APPARENT INFLUENCES ARE ERIC DOLPHY AND JACKIE McLEAN BUT HIS SOUND IS CLEARLY HIS OWN . UTILIZING THE VIBES AS THE CHIEF CHORDAL INSTRUMENT, THE SOUND IS REMINISCENT OF THE EARLY BLUE NOTE RECORDINGS OF JACKIE McLEAN WITH BOBBY HUTCHERSON AND TONY WILLIAMS, BUT THERE ARE SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES. THE APPROACH TO THE MUSIC IS FAR MORE VARIED IN IT'S RHYTHMIC CONCEPTS. IT'S NOT FREE MUSIC IN THE SENSE OF ABANDONING CHORDS OR FORMS. INSTEAD, THE FREEDOM COMES FROM WORKING WITHIN THE STRUCTURES FORMED BY LATIN AND WORLD RHYTHMS, VAMPS, CHORDS STRUCTURES AND MODES . THE MUSIC IS CHALLENGING BUT MOST DEFINITELY ACCESSIBLE VIA THE STRONG RHYTHMIC SETTING THAT OFFERS MUCH CHARACTER TO THE MUSIC.

WE WILL HEAR MORE FROM JORGE SYLVESTER .

A Small Dream in Red is a new CD as well as the name of the group composed of vocalist Nora McCarthy and alto saxophonist Jorge Sylvester. Inspired by painter Wassily Kandinsky's 1925 masterpiece of the same name, A Small Dream in Red is a joy of dynamic interplay between two diverse talents. McCarthy's roots include the American songbook, R&B, Brazilian music, and Hawaiian folk, and in recent years she's embraced—and been embraced by—the avant garde. Sylvester, who studied at Karl Berger's legendary Creative Music Studio, has played with everyone from Stefon Harris to Oliver Lake to David Murray, and is best known for his integration of Afro-Caribbean rhythms into mainstream and avant garde jazz. The recording captures this formidable duo live at a 2003 concert at Cleveland State University. The five cuts include a beautiful medley of "Afro Blue/My Romance," Miles Davis' "All Blues," Ysaye Maria Barnwell's "Wanting Memories," and original compositions by both McCarthy and Sylvester. The lineup may be minimalist, but the music certainly isn't; both McCarthy and Sylvester have extensive palettes and their nuances of color and conception are a pleasure to behold. McCarthy's voice stretches and soars and whether she's singing straightahead, scatting, or simply vocalizing, her voice rings true and clear. Sylvester has a gorgeous tone and a sure touch, plus a wonderful ability to weave in and out of melodies. It's delightful to hear music that plays so freely with the known and the unknown elements of jazz. McCarthy and Sylvester show the utmost respect for the formal elements of music while also possessing the daring to dissolve borders, making A Small Dream in Red an aural adventure of the highest order.