Paquito D’Rivera
‘Celebrating 70+ Years In Music’
Streaming Through April 26

Paquito D’Rivera and Chucho Valdes Reunion Septet
‘I Missed You Too!’
Sunnyside Records

It’s truly impressive when you can listen to one musician for more than 40 years and still hear something new. Paquito D’Rivera has been a major figure in the worlds of modern jazz, afro cuban jazz, big band jazz, world music, and even European classical music since well before he defected from Castro’s Cuba in 1980. Yet, as he proved in a triumphant concert this past weekend at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Hall, the white bearded multi-reed master and composer can still take us completely by surprise.

Then, too, this entire season at JALC has been full of surprises. As we have come to expect, the big pinnacles of the concert season are traditionally the major presentations by Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, such as their Jazz Americana evening in February. But in between these shows, we’ve been treated to three landmark concerts in which major musicians, all born and raised outside the United States, have celebrated their careers thus far in retrospective events pegged to big birthdays: Kington’s Monty Alexander is 80, Tel Aviv’s Anat Cohen is 50, and Havana’s Paquito D’Rivera is still celebrating his 75th birthday from 2023 (close enough). 

More than most, Señor D’Rivera’s party is a look both backward and forward. He started by displaying his first-ever instrument, the very same curved Bb flat soprano saxophone given to him by his father roughly 70 years ago. He then recreated the first piece of music he remembers learning: a radio commercial for Camay soap. He wasn’t kidding around, playing the theme as a duet with pianist Alex Brown and treating it as a legitimate tune. He even improvised on it, quoting Bud Powell’s “Parisian Thoroughfare” and Ferde Grofé’s “Grand Canyon Suite.” 

Like his two younger devotees, pianist Arturo O’Farrill and percussionist Bobby Sanabria, Mr. D’Rivera is not only a bandleader but a thorough historian of the entire Pan American musical experience, and he described the program, much like his life, as “a journey through the music of Latin America.”  

To that end, he welcomed a surprise guest, Ms. Cohen herself, returning the favor from when he made a cameo appearance at her big concert last month. Both brandishing clarinets, the twosome lunged into the best known of all Brazilian choros, the famous “Tico-Tico” by Zequina de Abreu. This was fast and exciting, building to a huge climax. 

He then welcomed on stage an exceptional Italian jazz singer, Roberta Gambarini, and she showed a different side of Brazilian music with two classic bossa-novas by Antonio Carlos Jobim, “Modinha” and “Chega de Saudade.”

The latter tune is known in English as “No More Blues,” but Maestro D’Rivera immediately contradicted this with “Blues for Astor,” a dedication to a legendary Argentinian composer, Astor Piazzola. For this, he was joined by the bandoneon virtuoso Héctor Del Curto.  The next piece was from the repertoire of the Caribbean Jazz Project ensemble, Andy Narell’s “Kalinda,” and featured Victor Provost on steelpan drum.

We were, at this point, an hour into the one-act show; we had already been all over the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking world, and the best was yet to come. Señor D’Rivera introduced Francisco Núñez directing the Young People’s Chorus of New York City, a mixed choir of approximately 50 teenagers singing en españole.  They performed several choral works by the man of the hour, some also involving the full instrumental ensemble.

And was hardly the end: Mr. D’Rivera’s frequent collaborator, the colossal Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés, joined the leader to play the title track from their latest album, a lovely, melancholy ballad titled “I Missed You Too.” The Colombian harp master Edmar Castañeda also took the stage — indeed, the evening was so packed that there was barely enough time for him to get in more than one outstanding solo on the concluding ‘Panamericana.”

For the epic climax, Mr. D’Rivera brought back virtually all the guests and the entire rhythm section, which included the Israeli guitarist Yotam Silberstein, as well as the choir. They all contributed to a kind of grand fantasia that speculated what Mozart’s music might sound like if Amadeus had been born at New Orleans rather than Salzburg.  It was a masterful fusion of symphony and blues, incorporating snippets of “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” and “Rondo Alla Turca.” 

The evening’s single set lasted roughly 105 minutes and it flew by.  There was much new music and even many new jokes — including a quick gag about ICE agents in the house. I am still partial, though, to one of Mr. D’Rivera’s classic quips: “What’s the difference between the Italian mafia and the Cuban mafia?” Answer: “The Italian mafia makes you an offer you can’t refuse. The Cuban mafia makes you an offer that you can’t understand.”