Paquito D'Rivera Quintet / Robert Occhipinti Quintet
Jazz Winnipeg Festival
Friday, June 23, 2006
Manitoba Theatre Centre

As luck would have it, I bought a ticket in the afternoon and ended up in the front row for this show!

Robert Occhipinti

Robert Occhipinti and his group are fairly unknown to me but they have gained some notoriety in the Canadian jazz scene. His pianist, Hilario Duran, won a Juno and I believe Robert has as well. Composer/producer Occhipinti is one of Canada's top bass players.

I'm not as keen on straight-ahead jazz when the players are reading sheet music and this show helped me recall why. With sheet music, you get more structure and with more structure, the music just doesn't cook as much as I would have liked. Strong words, I know, to describe some of the finest talent around, but I know these players could have really smoked in a smaller group setting with far more spontaneous, combustible, playing.

The benchmark for what I'm talking about was created by the McCoy Tyner Trio earlier this week. It was easily one of the most astonishing jazz performances I've seen. As terrific as the players in Robert Occhipinti's band were, I wasn't elevated to that feeling of grandeur jazz fans always seek - jazz heaven.

I bought Occhipinti's CD Yemaya, which came out in 2005 and hope to get a better understanding of his music. He's also won Jazz Producer of the year twice now in Canada. I also bought a copy of Hilario Duran's latest CD. Rounding out Occhipinti's group were trumpeter Kevin Turcotte, saxophonist Phil Dwyer, and drummer Dafnis Prieto.

Paquito D'Rivera is a very well known NY-based, Cuban-born sax player. The last time he was in town, if I recall correctly, he recorded an album with the Kerry Kluner Jazz Lab Band at the West End Cultural Centre. Trumpeter Kluner, a Harvard-trained psychiatrist, passed away a few years ago but I was at this show, some 18 years ago.