# CD review: Diego Urcola Quartet and Paquito D’Rivera – El Duelo 2020: Video, CD cover

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2020/09/22/cd-review-diego-urcola-quartet-and-paquito-drivera-el-duelo-2020-video-cd-cover/
- Published: 2020-09-22T13:58:30+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Specific reasons led to piano-less quartet becoming a vehicle for the more explorative
jazz practitioners of the 1950s and 1960s, namely, directness of group sound and
the increased interplay between ensemble members. **

Subtracting the piano from the typical jazz combo made it imperative that the musicians
expand their roles to cover harmonic information lost. In doing so, the performers
had to remain engaged and responsive, immediately amplifying their performance.

Trumpeter Diego Urcola has proven to be a player of incredible range and dexterity
throughout his career, a large part of it playing alongside Paquito D’Rivera in 
the legendary saxophonist/clarinetist’s various eclectic projects. On Urcola’s new
recording, _El Duelo_, the trumpeter recruits D’Rivera to join him in a very rare,
and exposed, playing scenario, the piano-less quartet.

Originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Urcola has been a part of the New York 
City jazz scene since the 1990s. His work with D’Rivera, Guillermo Klein y Los Guachos,
Enrico Pieranunzi, and as a leader has been celebrated by many, even garnering him
a Grammy nomination for his album, Soundances.

Urcola’s almost thirty-year relationship with D’Rivera, one of jazz music’s true
virtuosos, has been extremely valuable. The diverse projects and performance schedules
have allowed the two musicians a deep intimacy in their musical partnership. Urcola’s
goal on _El Duelo_ is to feature the more uncompromised, freer side of D’Rivera’s
improvisational abilities, which are rarely heard on his own recordings.

It was during a regular visit to Uruguay’s Punta Del Este Jazz Festival that Urcola
was asked to present a musical tribute to the revered Gerry Mulligan Quartet that
featured Chet Baker. During the quartet’s performance, Urcola invited D’Rivera to
the stage, and the idea of recording in a piano-less quartet was cemented by the
resounding performance.

Argentinean transplant and audio engineer Luis Bacque had long been encouraging 
Urcola to find a way to record with D’Rivera on one of the trumpeter’s own projects
and, once Urcola was able to present the idea, Bacque produced and recorded their
meeting in his fantastic home studio in New Jersey.

From the work of Mulligan to Ornette Coleman, quartets presented in this fashion
have always relied on strong rhythm duos of bass and drums. The drum chair was filled
by the fantastic Eric Doob, D’Rivera’s regular drummer for years and a player whose
study of South and Latin American rhythms made him a perfect choice in this situation.
New Zealand born Hamish Smith impressed D’Rivera during a teaching engagement at
the Manhattan School of Music, where the young bassist continues to study. Urcola
brought him in for the quartet’s initial Small’s Jazz Club performance (Smith’s 
club debut) and was impressed enough to bring him in for the recording (Smith’s 
recording debut).

Urcola was especially interested in capturing the ensemble with a contemporary sound,
which Bacque was able to do expertly, making this compact ensemble sound driving
and intense. The pieces that Urcola arranged for the group show the trumpeter’s 
diverse range of musical interests but also his fantastic ability to consider the
ensemble by focusing on group counterpoint between the three melodic voices and 
providing strong written bass parts to ensure that the movement of the pieces really
grooved.

The recording begins with the vibrant title track, a rarely heard Guillermo Klein
composition that Urcola arranged from a two-trumpet feature into a wildly driving
piece featuring alto sax and trumpet. Urcola’s gorgeous “Tango Azul” borrows its
mysterious tone from early tango groups, which regularly featured clarinets, while
the group’s take on Ornette Coleman’s “Una Muy Bonita” showcases Smith’s driving
bass and the boisterous connection between the horns. The brilliant “La Yumba/Caravan”
is an Ethan Iverson mash-up of Osvaldo Pugliese’s famous tango and Juan Tizol’s 
most well known Latin jazz number. The muted Asian inspired “Pekin” is a dramatic
piece from Argentinean bassist Willy Gonzales.

Urcola’s upbeat tribute to Freddie Hubbard, “The Natural,” showcases Doob and D’Rivera’s
rhythmic brilliance on adapted Afro Cuban clavé, while Urcola’s tantalizing tango,“
Buenos Aires,” provides interesting melodic lines for the horns. Kenny Wheeler’s
ECM sound is the basis for this quartet’s sound, so it was only natural to include
the great trumpeter/composer’s “Foxy Trot,” which once again shows Smith’s advanced
bass technique and some incredible counter melodies. Gerry Mulligan provided the
spark for the recording, so his “I Know, Don’t Know How” is a welcome fit with its
attractive mid-tempo swing. Astor Piazzolla’s “Libertango” provides a bass groove
to move to and brilliant interplay between the dancing horns.

Urcola transposed and arranged pieces of a Wayne Shorter suite with elements of 
pianist Danilo Perez’s improvisations to create the powerful piece, “Sacajawea (
Theme).” D’Rivera’s gorgeous clarinet and Urcola’s muted trumpet play off each other
beautifully on Richard Nant’s “Leyenda,” while alto sax is back on Urcola’s reduction
of a Slide Hampton Jazz Masters Big Band arrangement of Dizzy Gillespie’s “Con Alma,”
with shout choruses and all. Inspired by trumpeter Marquis Hill’s take on Benny 
Golson’s “Stablemates,” Urcola transcribes the piece to fit the ballroom rumba rhythm
perfectly. The recording concludes with Urcola’s transcription of recently departed
trumpeter/conguero Jerry Gonzalez’s famed interpretation of Thelonious Monk’s “Bye-
Ya.”

It is easier to filter brilliance by paring down. Diego Urcola’s inspired idea to
bring long-time collaborator Paquito D’Rivera into a piano-less quartet to record
_El Duelo_ focuses listeners onto two fantastic musicians performing at their musical
peaks.

**Diego Urcola: trumpet & flugelhorn; **

**Paquito D’Rivera: alto saxophone & clarinet; **

**Eric Doob: drums; **

**Hamish Smith: bass**

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