# CD review: Danilo Perez – Crisalida 2022: Video, CD cover

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2022/03/25/cd-review-danilo-perez-crisalida-2022-video-cd-cover/
- Published: 2022-03-25T04:55:08+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Pianist, composer, humanitarian and activist Danilo Pérez believes that a united
global perspective for the arts and social justice are the keys to moving humanity
forward in harmony. **

With Crisálida, Pérez has convened his Global Messengers – several gifted Berklee
Global Jazz Institute graduates mentored by Danilo hailing from Palestine, Greece
and Jordan — to contribute their respective cultural learnings and personal experiences
with the goal of building community through music, without borders.

Wayne Shorter, whom Danilo Pérez calls his mentor, told the pianist “to write and
play music the way you want the world to be.” If Crisálida is Pérez’s response, 
then he sees a world that is in a state of becoming: crisálida means “chrysalis”
in English. Judging from these alternately questioning and hopeful pieces, performed
by an international band and drawing on various traditional musics, Pérez’s vision
of creativity is inspired by the possibility for international cooperation and harmony.
He is interested in how music might shape our future: “We believe music has the 
power to protect us during this early stage of development and project light and
positive vibrations through the Glass Walls.” His musicians come from Palestine,
Greece, Jordan, USA, Chile, Cuba, and Panama.

In part commissioned by the Detroit Festival of Jazz, Crisálida is comprised of 
two suites: “La Muralla” (Glass Walls) and “Fronteras” (Borders). The instrumentation
varies somewhat but typically it includes — besides the piano of the leader-composer—
a Greek laouto (lute), violin and cello, an occasional flute, vocalists who sing
and speak in various languages including Greek (which I cannot translate) and dozens
of percussive instruments, including the batá. The lyrics question rather than proclaim.
The “Glass Walls” suite begins peacefully, with a splash of color from Peréz’ piano.
The “Rise From Love”‘s sweet theme is then stated by Farish Ishaq on the Turkish
ney flute, and then by Naseem Alatrash on cello. The colors and instrumental shadings
generated by this band is probably unprecedented, as we hear a kind of trio with
piano, ney flute, and cello before the vocalist enters with a series of questions:“
Is it light or dark? Or shades of grey?” “Glass Walls” ends when the cello starts
repeating a phrase obsessively — a crescendo in the abyss, as it were. “Monopatia”(
Pathways) begins with a beautifully expressive excursion on lauto over Pérez’s solo.
We hear wordless vocals entering over the strings, and then a duet between cello
and violin.

The most cheerful sounding piece is “Calling for the Dawn,”.which is introduced 
by the lively percussion of Tareq Rantisi and Roman Diaz’s batá. Peréz’s melodies
are genially exotic. His improvisations are tightly controlled by the form of his
works, yet vigorous and invigorating. On occasion they can be genuinely touching.
The composer describes Muropatia,” the final movement of the “Glass Walls” suite,
as a view of “the human condition characterized by the desire to make solid impermeable
walls.” He is, of course, on the side of glass walls that let the light through.
Nonetheless, “Muropatia” doesn’t sound bleak: it contains one of the pianist’s longest,
most exposed solos. There’s also virtuoso harmony writing for strings playing what
I would have to call boppish riffs.

The theme of “Fronteras” is, of course, dark. Its opening movement, “Adrift,” is
described as “a tale of a Mexican mother seeking to reunite with her daughter after
20 years apart.” Farayi Malek sings the lyrics in English. Again, the song is supported
and interrupted by richly stated interjections by the cello and the rest of the 
band. It’s the cello that begins “Al-Mustafir Blues,” which is about “a young man
from Palestine who is trying to find his way to the US to study and finally meet
his birth mother.” The suite focuses on a state of yearning, and it is alternately
hopeful and melancholy. The violin has an upbeat solo on what may be a Palestinian
scale that becomes wild once the piano and other instruments join in. In the middle
of that piece, however, everything settles down and we hear a piano solo over a 
repeated riff in the left hand. That movement is followed by “Kalesma” (True Calling)
and, finally, “Unknown Destination.” It’s we, in Peréz’s view, who don’t know our
destinations, or what we will become. His provisional answer to this mystery is 
embodied by this cooperative music, which is deliberately international in instrumentation
and personnel and theme — and proffers its own characteristic, and often quite beautiful,
mix of sounds. Albert Ayler called music the healing force of the universe. It’s
even more to Pérez: it might be able to help create a more welcoming world.

1 La Muralla (Glass Walls) Suite: Rise from Love 05:54
 2 La Muralla (Glass Walls)
Suite: Monopatia (Pathways) 07:04 3 La Muralla (Glass Walls) Suite: Calling for 
the Dawn 06:55 4 La Muralla (Glass Walls) Suite: Muropatía 04:32 5 Fronteras (Borders)
Suite: Adrift 03:48 6 Fronteras (Borders) Suite: Al-Musafir Blues 11:54 7 Fronteras(
Borders) Suite: Kalesma (True Calling) 05:24 8 Fronteras (Borders) Suite: Unknown
Destination 04:23

![Crisálida | HIGHRESAUDIO](https://i0.wp.com/storage.highresaudio.com/2022/03/16/
qvuxjn-crisalida-preview-m3.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

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