Not bad for a first record. Not bad at all.
Self-released
Lolivone de la Rosa – guitar; Ingrid Jensen – trumpet; Ned Goold – tenor saxophone; Luis Perdomo – piano; John Benítez – bass; drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts; GUESTS: David Suleiman – tenor sax (1,5); Rogerio Boccato and Joel Mateo – percussion
Lolivone de la Rosa’s debut as a leader opens with a song by Cheo Feliciano — the Puerto Rican salsa legend who happened to be her neighbor growing up in Trujillo Alto — and closes with a dedication to her parents and her brother, the people she considers the real jewels in her life. She’d already settled on the album title before engineer Dave Darlington gave it a second meaning: five weeks into post-production, she apologized for one more round of tweaks, and he told her not to — “we’re just polishing the jewels.” The care shows.
Pianist Luis Perdomo, bassist John Benítez, and drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts sound like they’ve been playing together for years — which makes it all the more impressive that this is de la Rosa’s first record. On “Not In Service,” Tain’s stick work is so melodic, so present, that the other players seem to lean in and make room for him the way you would for someone you’re glad showed up. Ingrid Jensen — a trumpeter de la Rosa is lucky to have on the date — lights up “Ella & Gala” and “Bomba Mundo” with lyrical, full-toned playing that sits comfortably in the upper register. On “PB&J,” a dedication to guitarist Peter Bernstein, whose tone and direct feel for the instrument shaped de la Rosa’s own approach, Ned Goold opens with a relaxed tenor solo while de la Rosa comps behind him; when she picks up the melody herself, single notes placed just behind the beat, the song finds a different kind of cool.
De la Rosa solos with a tone so clean and warm it barely sounds amplified — notes arrive with a little space before the next one, and her lower register has a woody, almost bass-like resonance she doesn’t call attention to, just uses. She makes it sound easy, which is its own kind of statement. The three interludios scattered across the album — solo guitar, nothing else — feel like a quiet reminder of who’s leading the band. She’s given her sidemen generous room, and they’ve filled it beautifully; but the unaccompanied interludes are her saying, simply: this is what I do.
“Beautiful Friendship” is a good place to take stock of what de la Rosa has put together here. Her guitar tone on the tune is soft and warm, no metallic glint to it, single notes ringing just long enough before the next one arrives. Goold’s tenor and Jensen’s trumpet move through it unhurried, nobody pushing, the whole band breathing at the same tempo. It sounds like people who are glad to be in the same room — which, given that the sessions were recorded over a Thanksgiving weekend fueled by de la Rosa’s mother’s home cooking, may be exactly what it was. “Segment,” the Charlie Parker tune she transcribed obsessively as a Berklee student, closes the album with Benítez’s bass resonating like something twice its size beneath her. She studied that solo until she owned it. The same could be said for everything else on this record.
Not bad for a first record. Not bad at all.
