Podcast 768: A Conversation with Dafnis Prieto

As the follow-up to his GRAMMY-winning big band album, Back to the Sunset, Cuban-born drummer, composer, educator, and 2011 MacArthur Genius Fellow Dafnis Prieto returns to a smaller group release called Transparency, on his independent music label, Dafnison Music. Prieto's fearless Sextet features a top-shelf lineup, including Román Filiú (alto sax), Alex Norris (trumpet), Peter Apfelbaum (tenor sax), Alex Brown (piano), and Johannes Weidenmueller (bass).   Transparency is the third release by the Dafnis Prieto Sextet, following 2008's Taking the Soul for a Walk and 2015's  Triangles and Circles. The album includes nine tracks, with all new compositions by Prieto and an arrangement of Dizzy Gillespie's classic, "Con Alma." The album, produced by GRAMMY and Latin GRAMMY-winning producer Eric Oberstein (Prieto's collaborator on Back to the Sunset), and engineered by GRAMMY winner Mike Marciano, was recorded in NYC in early March 2020 just prior to the COVID-19 shutdown, following a four-night run at the world-famous Jazz Standard.   The music delights in not falling into any one genre, matching the spark of a Latin beat with Jazz Messenger-like pop.  The three horn lineup is treated as if it were a "small big band" Dafnis explained, and the arrangements for the two saxes and trumpet do not disappoint,   Dafnis and I discussed the writing of his original tunes,  and how the Frost School at the University of Miami, where he teaches, is handling the COVID outbreak, as well as his feelings on his native Cuba and his place in a long line of great Cuban percussionists. Musical selections include "Lazy Blues," "Feed the Lions," and "Con Alma."