3Discovery, Vol. 1, by Kemuel Roig
Funny how the math works out for Kemiel's recording career. After a trio of solo albums, the jazz pianist debuts as a trio leader with a cohort on drums and bass-both upright and electric—on 3Discovery, Vol, 1.
That percussionist Juan Armando and low-end keeper Samuel Burgos share the same Cuban American heritage as their front man doubtless plays a part in the adventurous chemistry showcased throughout the album's 11 tracks. Of at least equal importance throughout the set is the triple concerns of incorporating their ancestral island's musical forms, improvisational interplay at a master class level, and one of jazz's original imperatives too often forsaken since big bands were upstaged by boppers: the impulse to make dancers out of listeners.
The extemporaneous takes the group's delivers on danzon and other Afro-Cuban idioms may require steppers to be nimble of foot and patient with the occasional solo, but the impulse to dislodge wallflowers from whatever room 3Discovery is playing remains a near constant impulse throughout. Whether or not it was Armondo's intention, the beats he hits on many tracks here demonstrate shared rhythmic complexities with Hispanic drum & bass.
Though 3Discovery was released as a companion piece to the third of Roig's solo long-players, Both Sides Now, this album's title and the warm, faded out ending of its final track imply more to come. If the same heights of sympathetic intuition and melodic invention can be maintained on a second go round, that would be no bad thing.
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