El Tinajon
Emigration from Cuba to Canada has likely had many benefits, not least of them being its additions to the latter nation's jazz scene. Alto and soprano saxophonist Luis Deniz came to settle Toronto from his birthplace of Camaguey; between those locales and his onetime residency in Florida, the Grammy-nominated side player has absorbed influences from that trek to comprise his arrestingly varied debut as a bandleader, El Tinajon.
The album’s title derives from a clay pot used to collect rainwater brought by Spanish settlers to Deniz’s homeland. Through the course of nine tracks, he leads an agile quartet through selections that collect influences from skittering Afro-Hispanic percussion, balladic pianism, gentle swing, straight-ahead bop and the sort of fusion that might pass for late ‘70s Bob James.
It would be rewarding to hear Deniz and his players mine any of those pockets for the entirety of an album. There’s plenty to commend, however, in the diversity the foursome succeeds in plying with such spirited eloquence here, too. With a lengthy Grammy-nominated and Juno-winning history to season him, Deniz’s Tinajon signals his emergence as an exciting, adept lead presence.
