Melange by Kali Rodriguez-Peña
Kali Rodriguez Peña may or may not know of Marshall McLuhan. But the Cuban trumpeter/band leader seems to have absorbed the late media ecologist’s observation that that the media can, at the very least, influence the messages it sends. On the triumphantly expansive Melange, a significant portion of the message is that listening to playlists of our own choosing—as opposed to curatorial exercises such as albums—can render the idea of genre a moot point nowadays.
Rodriguez-Peña is solidly rooted in Hispanic jazz tradition enough to encourage plenty of dancing and get some play on Spanish language tropical radio (probably with some editing his generally six-minute-plus compositions). But his adventuresomeness leads to places not commonly broached by the many Latin jazz practitioners. Guest keyboard work can vary from ambient dappling to heady krautrock cacophony. And though his ensemble often enough ascribes to the flexibly tight rhythms of salsa and timba, the musical conversations at other times morph into the artful garble of free jazz.
Spanning over an hour, it takes perseverance to fully sample Melange's various tastes, but Rodriguez-Peña and his assembled players make it an aesthetically filling experience.
