My Roots & Beyond

In My Roots and Beyond, trombonist, composer, and arranger William Cepeda--member of the royal family of Puerto Rican traditional music--blends jazz and bomba y plena (Afro-Puerto Rican styles) with remarkable ease, grace, and power. Cepeda is part of a generation of Latin players who bring their indigenous rhythms and styles into jazz, thereby creating a truly Pan-American Latin jazz. His opening "Bomba Swing" sets the tone with smooth lines (which at times seem to evoke "Summertime") over an implacable, rolling bomba groove. The arrangements are smart and richly layered. The playing is intense and precise, and throughout the music sounds fresh, rich with unexpected references and subtle surprises. "Pa' Mi Cuembe" features a rockish guitar solo and a '70s electric piano; Yomo Toro, the master of the Puerto Rican cuatro--a small, guitarlike instrument--makes an impressive guest appearance on "Ponte Pa'l Monte." "Quasi Plena," based on a traditional plena, includes dense big-band writing, a Weather Report-style piano break, and flat-out swing, and "Sara," a Puerto Rican danza, is revamped with surprising verve and humor--and it cooks. My Roots and Beyond is a marvelous surprise by an artist who bears watching as he further develops his vision. Fernando Gonzalez