John Daversa – Cuarantena: With Family At Home – CD Review
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Plastic – CD
Surface noise: N/A
Dynamic Range: 5-
Stereo Imaging: 4+
Image depth/perspective: 4+
Overall frequency response: 5-
Please see here for my comments on reviewing albums.
Track List:
- #45
- #22
- John Daversa: Growing Up In A Musical Family – Voice over (VO)
- La Ballarina (para Tatiana)
- Oma (a la Madre Divina)
- Sammy Figueroa Plays for Charlie Figueroa
- El Último Suspiro – VO
- Soldado Distinguido (para Sgt. Alvin York)
- Puppitas (para Lea y Maya)
- Fabrica de Conservas de San Francisco (La Historia Molly y Johnny)
- Gonzalo Rubalcaba: El estilo de vida que llevamos es muy rápido) – VO
- #19
- Dafnis Prieto: Haciendo la misma cosa que siempre he hecho) – VO
- Un Balero para Lola
- Cario De Rosa: Can’t visit family – VO
- Opus 1 (escrita por El Abuelo Austin)
- Canción de Cuna para Hara
Line Up:
- John Daversa – trumpet & flugelhorn
- Gonzalo Rubalcaba – piano
- Carlo De Rosa – bass
- Dafnis Prieto – drums
- Sammy Figueroa – percussion
This album was recorded at Weeks Recording Studio, Frost School of Music, University of Miami. The recording engineer was Dana Salminen, and the album was mixed and mastered by Oscar Autie at El Cerrito Studio, El Cerrito, CA.
John Deversa holds the Chair of Studio Music and Jazz at the University of Miami. His 2018 American dreamers: Voices of Hope, Music of Freedom earned him three Grammys, including Best Large Jazz Ensemble, Best Improvised Solo and Best Instrumental Arrangement of A Capella. Daversa is globally recognized for his musicianship (trumpet/EVI), composing, arranging, producing and bandleading skills.
Daversa is back in the recording studio, leading a quintet for this collection of tracks expressing triumph in some small part over this pandemic; Cuarantena: With Family at Home
The album comprises 17 tracks in the bolero style. It is Daversa’s 8th album and was available on August 28th 2020.
This was a well-integrated musical performance with no apparent bum notes, fluffed entrances or fumbled fingering. At times I felt that the musicians were reading each others minds, knowing exactly what each was about to play, providing a very tight musical experience.
There is no discernable electronics white noise as the tracks are faded up and down and some of the reverb tail outs are quite exceptional as they decay into the inky blackness of the systems silence. Overall dynamics were good for all instruments having no audible compression and at no time was any distortion detected.
This is a small instrumental lineup with good detail and clarity being very open and clean with low level reverb having a fairly short decay that adds just a touch of warmth to each instrument, filling it out without coloring it or becoming a distraction. There are many instrumental breaks and solos so separating out and concentrating on a particular instrument isn’t challenging. I will briefly review each, leaving Daversa’s performance until the end:
Acoustic double bass
The double bass was perfectly centered at all times being placed behind Daversa and in front of the kit. It was exceptionally clean, tight and detailed with the occasional finger work being audible. There are numerous breaks and solos like those on T2, T4, T7 and T16 to mention just a few. It sounded very natural and provided great presence during the solos on T7 and T16. During the solo on T2 I couldn’t decide whether there was a wrist watch in the background ticking or the drummer was marking time. Either way it was still a good solo.
Drums
The kit was placed dead center, spread across the entire stereo image and provided the greatest depth, being the rearmost instrument in the lineup. The kick drum was tight and well damped with no significant beater noise. The snare having a well defined ring. Toms were all well damped having a short decay. The brush work varied between exceptionally delicate to quite forceful, but at all times being well detailed. Rim shots were very dynamic and solid having plenty of impact. Cymbals were all clean and well detailed with good clarity. Hi-hat similarly so. The solo on T9 really allows you to get a feel for the kit.
Percussion
These include; a triangle that was panned slightly to the of LHS of center and placed slightly back in depth having a detailed and pristine ring, LHS/central congas that provided a crisp well controlled and natural sound (T7)and chimes on the RHS that had good detail and were also very open. There are numerous other percussion instruments that I hopefully correctly identified to include maracas, claves/wood blocks, giro, shaker, and what sounded like a Cabasa. All sounding well detailed.
Acoustic Piano
Placed just behind Daversa and spread right across the image, with most keyboard action coming from Daversa’s LHS it provided a second lead instrument. It had a clean, open and natural sound with good dynamics. Very little hammer, keyboard or pedal action was noted. Almost every track had a piano break or solo, that was often supported by the acoustic bass. Many of the breaks and solos were quite excellent so singling a couple of tracks out doesn’t do justice to the pianist.
Trumpet & Flugelhorn
The trumpet and flugelhorn were dead centered at all times being placed right at the front of the mix, having good presence and providing a first rate musical performance. Despite this excellent center image it did not provide sufficient presence to “appear” in my room. Of note was T5 where the flugal horn appears to have been double tracked for a short time.
The trumpet was clearly close miked. While you could not hear Daversa’s intake of breath you could clearly hear the wind passing through the instrument. It sounded, to me, as if the trumpet was using a bubble mute without stem and I felt that the microphone or miking technique produced a rather strident, and on occasions brittle sound with too much HF edge. Maybe that is exactly the sound they wanted, but it was a little jolting on occasions preventing me from monitoring at my usual volume. I played the CD on my Denon RCD-N7 system and Onkyo DX 5500, with optical connection to a Denon AVR 5803 driving a pair of Yamaha NS10’s. Still a similar strident sound, but less so. In spite of the above comments the trumpet was very open with good dynamics and virtually no valve/fingering noise. This in contrast to what I took be be the sound of the flugelhorn on tracks, T5, T10 and T14, that was warm, mellow and inviting with a bright edge.
Overall I enjoyed these performances, however, I don’t like musicians doing commentaries/voice over tracks on a musical CD as I find it changes my mood. I understand the emotions behind the creation of this CD feeling that this group of world class musicians got together for the camaraderie and self expression during this time of COVID.
Purchase directly from the Daversa CD store here.
Cuarantena is available from Amazon, Amazon Music, iTunes and Spotify.
See my other Mouthpiece Music jazz reviews here.
See here for my introduction to Mouthpiece Music.
Playback note: Reviewed using my Denon DBP A100 over Denon Link 3. Speakers; a stereo pair of Genelec 1038’s and four SVS subs.
Disclosure: This CD was provided by Mouthpiece Music for my review. No financial compensation was provided.
