Arturo Sandoval Quartet
Friday, March 4, 2011
The Folly
Bending backward with the force of his playing, Arturo Sandoval looked like he was trying to force his entire body through the trumpet. His face was red; his eyes were squinted shut; and the notes coming from his shining brass instrument pushed just a smidgen beyond piercing.
"The trumpet is pain," he said to the audience, between laughing and scolding his instrument beside him.
While watching the other members of his quartet play at the Folly on Friday night, Sandoval's fingers twitched in anticipation, working their own rhythms against the grain of the beat. His fingers ran fluidly over piano keys. He jiggled his hips, salsa dancing and swaying among piano, keyboard and drums. (He even tapped on one of the drummer's congos for a stray minute.)
The audience -- who interrupted stark solo sessions with appreciative cries and exclamations -- also hosted someone who failed to turn off their cell phone. The metallic ringing ruined one of Sandoval's solos. "Will someone turn that shit off?" Sandoval asked, in faux exasperation. (He was completely kidding.)
Sandvoal played with the audience with unimaginable low, garbling notes and shrieking high ones. (He also paid tribute to the St. Louis trumpeter Clark Terry with a quick mumbling episode, followed by a longer scat performance.) The concert had a carefree elegance, and Sandoval's relationship with the crowd was easy and open. "The piano and I have a special relationship," he said, smiling. "At the piano, you can sing; you can cry; you can get someone's phone number."
His raspy voice guided the jazz quartet through a heartbreaking, bittersweet rendition of Charlie Chaplin's "Smile," which was popularized by Nat King Cole in 1954. (I could have sworn that I heard Sandoval riffing on "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" by the Platters, as well.) The guys topped off the night with the Dizzy Gillespie classic "A Night In Tunisia" -- which Sandoval ended on the keyboard with the riff from Andrew Lloyd Weber's Phantom of the Opera theme -- before coming back for a standing ovation and an encore closer to Sandoval's Cuban roots.
Here's a video of one of Sandoval's solos. The footage isn't great, but the sound gives a taste of what Friday night held.
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