Feature

“The rhythm of life” in San Miguel: Gil, Pedro and Doc

Recently we spent two entrancing evenings in Old Mexico with the hugely talented, powerfully swinging combo of Gil Gutierrez and Pedro Cartas. As a duo, in various combos with percussion, bass and other players, and in larger groups, they've appeared around Mexico, elsewhere in Latin America, and now, increasingly, stateside.

Gil, the group's main impresario, is a gifted guitarist and composer. Pedro, erstwhile first chair from the Havana Symphony, has unique talent and blazing virtuosity on jazz violin. To me, his thing is right up there, but beyond, the Grappellis and Venutis of this world.

Lately the group plays four sold-out evenings a week at a big restaurant-bar, the Bella Italia, in the charming old town of San Miguel de Allende, deep in the altiplano of central Mexico.

And now they have been joined by Doc Severinsen (yes! Doc!), a well-known trumpet player from north of the border. He recently “retired” to San Miguel. But he wasn't retired for long. Mutual enthusiasm and a sense of destiny have brought Doc together with Gil and Cartas. This new group seems to me to be moving into new forms of international music, grounded broadly and ingeniously in jazz, pop, and the classics. It's a combination of what Gil and Cartas already do masterfully with Doc's extraordinary talent, catholic taste, and vast experience as a player and leader.

With such experience and chops available, it wasn't surprising that a typical set at the Bella Italia included “Sweet Georgia Brown,” some film music by Ennio Morricone, “Django Reinhardt's “Nuages,” an Astor Piazzola tango, Jobim's “Waters of March,” and “Estrellita, a classic salon trumpet solo.

Gil, Pedro and Doc will be heard together stateside in the near future. As El Ritmo de la Vida, they have already performed with the Spokane Symphony. They should come north of the border again, and soon.

Including coming to Kansas City, we hope. Doc was happy to hear that JAM had visited the Bella Italia. “That's great! Give my love to Mike Metheny.”

—Charlton Price

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