JAZZ Percussion-Driven Band Makes the Dancers Respond Tito Rodriguez Jr. S.O.B.’s
Tito Rodriguez Jr.’s show on Monday night was made for dancers, and they obliged by packing the floor. Mr. Rodriguez plays timbales, and much of the power of his Latin band comes directly from the percussion section.
Along with Chucky Lopez on bongos and Eddie Montavo on congas, Mr. Rodriguez made the music lift off. Mr. Rodriguez occasionally uses older arrangements taken from his father, also a band leader, and they’re sophisticated harmonically and structurally. He and the other percussionists navigated the changes in each tune perfectly, and when the compositions moved into the improvised section, Mr. Lopez changed from bongos to metal bell.
Mr. Rodriguez was playing his own bell, and the two men made the music swing, the dark pinging of the metal driving it. Mr. Lopez placed a samba rhythm over Mr. Rodriguez’s pattern, producing a funky, syncopated mesh.
The best moments were when Sammy Gonzalez sang against the chorus and the horns of the band. He sang “Sun Sun Babae” and the hit “Mujer Erotica,” where his pleas, presented as if life depended on a positive response, were followed by a cool chorus singing “Una mujer como tu es la que quiero yo” (“A woman like you is what I want”). Then he shouted, “Swing, swing!” and the dancers were off.
Source: The New York Times • Review by Peter Watrous