Mambo Inn Live
Mambo InnNovember 19, 2014JZBrat
Steve Sacks（sax, flute）Jonathan Katz（piano）伊藤寛康 Hiroyasu Ito（bass）鈴木義鏤 Yoshiro Suzuki（timbales）佐藤英樹 Hideki Sato（conga）Special Guest: Andrea Hopkins（vocals）
Click on the images to enlarge (photos by Naoyuki Maruyama)
Mambo Inn is a tight, swinging group that plays an eclectic mix of songs with Brazilian and Latin rhythms and a fantastic sense of fun. The word “fun” may not get attached to jazz often, or not often enough, but with Mambo Inn, part of the delight is hearing great jazz standards with unique rhythms and unexpected arrangements. If that’s not “fun,” what is? The audience who packed the club knew it was.The first set started out with Dave Brubeck’s classic, “In Your Own Sweet Way,” updated wonderfully with Brazilian rhythms and followed with Wayne Shorter’s “One by One.” The energy the band throws into the songs made it feel like those classics had been written originally for Latin clave. Jazz should always be about mixing things in just this way. And not just on the up-tempo songs, but the Latinized version of Django Reinhardt’s reflective “Nuages,” or the Beatles’ ballad “And I Love Her,” worked just as superbly.The group set the comfort zone of great grooves and generous solos straight away. Together, they worked deeper inside each song. Sato, Suzuki and Ito play as one in the way only musicians playing together for a long, long time can. Their nuanced rhythmic shifts, with such variety, made even the most well known songs fresh and new, and re-charged.
Sacks on a rotating cast of wind instruments and Katz on piano also opened up the melodic and harmonic subtleties of the songs with inventiveness and verve. Their arrangement of Chopin via Mongo Santamaria was, again, played with a sense of great fun that was much more than clever and unexpected. It made you want to dance. And many in the audience did just that. “Besame Mucho” was not the only sexy, cheek-to-cheek dance number. They all were in their own way!Andrea Hopkins joined the party for several numbers at the end of both sets. Her charismatic presence and potent vocals cranked up the heat. Dancers sprung from their seats to find a little bit of floor. Hopkins is a singer that really takes a hold of the audience. You feel like she’s taking your hand to dance on each number. Her take on “Time After Time” was gorgeous, and on “Day and Night” and “Caravan” she and the quintet opened up to even more wildly flowing Brazilian and Latin rhythms.The full-on power of Mambo Inn’s Afro-Caribbean infused each of the songs with the right balance of creative freshness and danceable joy. With a new CD out, and hopefully another on the horizon, this is a band that will be making engaging, vital music for a long time to come.