Obatala

Someday
November 30, 2005

Hideaki Nakaji—trombone
Yoshihisa Suzuki—guitar
Toru Nakajima—piano
Hiroyasu Ito—bass
Akihiro Tsuzuki—percussion
Setsu Fujii--drums
with special guest
Ryou Sakagami—flute

The opening salsa of Obatala got right into the groove from the first beat. As leader, Nakaji knows how to bring everything to a boil from the first song. He even gave the percussionists solos first (they usually solo the last song of a set) to get their blood pumping. This hard salsa group knows how Latin jazz thrives—on energy.

The second number eased the pace into a smoother, but still meaty lyricism. The band has a control over their rhythm and sense of rhythm that keeps everything easy to get into, but still complex technically. On the third number, though, special guest, flutist Sakagami, joined Obatala and the place caught fire. Switching between a jazz and Latin rhythm, the soloists played hard and intense.

Everyone in the audience started clapping the clave beat while the smiles on the faces of the musicians were held in check only by the difficulty of what they were playing. They had to concentrate on this kind of pleasure. "Mamba Influezenda," which was indeed a very infectious mamba, started slow, building around the piano, then gradually upping the energy level to a full burn to close out the first set. 

The second set dug into songs from their recent CD, "Conquistador." The second set showed the band even looser and more ready to jam than before. "Rosa Flores" started with a beautiful piano intro, and kept the beauty flowing with melodic solos all around. Their group feeling built each song into an intense solo-driving groove. Whether slow or fast, the band hit the right balance of loose and controlled—loose enough to flow but controlled enough to really dig into potent rhythms.

The encore, though, ended up feeling like a third full set. Already hot and sweaty, the band dug into intense Latin clave that propelled the soloists further and farther than any of the solos of the night. Nakaji and Sakagami squared off for a "battle," the flute imitating the trombone, and then the trombone imitating the flute. They traded measures back and forth with incredible contrast. How do you make a flute sound like a trombone? Well, one way is to take off the end and put your finger inside. Sakagami did that much better than you can imagine—while keeping the Latin groove tight!

Then, Suzuki and Nakajima squared off to do soloing battle. After trading intense solos, Suzuki played more and more guitar-like guitar lines, while Nakajima, incredibly, kept answering them on the keyboard, not only note for note, but also feeling for feeling. How you make a piano sound like electric guitar is more of a trick even than with the flute, but Nakajima magically did it. The crowd, including this reviewer, was laughing to the point of tears. Obatala is not only a great Latin band, but also a great band, and great fun.