Jimmy Bosch: Soneando Trombon (1998)

“Ladies and Gentlemen - the Music of the Future!”

That’s a remark made to an 1860’s British music hall audience by a clown whose performance of the trombone theme from Richard Wagner’s “Pilgrim Chorus” was an aural equivalent of a drunk trying to walk a straight line; the person who recalled this performance and the wisecrack that followed it was writer George Bernard Shaw. Presumably the clown’s intention was to work the notorious modernist Wagner for some cheap laughs by “playing” his music on an instrument caught in the popular consciousness between church pieties on the one hand and barnyard hokum on the other. This performer was unintentionally prophetic; the trombone flourished in an unprecedented way during the twentieth century. The album you’ve just bought is a product of this prophecy come true.

By the late Renaissance the Italian word tromba exists with the augmentative suffix one. “Trombone” is just another way of saying “big trumpet” but with a critical difference: the slide, both a blessing and a curse. The downside involves a lack of ease in executing many passages and melodic lines and in moving around the horn with any real facility; changing from one note to a neighboring one provides a wealth of possibilities for unmusical connective glissandos and other effects suggesting animals in various stages of agony or ecstasy. The infinite gradations of tone between each note of the chromatic scale is also a great resource. For a player endowed with keen pitch sense and strong melodic feeling the slide allows an exquisite form of legato. If you combine this ability to bend notes almost any way imaginable with the different articulation styles and dynamic range made possible by the trombone’s membership in the brass family, you’ve got an idealized version of the human voice itself. In previous centuries the trombone existed as a complete family like the recorder or saxophone; soprano, alto, tenor and bass trombones corresponded to the basic categories of the singing voice. The trombone family was used extensively to reinforce voices in church choirs; fitting unobtrusively into the tonal picture was the order of the day. Nineteenth century composers used the trombone section to provide chorale-style affirmations of faith, or discrete chordal backgrounds; the squeaky-clean phrasing and solemn qualities associated with the trombone was cultivated by the Austro-German symphonists. The early twentieth century improvised musical styles that evolved into jazz afforded its practitioners unprecedented freedom of expression; by definition, an improvising musician is freer to creatively use the natural sound and resources of an instrument compared with a re-creative musician who is committed to performing composed music as an act of perpetuating the past. The trombone is one of the greatest beneficiaries of this revolution. The whoops, hollers, growls, ‘glisses’ and smears that it does so well no longer had to be relegated exclusively to circus bands and novelty performers; they became integrated into a trombone tradition that connects the first dixielanders to today’s avant-garde.

This tradition draws upon the trombone’s resources with rich variety. Trombonist Jimmy Harrison electrified 1920’s Harlem audiences by demonstrating that Louis Armstrong’s style could be adapted to his own instrument. The subtle slide adjustments and breath control of Tommy Dorsey created a legato stylethe envy of most singers and the model for an obscure saloon singer from Hoboken, New Jersey named Frank Sinatra. Jack Teagarden’s facile slide technique was complimented by his blue-inflected melodic style; J.J. Johnson’s technical innovations made it possible to play bop on the trombone with a minimum of faking. The musician most responsible for re-creating these styles in the context of Afro-Cuban music is Barry Rogers.; his explosive solos and brilliant arrangements for Eddie Palmieri’s La Perfecta unit made an unmistakable impact on the 1960’s Latin dance music that eventually became known as Salsa.

Jimmy Bosch is the heir to these traditions through talent, temperament and choice of role models. Anyone who’s good enough to hang in with Manny Oquendo y Libre expands their knowledge of rhythm and learns to use a minimal number of note for maximum expression through cunning placement within the two measure framework of clave. As a twenty year veteran Jimmy is one of the outstanding alumnae of the Oquendo Conservatory. One of his great regrets is that he didn’t get to work more with Barry Rogers;nevertheless, he’s learned the Gospel According to Barry and preaches it every time he picks up his horn.It’s to Jimmy’s great credit that he plays with Barry’s conviction and drive without slavishly copying the stridency that characterized the Rogers sound during the early years of La Perfecta. Much of Jimmy’s individuality of sound is due to his natural ease of playing. This ease is evident just from watching him;a photograph of his face while playing could be used in any instrumental textbook as an example of perfect natural embouchure setting for playing any brass instrument. Jimmy looks at his natural aptitude for the trombone as an unexplainable gift. In 1996 he told me “I never really learned to practice with discipline and do the daily things like most musicians who practice four or five hours a day. I’ve basically put the horn up to my face and my whole attitude, my whole scope and thinking is that I just get to play with passion and love and it comes out and that’s what happens”. What comes out includes some of the hottest trombone solos being played today-and not just in the salsa field. His riffs build intensity through repetition and through subtle interaction with fellow musicians; his repeated note figures can sound like a divinely inspired telegraph operator. He can easily push his naturally beautiful sound to a sizzling edginessa la Generoso “Tojo” Jimenez; his articulation runs the gamut from clean precision through many funky inflections available to trombonists through manipulation of the slide and tongue. Jimmy is as happy playing background figures with his fellow horn players as he is taking solos; he fronts his own group with a leader’s ability but without a leader’s ego.

Uniquely in tune with his instrument, Jimmy Bosch is uniquely able to respond to its heritage. As we near the end of the century of the trombone’s first real flowering it’s clear that played by the likes of Bosch it’s in very good hands for the next. Bernard Shaw’s music hall clown was right; the trombone was destinedto play the Music of the Future. Listening to Jimmy Bosch-Soneando Trombon gives a very good glimpseof the trombone’s future. -- David M.Carp

Tracklist:

01. Descargarana /Bosch/ 6:44
02. Otra Oportunidad /Bosch/ 5:43
03. Crisis de Identidad /Bosch/ 5:19
04. Muy Joven Para Mi /Bosch/ 5:19
05. Gaviota /Bosch/ 4:40
06. La Soledad /Hugo Gonzalez/ 5:29
07. Padre Soy /Bosch/ 5:38
08. Cha Cha Gabriel /Bosch/ 5:38
09. Erben on the Phone /Bosch/ 5:23
10. Jimmy's Bop (Instrumental) /Bosch/ 6:13

Personnel: Jimmy Bosch (vocals, trombone, claves); Herman Olivera (vocals, claves, guiro); Frankie Vazquez (vocals, maracas); Jimmy Sabater, Pete "El Conde" Rodriquez, Mary La Rose (vocals); Jeff Lederer (soprano & tenor saxophones); Steve Wilson (alto saxophone); Mauricio Smith (baritone saxophone, flute); Junior Vega, Alfredo "Chocolate" Armenteros (trumpet); Alfredo Valdes Jr., Arturo O'Farrill (piano); Joe Santiago, Andy Gonzalez (bass); Louie Bauzo (bongos); Pablo Batista (congas); Jimmy Delgado (timbales, cua); Louie Bauzo (quinto); William Duval (background vocals).

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