Manfredo Fest

Fascinating Rhythm

Concord Records - CCD-4711

Manfredo Fest, piano; Phil Fest, acoustic guitar, voices; Rogéro Botter Maio, electric bass; Portinho, drums; Claudio Roditi, trumpet, flugelhorn

Essentially a Latin gig, this is, however, interlaced with a lot of Jazz accents. Fest is a piano player of some command and what could have been a routine run down of the usual Latin bag is lifted a notch higher by his playing - and not with little consequence by the guest appearance of trumpeter Claudio Roditi. The rhythms chugging along behind this extremely innovative pianist form a conventional backdrop, which is actually a blessing because you really get to hear this guy playing some great piano. There's Jobim and Baden Powel, of course, a couple of Gershwin numbers, and then - surprise, surprise - Landesman and Wolf's "Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most." It is on this number, after a couple of straight choruses, that Fest again shows his Jazz feeling. A CD for those wishing to shake and rumba to compulsively swinging, accomplished piano playing.

by Lawrence Brazier

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