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I almost didn’t buy this disc. And I wouldn’t blame you for not picking it up. I found it in the Cuban bin of the International section at my local Tower Records. No indication as to what kind of music it was, except that Yosvany Terry is listed as producer. I’d discovered Terry, a cutting edge Cuban reedman, on recordings by Jane Bunnett and Marilyn Lerner. A player at once steeped in the Latin-jazz tradition yet annexing new ground, I trusted that his involvement would stamp this disc with a special flavor.

And I guessed right.

Twisted Noon is fast emerging as my favorite Afro-Cuban jazz disc of all time. My only regret is that I didn’t pick it up sooner. But with so few clues, I didn’t–and I don’t blame you for not adding it to your collection either, although with this review, you’re left with little excuse.

OK, I’m climbing up on my platform, and I’m going to beat you into submission if you don’t just drop everything and pick up this disc. This is the REAL DEAL. I say without embarrassment and with complete confidence that Twisted Noon is one of the greatest if not the greatest Afro-Cuban jazz disc every recorded–right up there with New Directions by Chucho Valdes. It throbs with energy, bursts with life. Pretty much everything’s on display right from the git-go. “Llegada a Nueva York,” the opening number, a tribute to such Afro-Cuban masters as Chano Pozo, Dizzy Gillespie, and Mario Bauza, shifts and slips with ease between traditional Latin rhythms and bop stylings. Sounding quite a bit like Jerry Gonzalez’s late, great, lamented Fort Apache Band, but updated, wilder, more feral, yet somehow even slicker and more folkloric-based, this is simply astounding music. And it just keeps up throughout the entire disc. The two vocal numbers, “California” and “Tenderly,” although not particularly to my taste, are quite ravishingly sultry and show another side of this band’s genius.

Much of the credit must go to the two leaders, composers, and arrangers, Yosvany Terry (alto sax, checkere, and background vocals) and Roberto Carcasses (piano). These two have been playing together for many years, and Twisted Noon represents a more than three-year gestation of the present band. And does it ever show. This is the tightest, most varied, most brilliantly colored Afro-Cuban jazz band ever. What they’ve managed to do that no other band has done so successfully is fully integrate a folkloric approach with a visionary jazz esthetic. What emerges is celebratory, ecstatic, fiery, soothing, mesmeric folk-jazz of the highest caliber.

Not to be missed.
Jan P. Dennis
“Longboard jazzer”

“I wake up everyday trying to learn more about the tradition in order to grow as a musician” Yosvany  Terry

All About Jazz

Photo Credit: Martin Cohen

By  TOMAS PENA, Published: March 28, 2006

Saxophonist, composer, arranger Yosvany Terry received his early musical training from his father, Eladio “Don Pancho Terry. He is a graduate of the National School of Art and Amadeo Roldan Conservatory in Cuba. He has performed with Chucho Valdes, Sylvio Rodriguez, Jesus Alemany y Cubanismo, Jane Bunnett and the Spirits of Havana, Dafnis Pietro, Avishai Cohen, the International Vamp Band, Eric Revis, Steve Coleman, Los Terry and Columna B.

Since his arrival in New York in 1999, Terry has been absorbing American jazz traditions and combining them with his Afro-Cuban roots to produce compositions and solo work that flow from “sweet sounding lyricism to wild-eyed avant-garde. He is part of a new generation of musicians who is redefining the way jazz is perceived. Metamorphosis(Kindred Spirits Records) is Yosvany Terry’s first album as a leader.

All About Jazz: Congratulations on Metamorphosis, your debut recording as a leader. The title refers to your ongoing journey as a musician…

“Like James Carter, Cuban saxist Yosvany Terry has a voice on several axes, but alto is his specialty. He’s capable of making Afro-Cuban jazz seem folksy and modernistic all at once.” – Time Out New York

In saxophonist and composer Yosvany Terry’s music, the traditional sounds of his native Cuba fuse with fiery post-bop, sophisticated harmonies, and avant-garde innovation. Yosvany grew up in a family of performers steeped in musical tradition and learned from his father, Eladio “Don Pancho” Terry, a renowned violinist, bandleader, and master of the chekeré. A graduate of Cuba’s prestigious National School of Art and the Amadeo Roldan Conservatory, Yosvany founded the influential group Columna B and performed with many giants of Cuban music. Yosvany moved to New York in 1999, and the excitement and inspiration he found there are reflected on his 2006 album Metamorphosis. At the forefront of a group of young Cuban musicians who have recently infused the New York scene with a new creative energy, Yosvany has recently collaborated with pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba. In his latest project, Ye-dé-gbé, Terry explores the Afro-Caribbean Arará musical tradition in a suite of compositions for a jazz ensemble with African percussion.

Q&A with Yosvany Terry

What is the first recording you remember hearing as a child?
It was at the age of five when decided I wanted to become a professional musician, given that my father, who’s a violinist and play chekeré, used to practiced every week. I used to go to see him playing with my brother all the time.

Who is your greatest musical influence?
My greatest influence as musician is Bela Bartok and Hermeto Pascoal. From them and the rest of the very long list of other people, I learnt about how music should be a live entity that communicates beyond words and languages.

What’s the last book you’ve read?
The last book I read was “Biografia de un Cimarron.” In English it would be “Biography of a Runaway Slave,” by Miguel Barnet.

What’s your favorite jazz venue?
Yoshi’s.

What’s your favorite thing about being a Stanford Jazz Workshop faculty member?
The most attracting thing to me is that I get to listen to a lot of young students that later will become pros. I also enjoy the networking that occurs during and after the workshop.

If you were to describe your music as a color, what color would it be and why?
Violet and is because within itself you can see the rainbow.

Regarded as one of New York City’s most sought after bass player, Yunior Terry is recognized for his big sound, versatility and contagious rhythm. As the youngest son of one of Cuba’s most gifted musical families -Los Terry’s”, Yunior followed the tradition and began his musical training at age seven, graduating in 1994 from the prestigious National School of Art (ENA) in Havana with a double major in violin and bass. Soon after graduation he Joined the National Philharmonic Orchestra, performing works of European and Cuban composers at the Havana’s National Theater. In 1998, Mr Tell)’ moved to California to attend The California Institute of Arts where he received his BA with honors in 2002. It was at CalArts where he continued to expand his musical horizon under Charlie Haden, Derek Oles (Poland), RaJeev Taranath (India) and Alfred Ladzekpo (Ghana) by exposing him to a wide variety of music and traditions from around Ihe world. In 2009, Yunior Terry won the Van Lier Fellowships, awarded each year by Meet The Composer to active professionals, supporting the creation of new musical work and engagement in the community, Yunior Terry has performed with Steve Coleman, Jerry Gonzales and Fort Apache, Lila Downs, Jeff Tain Watts. Eddie Palmieri. The late Hilton Ruiz, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Steve TUrre. Dave Valentin, Jane Bunnet and his brother Yosvany Terry  among many others. In addition to his occupied schedule as a sidemen, Terry leads his own band “Son de Altura” created to innovate as well as to preserve the legacy of Cuban music.

It turns out that Yosvany can really burn!… despite his unusual cooking orientation…

Yosvany’s Gumbo

Serves: 6 to 8 persons

 Ingredients:

    Olive oil, (for sautéing)

    1 1/2 medium-sized onions, chopped

    Curley parsley finely chopped

    2 stems celery, finely chopped

    8 cloves garlic, finely chopped

    2 shallots chopped

    Green Onions finely chopped

    1/2 pound of chicken gizzards chopped into chunks 

    1/2 pound of cured ham, chopped in small dices

    1 pound 1/2 of two different kinds shrimp reserve the skin and head for stock

    2 or 3 crabs, cleaned and chopped into chunks (Dungeness or blue crab)

    Veal stew meet chopped in chunks

    Creole hot sausages 

    Gumbo File to your taste

    Salt to your taste

    Roux recipe follows

    Broth recipe follows

    Serving suggestion: with rice or as a soup

Cooking directions:

Clean the shrimp and separate the skin and the heads. In a separate container boil the shrimp skins and heads with bay leaf for five minutes and let it settled covered. You will notice when the shrimp skin and heads turn a pink-like color. When it all cools strain off the broth.

Make a roux (recipe below)

Now you are ready to start browning the meet, chicken gizzards and ham at  low heat in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan with oil.  Cook half of the onions, shallots, celery and garlic and add it to the meat. Use the other half of the onions and garlic with Creole sausages and continue to brown. Start adding the roux and mix thoroughly to pick up all the excess oil in the pot. Continue adding the broth little by little while mixing thoroughly to prevent lumps.

Half-cover the pan with it’s lid, bring the gumbo to boil and cook for 20 minutes. Clean the shrimp and sauté in a separate pan. Once they have turned pink,  add the shrimp and crab to the gumbo. Cook for 10 minutes at low heat to avoid over cooking.  Lastly, add parsley and chopped green onions and the gumbo file and stir.

***  I like adding whole oysters and crabmeat only from “Geisha” at the same time as the shrimps….

Roux:

 1/2-cup flour

 Olive oil and butter

 Combine the ingredients in a separate pan. Brown on a medium heat stirring until it turns light brown.

Broth:

 9 cups water

 Shrimp skins and heads

 2 bay leaf

 Salt (only a dash) and freshly ground black pepper

In a separate container boil the shrimps skins and heads with bay leaf for five minutes and let it settled covered. You will notice when the shrimp skin and heads turn a pink-like color. When it all cools off strain the broth.

Enjoy y Que lo disfrutes.

Yosvany Terry

Photo by Govert Driessen  -  Yosvany Terry’s group has helped redefine Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz as a complex new idiom.  “New York Times”