William Cepeda plays dynamic Latin jazz that combines the vibrant rhythm of the rich musical legacy of his homeland, Puerto Rico, with the sophisticated jazz melodies of the United States.
Cepeda comes from a musical family in Loiza Aldea, which, like many cities and areas throughout the Caribbean, has its own distinct rhythmic pattern, called the bomba. The special bomba rhythm is created by combining the bomba drums with bongos and a jazz-style drum set. With added conga, castanets and international percussion instruments, such as tabla, provided by well-known players of world music, the rhythms stay fast and exciting on all eight numbers, slowing down only occasionally.
After years playing with Dizzy Gillespie, Tito Puente and Eddie Palmieri, not to mention his family, Cepeda put out "My Roots and Beyond" in 1998. That outing also featured an all-star roster of players supporting his regular octet. The latest from his Afro Rican Jazz, "Branching Out/Expandiendo Raices," is, as the title implies, more experimental than the earlier recording. There is little sense of exploring for the sake of exploring, however.
The "branching out" always combines smoothly into the overall sound. The rhythms are so consistently electrifying that the neatly added koto flourishes, bluesy scat vocals, spoken Puerto Rican poetry, the occasional avant-garde phrase or hard-bop touch simply get swept into the forward flow. As interesting as these brief experimental excursions are, though, the group is really at its best when pounding out foot-tapping polyrhythms under Cepeda's exciting trombone solos, which fortunately happen on every song.
