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| Gonzalo Grau & La Clave Secreta, De verdad verdad A band, a musical dream, and an extended family all in one project. It all started in 1998 out of the curiosity and musical dreams of a group of young Berklee College of Music students. Playing old "salsa" covers, Gonzalo Grau (its director) decided to rearrange these, exploring a renovated sound, mixing influences from both "old and new, " blending the styles of "Cuba, Puerto Rico, New York, and Venezuela" with other music of the world. La Clave Secreta gives space to anything. A bit of flamenco, greek traditions, hip-hop, funk, or jazz. A classic string quartet? Why not? An R&B singer? … sure! … The "openness" to many music styles is the band's strongest asset. Moreover, what happens personally is reflected musically, and this multicultural brotherhood also happens musically. So naturally, we, "the members" of this band, grew up admiring sounds from these different places equally. These influences became the essential ingredients to a unique recipe, where good taste is La Clave Secreta's only goal. After 25 years together, this project has become a mature band, always going beyond commercial agendas and trying to deliver a meaningful message. Friendship is our foundation, Latin music our engine, and creativity and originality are our high-octane gas. La Clave Secreta embraces its own hybrid style, timba and salsa, vintage and the novelty. The classics and originals merge into one powerful, musical, fun sound. The band has performed on numerous stages worldwide and received a GRAMMY nomination for its second album Frutero Moderno in the category "Best Tropical Album." La Clave Secreta's latest production, De Verdad Verdad, or in English "For Real, "… portrays all of the band's assets. It is a "for real" friendship, playing "for real" arrangements, and this entire album was recorded in "one single space, " with the whole band in a circle, with no separation at all between instruments … recorded "LIVE"… That's who we are … La Clave Secreta … "DE VERDAD VERDAD" (for real). De verdad verdad is the title that best describes this album. As we all know by now, we live in a world of technology. We live in times where singers don't necessarily need to be "in-tune, " where players don't need to be precise, and so on. Computers do everything for us now. But is this a good thing? How much are we all getting used to "perfection"? And is this perfection "real"? This new production of Gonzalo Grau & La Clave Secreta takes us back to "reality, " where technology is only used as a fundamental tool to portray what this band is and what this music is, modern and daring arrangements for two trumpets, two saxophones, four percussionists, bass, piano, keyboards, flamenco guitar, string quartet, flute, trombone, and vocals; all of these together in one single space with minimal acoustic separation. The result of this approach is pure energy and chemistry, and this album transmits what this music is all about. The original idea was to record everything with a 360º camera centrally located in the middle of the band and to have all thirteen songs recorded in audio and this video format. It became quite challenging because we realized that "with this camera, we couldn't edit"… in other words, everything had to be done in "full-takes." After the band recorded everything and we began the post-production process, I realized that "the live" aspect of it, and the "real" aspect of this recording, is one of the things that makes this recording unique and special. It makes it "for real" or "de verdad verdad." The repertoire is a mix of original songs with some old classics of Latin music, rearranged for the band's unique style. The lyrics of the original songs always try to push certain interesting and, at times, a bit "polemic" buttons. All of this is the central concept of the band, always trying to keep "good taste" and interesting material upfront as our musical identity. Last but not least, this album also brings another important aspect that represents this "for real" idea: FRIENDSHIP. It has been twenty-five years of La Clave Secreta, and these band members are what we know as an "extended family." Moreover, the production counts on the participation of some fantastic guest artists. Brooklyn Rider (string quartet), Jeremy Bosch (flute and vocals), MV Caldera (vocals), Ismael Fernández (flamenco vocalist), LaNesha Latimer (vocals), Bárbara Martínez (vocals), Jason Lindner (keyboard), Roberto Castellón (flamenco guitar), and Doug Beavers (trombone) … these special guests make the word "friendship" mean so much, making this album even more "for real"… De verdad verdad. Players: instrument La Clave Secreta Members: Gonzalo Grau - piano, keyboards, percussion, back-vocals, lead-vocal (12) Panagiotis Andreou - electric bass Pablo Bencid - drum-set Marcos López - timbal Fausto Cuevas III - congas (2, 4, 6, 10, 13) Albert Leusink - 1st trumpet Dan Brantigan - 2nd trumpet Shlomi Cohen - alto sax Felipe Salles - tenor sax Manolo Mairena - lead-vocal (1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11), back-vocals, güiro Special Guests: Brooklyn Rider - Johnny Gandelsman (violin), Colin Jacobsen (violin), Nicholas Cords (viola), Michael Nicolas (cello) Roberto Quintero - congas (1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12) Jason Lindner - synthesizer solo (07) Doug Beavers - trombone Roberto Castellón - flamenco guitar Bárbara Martínez - back-vocals Ismael Fernández - flamenco vocals (06) MV Caldera - lead vocal (03), back-vocals LaNesha Latimer - lead vocal (10), back-vocals Jeremy Bosch - lead vocal (04), back-vocals, flute, güiro TRACKS, COMPOSER, TIMES: 01 - Comando Z (G. Grau) 5:38 02 - La ruñidera (J. Curbelo) 5:17 03 - Las cajas (Mon Rivera) 4:14 04 - Buscando la melodía (M. Guerra) 5:28 05 - Mis cuatro acordes (G. Grau) 6:51 06 - Moros y cristianos (G. Grau) 8:30 07 - Bájale dos (G. Grau) 5:56 08 - En la mochila (G. Grau) 5:10 09 - El inventor (H. Casanova) 6:48 10 - Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing (S. Wonder) 5:17 11 - Estatus complicado (G. Grau) 5:21 12 - Un heladero con clase (L. Laguna) 8:18 13 - Mi soniquete (G. Grau) 6:41 *All songs arranged by: Gonzalo Grau write your comments about the article :: © 2023 Jazz News :: home page |