One evening some time back, a friend and I headed for Carnegie Hall to hear the exciting Brazilian artist, Tania Maria. At that time she was really big and had a couple of her songs played on other than jazz radio stations. There is no question that she is one of Brazil's most sparkling and dynamic artists.

However, before we would get to hear her perform there was someone else opening the concert for her. Someone Pat &endash; who was a rather good jazz pianist himself &endash; or myself had ever heard of. His name, of course, was Michel Camilo. Boy, were we in for a pleasant surprise. This bright and unassuming young man from The Dominican Republic began to play and instantly we knew a treat was in store. He applied and injected original compositions utilizing bop figures, clips of Caribbean phrases, Brazil, Stride and classical quotes to incorporate a truly unique and, what has become, an identifiable style.

Ever Since that time Michel has come on strong into the jazz scene. Forever writing and changing the structures of his playing, he builds on the foundations that he has previously set. As with all the sudden great pianists coming from Latin countries, Michel offers the listener an excitement that is physical. What I mean is that, unless your emotions are dead, you react by moving and gyrating to what flows from this young pianist mind to his hands.

While Michel is generally known for his tight playing on Afro-Caribbean and funk on his CD titled "Suntan" he's heard in more of a Brazilian influenced format with an excellent contemporary trio with the tight drumming of Dave Weckl and the bass of Anthony Jackson. Michel music vocabulary is ever expanding and his writing continues to grow and parallel his playing style. If you have yet to hear him play, it 's a good idea to follow his path by listening to his earlier recordings and trace his progress up to the present. Michel Camilo, a jazz player of extraordinary talent and a future super star of tomorrow. His most recent recording with super percussionist Giovanni Hidalgo is an explosion of two very percussive styles that will send the listener reeling.

Danilo is a serious musician. Serious in the sense that his goals go beyond swinging and appealing to the basic needs of those of us content enough to tap our toes and be ebullient not to have to think to deeply to what we're listening to. Danilo is serious. Having worked with Dizzy, and absorbing much from the master, he is paving a direction that is destined for his special and original musical voice. As with his other compatriots from Latin America, Danilo has not forgotten nor given up his roots and what he is all about. The difference is that he's not always Latinly obvious. But when his right hand begins to repeat the rhythmic line of the salsa behind the conga drumming of Giovanni Hidelgo we instantly know from where Danilo is from.

My feelings are that Danilo has immersed himself deeply into all of the music that the great creators in back of him have contributed. He is prepared to pick up from there and begin something different. Danilo is a jazz musician that uses the craft of the composition to explain to us the language he is musically speaking.

Born into a musical family, his father was a band leader and sonero, which is to say, a singer in the Beny More vein. At three years old Danilo received a set of bongos from his father. He went on to assert in a recent interview that his home was always filled with the sounds of music. Percussion sounds would be made utilizing anything from forks to sticks. His father would embellish the chorus with overriding melodies.of his harmonious lines, rippling over the rhythm.

Danilo learned from Dizzy and a Brazilian trumpet player, Claudio Roditi, the use of economy in his playing style. Dizzy once told him that there is a lot to say in what you leave out of the music. Lester Young taught everybody those lessons many moons ago with the early Basie bands. Danilo has learned from that lesson he leaves great big chunks of space for the soloist that work in his groups.

Of all the brilliant Latin jazz pianists that have made serious marks into the music, it may hold that the name of Danilo Pérez will be one of those rare innovators that will have contributed originality and opened new doors for younger musicians to follow. If his first recordings are any indication, this will surely be the way it will happen.

Back in the Early Sixties a friend and I went to a Jazz club called the Village Gate in New York's Greenwich Village to see and hear the newest phenomena in Latin music who was changing the way that this form of music would be presented. To that point in time the "Mambo" and "Cha-cha" were the formats that would bring out the primal forces within those of us that felt the passion and fire from the rhythms played over the cláve. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that until then, Tito Puente was and still is the reigning king of this pulsating music. With that in mind I entered the basement club apprehensive of the claims made about this pianist who took up where Noro Morales left off.

At that time there was an important writer and trombonist in the band who contributed greatly to the direction it was to take. His name was Barry Rogers. The trombone was a seldom used instrument with Latin jazz but Rogers changed all that forever. I believe that Eddie used two or three trombones at that time and the result was astounding. When that band began playing, I sensed the electricity one feels when something fresh, fiery and new was about to take place. In no time at all Eddie captured the audience. No one with any sensibilities for original rhythms could sit still. The small basement room swayed and moved to the riveting montunos and driving rhythms set off by the congas, bongos, bells and tymbalis.

But the foundation was coming from Mr. Palmieri. What he would do was uncanny and unheard of. He would build up to the release of the "ritmo" with poly harmonies, dissonance, dissolving into lilting Puerto Rican "Dansa melodies" and than suddenly turning it into "Afro Cuban" before giving it all up to the drums. It was than that he thoroughly had you in his grasp. I can remember my mouth feeling dry from this uncontrollable passion coming from the bandstand. Nothing was ever like this before. When you thought that the pinnacle of the excitement had been reached Eddie, backed with "El Coro" suddenly would change gears and break it out of the Afro mode and into a "Montuno." This was where the audience would completely lose it. It was as if Eddie was smoking and we all got caught up in the high and frenzy coming from the messages these incredible musicians were sending.

The jazz part would come in when the tenor sax player would improvise over the fire and smoke happening with the chorus and response from the singers. The trumpet would follow sitting on top of the high notes mixing the salsa of Latino and Bop to new heights. Finally, Barry Rogers (Remember the trombone was an instrument that was completely new to this form of music.) would take it. At this point a complete pandemonium of musical joy would overtake the Village Gate. Barry would incorporate those rhythmic pulsations with a trombone style that had the same effect as Illinois Jacquet had on the Tenor Saxophone with Jazz at the Philharmonic.

Eddie would carry the piece on for twenty or twenty-five minutes leaving the audience limp with pleasure and that feeling of musical nourishment that comes every so often after a drought of sameness stifles the air. Until today, Eddie Palmieri is still doing the same thing. However, he has since explored newer avenues of approach and has hammered his unique percussive style, groaning over the keyboard and grunting on top of every note. The mike is pumped up high because of Eddie's loss of hearing. But just like another great composer of the past who had a hearing problem, the music is released from a place deep within the spirit of this astonishing musician. If you ever have the privilege to be in the same room with him when he performs, you'll know exactly what I mean. Ÿ