Danilo Perez/Ben Street/Adam Cruz, Paris 10 Nov. 2003

[Tom Storer]

On a whim, I went with my wife and a friend to catch Danilo Perez's last set at the Sunside in Paris last night. He was appearing with Ben Street, bass, and Adam Cruz, drums.

Beautiful music, although I thought maybe Perez's compositions had a tendency to meander a bit. But it was full of feeling and spontaneity, and highly improvised. Perez played much like he plays with Shorter's quartet, riding the waves of the rhythm section as they rode the waves of his piano. Not very linear, except for a gorgeous slow ballad which had more of a traditional feel. The trio was very tight and playing with fierce concentration.

For me the revelation was Adam Cruz. What a superb drummer he is - he has a very personal sound to his drum set, with a high-pitched, fine-grained cymbal hiss and low-tuned drums, and seems to have integrated a wide variety of styles into his own thing. He would break the rhythm up in abstract ways but was always in control, never losing the sense of pulse, and when he turned up the heat and brought off rhythmic resolutions that were funky or swinging, it was terribly exciting.

Definitely a group to see if they come to your neighborhood.