...a roller coaster ride of wildly percolating beats, choppy rhythmic thrusts and plenty of popping percussion. In reinventing Afro-Cuban, funk and post-bop, he's kept everything charged up like a crazed rhino on steroids. Keep out of the way and you'll be fine.
Grammy-winning New York drummer Robby Ameen has had an established recording and touring career stretching from Dizzy Gillespie to Paul Simon over the last four decades, highlighted by a 20-year run with the band of Latin icon Ruben Blades. Although he's of Lebanese origin, Ameen is best known for the unique and powerful Afro-Cuban jazz style he developed and displayed on hundreds of recordings, including many with Dave Valentin, Eddie Palmieri, Kip Hanrahan, and Conrad Herwig's Latin Side All-Stars. Diluvio marks Ameen's 3rd release as a composer, arranger & band leader, teaming with Troy Roberts, Bob Franceschini, Conrad Herwig, Edsel Gomez, Lincoln Goines, Bill O'Connell and Mauricio Herrera, most with whom he goes back several decades. Musically, it's his vision of the sounds he's dedicated a lifetime to exploring: Afro-Cuban music with deep strains of contemporary hard bop and funk, thoroughly infused with an indomitable spirit.
Track Listing:
1. Fast Eye 5:28
2. Cremant 6:58
3. Tempest Dance 7:37
4. Herr Jesu Christ, wahr' Mensch und Gott, BWV 127: Aria 4:27
5. The Drifter's Plan 5:54
6. Mixology 5:09
7. Into the Clear 5:53
8. Line for Lyons 6:18
9. Impressions 3:25
Performers:
Troy Roberts - tenor sax (1,6,7,8,9) & soprano (4)
Bob Franceschini - tenor sax (1,2,3,4,6), soprano (4,5), bari (8)
Conrad Herwig - trombone (1,2,3,5,8)
Edsel Gomez - piano (2,3,4,5), fender rhodes (1)
Bill O'Connell - piano (6,7,8), fender rhodes (5)
Lincoln Goines - acoustic & electric bass
Robby Ameen - drums
Mauricio Herrera - congas & cajón
Production Info:
Produced by Robby Ameen
Recorded by Aaron Nevezie at The Bunker Studios Brooklyn, NY
November 23 & 24 2019
Mixed by Dave Kowalski
Mastered by Steve Fallone at Sterling Sound
Cover photos: Robby Ameen
Back photo: Angel Rosado
Cover design & layout by John Bishop
Reviews of Diluvio
The New York City Jazz Record (Russ Musto)
Robby Ameen's leader work showcases his distinctive drumming, applied to a wide array of musical contexts, from straightahead and fusion to pop and rock. Diluvio (Spanish for flood), his third effort, finds him in the company of saxophonists Troy Roberts and Bob Franceschini, trombonist Conrad Herwig, pianists Edsel Gomez and Bill O'Connell, electr ...
DownBeat (Dave Cantor)
EDITOR'S PICK Is this a panacea for what we're all experiencing now? Probably not. But Diluvio definitely will displace listeners' anxiety for about 50 minutes as drummer Robby Ameen moves through his keenly honed influences, expanding beyond the Afro-Cuban sounds he's associated with as the album rides a wave of eclecticism that eventually settle ...
Midwest Record (Chris Spector)
40 years in as an all star, all pro drummer for the crème of the crop and it's only his third outing as a leader. Strutting his Afro-Cuban stuff, he doesn't play it linearly for tourists, he makes it totally caliente and keeps you guessing what's coming around the next bend. A wonderfully wild work out abetted by a hand picked crew of all stars ...
All About Jazz (Dan Bilawsky)
4-STARS Perhaps it's a flood of rhythm that the title and cover art refer to on this third leader outing from drumming dynamo Robby Ameen. A heavy hitter in Afro-Cuban circles for decades, Ameen's frangible linear Latin funk workouts, intricate rhythmic roadmapping, song-serving chops and good taste have earned him an overwhelmingly positive reput ...
All About Jazz (Jack Bowers)
It's a given that wherever Grammy-winning drummer Robby Ameen goes, irrepressible rhythm is sure to follow. Diluvio, Ameen's third album as leader of his own ensemble, is clearly no exception to the rule. Ameen's half-dozen compositions are intrepid and lively, and even Gerry Mulligan's "Line for Lyons" and John Coltrane's "Impressions," which seal ...
Jazz Weekly (George W. Harris)
Rich post-bop sounds are delivered by drummer Robby Ameen as he brings in a two sax arsenal of Troy Roberts/ts-ss and Bob Franceschini/ts-ss-bs as well as trombonist Conrad Herwig to front the rhythm team of Edsel Gomez-Bill O'Connell/p-key, Lincoln Goines/b and Mauricio Herrera/perc through some percolating arrangements. The horns weave through th ...
JazzWise (UK) (Jane Cornwell)
4 STARS The third album for master drummer/composer Robby Ameen – engine driver for the Afrojazz-tastic likes of Dizzy Gillespie and Ruben Blades – is as spirited and accomplished as fans would expect. And as hard-hitting. While Ameen can do deft understatement, allowing starry brass-wielding mates including Bob Franceschini and Conrad Herwig ...
Latin Jazz Network (Raul Da Gama)
5-STARS The drummer Robby Ameen's 3rd recording Diluvio explodes with atomic energy right off the blocks with the celebrated rhythmist striking a particularly pose with positively insolent virtuosity from the opening bars of "Fast Eye". The song not only celebrates the drummer's intuitive voice as a composer, but also speaks to a fairly telling ch ...
