By Ted Panken | Mar. 12, 2021
During the past 20 years, Doug Beavers has been, to use baseball parlance, a five-tool player. Whether navigating New York City’s modernist jazz scene or playing in Afro-Caribbean ensembles like Eddie Palmieri’s La Perfecta band and the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Beavers, 44, has paid the rent as a master practitioner of both the soloistic and ensemble functions of the trombone. He also has pursued the arts of composing, arranging, producing and teaching.
El experimentado trombonista Douglas Beavers presentó en noviembre de 2020 pasado su disco “Sol“, el tercero de su carrera como líder de banda. Contiene 12 temas originales, de su autoría, combina ritmos afroantillanos con Blues y Soul. Sus arreglos, cada vez más elaborados, han dado como resultado una producción digna de estar entre las mejores de estos tiempos y se encuentra disponible en diferentes plataformas.
“You can always count on Doug Beavers – one of the creative mainstays of the formidable Spanish Harlem Orchestra – to surprise you with every album he has made as a leader. And even if you approach his 2020 recording Sol with the kind of expectation [that comes from an album seemingly inspired by all things bright and life-giving by virtue of it being named after the sun], the repertoire is really quite special. For one thing the album comprises charts that are almost completely vocal in nature. However, these charts are among the most lyrical music that Mr Beavers has ever written [and played] so far in his career” —Raul da Gama
“Trombonist Doug Beavers is known for his work with the Spanish Harlem Orchestra and as one of today’s foremost Latin jazz arrangers. On his latest album, he showcases a dozen of his own original compositions, alongside special guests vibraphonist Joe Locke, vocalists Ada Dyer and Jeremy Bosch, and drummer Robby Ameen. Sol is out today via Circle 9, a new subscriber-supported independent record label launched by Beavers.”
No se podría hablar del fenómeno de la “Nueva Salsa” o “Salsa Contemporánea” sin mencionar al arreglista, trombonista y productor musical estadounidense Doug Beavers. Su aporte al género es inconmensurable, convirtiéndolo en uno de los exponentes más influenciadores del circuito salsero en la actualidad. Su nombre aparece relacionado con dos grandes agrupaciones de la ciudad de New York: La Perfecta del legendario pianista Eddie Palmieri -grabo en Mi Luz Mayor(2018)- y La Spanish Harlem Orchestra –The Latin Jazz Project (2020)- del maestro Óscar Hernández.
