BEBO VALDES
El Arte del Sabor (Blue Note)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson

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Released late last year by the 81 year old Cuban legend Bebo Valdes, El Arte del Sabor is an album that tricks you into calling it simple (in the best sense of the word). There's so much space and such a relaxed atmosphere in this music that it just sounds effortless. Of course, these old gentlemen are workin' hard, and once you pull back from that delicious tropical trance you'll hear the complexity going full force, especially in the interplay between Valdes and bassist Chachao Lopez (who, like Valdes, is 81 years old). The gentle roll of a song like "Negro de Sociedad" causes the illusion; the incendiary charge of one like "Priquitin Pin Pon" shatters it. It's hard to say which is the Best Bebo: on the one hand there's nothing quite like the spirit-lifting experience of a full-on Afro-Cuban rhythmic assault, and yet there's something very mystical about the mid-tempo stroll that Valdez and his trio (bassist Lopez, drummer/percussionist Potato Valdes and saxophonist/clarinetist Paquito D'Rivera) take on so many of these tracks with such apparent ease. Bebo hasn't recorded much in his career, so it's especially nice to get such a fine document at this point in time.

© 2002 - DJ Johnson