Gino Amato’s Latin Arrangements Disappoint

Cover of the album being discussed (from its Amazon.com Web page)

Towards the end of last month, pianist and arranger Gino Amato made his debut on the Ovation label with an album entitled Latin Crossroads. As of this writing, Amazon.com has created a Web page for it, but only for MP3 downloads, which do not include any supplemental text files. Latin jazz may not be my favorite genre; but, over the years, I have had enough encounters with it to cultivate what I would call an “informed taste.” The advance material that I received stated that Amato’s goal “was to present Latin music in an accessible format.”

I am not quite sure what he meant by this. I have always found the rhythms of Latin music to be readily accessible, particularly when they involve polyrhythms across both percussion and “front line” instruments. By the same count, I have been impressed when a Latin band appropriates another genre, which could be classical, Broadway show tunes, or even pop. Amato’s band covers all of these bases, along with support from six vocalists; but none of the tracks do justice to any of these approaches. Indeed, where the classical genre is concerned, the “Aranjuez” track is likely to remind the informed listener of just how much imaginative effort Gil Evans brought to his arrangement for Miles Davis’ Sketches of Spain album.

Readers may recall that, this past Saturday, I assessed a new release as filling “a well-needed gap.” Well, in the Latin genre, that gap is even more well-needed where Latin Crossroads is concerned. Too many of the vocals are too cringe-inducing in their attempts at riffs, while there is little sense of engaging punctuation on the instrumental side.