Ocote Soul Sounds with Adrian Quesada are
a force to be reckoned with - recalling vivid styles of Afro jazz and psychedelic interludes that enchant my hips and make them shake. The elements that make up Ocote Soul Sounds or OSS, are Quesada and Martin Perna.
OSS is a concoction of musical styles that rarely finds an audience outside of the niche market, where women sway with fros and men still wear straw hats. Heavy on the instruments, but that’s the way any jazz enthusiast likes their drink, The Alchemist Manifesto shows that OSS have listened to early Santana and Buena Vista Social Club. This band is the logical evolution of Cubano jazz that seems to resurface every couple of years in our collective ears. First track, aptly titled “The Grand Elixir,” sets a very laid back mood that would follow a 70s style movie opening. Floating flutes and a brisk brass section carry the album to its peaks and thick bass lines recede it back to the depths of funk in “art house movies.”
It’d be easy to throw around words like “ghetto” and say that this album has soul. Nope, won’t do that. What I will say is that it’s an album all over the board – so, “ghetto” might be used, but it has elements of Cubano, New York style afrobeat, Tejas (not Texas) free form jams and maybe some refreshing funk. Tracks like “One Hundred Years” which features violin, flute and a climbing attempt at café style beatnik jam, is a nice change up.
Percussions don’t stay silent either, melding together like an Alchemist would do if he were say trying to throw in a little Santana guitar in “Gunpowder.” That’s exactly what this album feels like – a big stew that Perna and Quesada are standing over, adding a pinch of bamboo flute and a cup of French horn. It’s a bowl of psychedelic powder that a shaman would ask you to sip if you were in need of changing directions in your musical journey.
Words by Nathan Solis
