Ellis Marsalis & Danilo Perez

continued

The Latin influence has always been prominent in New Orleans music, not so much in the overt use of patterns as in the underlying "Spanish tinge," as Jelly Roll Morton used to call it — a specific way of syncopating that reflects the rhythm of the clave. Marsalis also has it, and it will be interesting to hear the differences between the more overt Latin fusion of Pérez and the more subtle underlying southern elements in the music of the great New Orleans pianist.

Ellis Marsalis and Danilo Pérez are at the Power Center on Friday, June 18.   

[Originally published in June, 2004.]