by Pico
I remember at least as far back as 1988
Riveros’ brand of modern Latin jazz isn’t quite the same of Ricardo Silveiros, the fellow guitarist he reminds me of. As a native Brazilian, Silveiros naturally infused flavors of Brazil all over his brand of fusion jazz. Riveros, on the other hand, hails from Queens, New York and has lived all over NYC. But his parents came from Columbia and through their richly diverse record collection, they infused an interest in young Nelson of music ranging from Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole to the more ancestral styles like Cumbia and Salsa. Later on, Riveros got exposed to the goodness of Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass, Pat Martino, Larry Carlton and Lee Ritenour. You can clearly hear those influences in Riveros’ playing style today, which is very fluid, supple and refined.
Riveros studied first at Berklee and then City College, where he got his Bachelors of Music, then honed his six string skills studying under the likes of Gene Bertoncini, Vic Juris, Peter McCannnad and composition with Mike Holober. He’s been teaching guitar at the 92nd Street Y School of Music for the last five years, but recently, he felt the need to share the music he’s learned to make. That’s how this record, Camino Al Barrio, came to life.
For his debut CD, Riveros had Hector Martignon on piano and Rhodes, Armando Gola on bass, Ernesto Simpson on drums and Samuel Torres on percussion. Torres is a name already familiar to this site as we put some ears on his own latest CD last spring. Joining this group for a handful of tracks are Christos Rafalides on vibes and Andres Garcia on the Colombian Tiple (a 12-string instrument slightly smaller than a standard acoustic guitar).
A lot of “Latin-flavored” contemporary jazz gets pigeonholed into the smooth jazz category, and the music on Camino Al Barrio is certainly smooth, but Riveros avoids the pitfalls of that idiom by keeping his arrangements clean and his songs—six of the ten tracks were self-composed—from being too formulaic. And just because Riveros is of Colombian descent doesn’t necessarily make this a “Colombian” record; the festive first track “Caipirinha” is actually evocative of a Brazilian Carnival; the name even comes from the name of Brazil’s most popular cocktail. “Blue Cha-Cha” is pretty descriptive, a “cha-cha” that may not use any blue chord progressions, but Riveros’ guitar solo does show a bit of blues-jazz phrasing in it. “Los Primo” is the lone song where Rafalides and Garcia both play on, and they add a little richness to the harmonics without adding any heft. However, what I like about this song the most is the intricately constructed melody, especially that deceptively tricky bridge.
Riveros straps on an acoustic guitar and takes a vocal turn on his ballad “La Puerta,” singing in a pleasingly romantic Spanish tongue, but not overly romantic. Two covers are tackled here as well: Jimmy Van Huesen’s “Darn That Dream” is set to a sprightly boss nova styled rhythm and the album closer, Cole Porter’s “It’s All Right With Me,” starts off a little slow and builds up to a a brisk, bebop pace. Once again, demonstrating Riveros is not limiting himself to a handful of narrowly defined styles, this song is performed as a straight jazz way, and done with vigor and plenty of chops all around.
Self-released last month, Camino Al Barrio is a crisp, breezy affair of small group Latin-flavored jazz. Nelson Riveros knows how to serve it up not too heavy or not too light, and always sunny side up. Visit his website here.
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