Roberto Miranda warmed up the airwaves with the kind of contrabass solo we've grown to expect for four or five decades -- raising the energy, pumping up the rhythm, opening the doors to every possibility. Turned out he was also laying down some history, as his old-to-young septet broke into the proud horn riffs and sliding chord changes of "The Creator's Musicians," a tune Miranda and tonight's French-horn stagemate Fundi Legohn recorded over 40 years ago with pianist-composer Linda Hill, a key associate of Horace Tapscott's Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra. With the always soulful Justo Almario blowing tenor and Wayne Peet's piano striking just the right balance of melody and dissonance (he goes way back too), the vibes ran thick and tangy like Ethiopian stew.
Miranda's technical explanation of his vintage composition "Agony in the Garden" was welcome, but still more welcome was the layered Afro-Caribbean excursion itself, which swelled and dipped on the traps of Ellington Peet and the congas of Nick Baker, while Wayne Peet stirred up a stormy piano solo, Almario lightened the air on flute, Legohn shook some bells, and Ameer Zhowandai added a spooky dimension with guitar effects.
Almario found some sweetness in the sorrow of what Miranda called "a samba bolero ballad." The band closed with "St. Michael, Servant of the Lord," a riff-based Miranda Afro-blues also dating back to Tapscott days -- they sped up, they slowed down, there was plenty of jousting, and the slightly grinning bassist treated us to a passionate arco workout as of old.
It brought a smile to hear the cultural battle still so vigorously fought on Leimert Park home soil, especially with elders shoulder to shoulder with the next generation -- E. Peet, Baker and Zhowandai. But maybe we should not think of it as fighting. When it comes to music, we call it playing.
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Watch the concert here. It starts 12 minutes in. Donate here.