Los Fuegos de San Telmo
Sheet Music

SKU: NX.JBCC267

By El Quinto Elemento. By Felipe Gordillo, Gabriel Solares, Jose Angel Ramons, and Juan Cristobal Perez Grobet. Country of Origin: Mexico. Classical. CD (1 disc). Published by Urtext Digital Classics (NX.JBCC267).

UPC: 600685102671.

The fires of San Telmo, the patron saint of sailors, sometimes appeared on ships at sea during thunderstorms and were regarded by sailors as a good omen. If the ship, and the band have been successfully sailing the grammar of jazz, they have learned that the quest is not to reach a port of call, but to keep on sailing. Everyone in the quintet knows what they bring to the pulse and the breath of their concepts. From the technical and emotional baton of Luis Felipe to the intimate dialogues, in first person, that break between the sharp light of Gabriel and the phrasings of Jose Angel, or between the undeniable maturity of Juan Cristobal and the magic touch of Mario. And everyone in the quintet also know who to invite to the party. Within the continuous flow of The Fires of San Telmo we finds exceptional singularities that confirm the promise and strength the creative upwards spiral of the band. One of them, Unpredictable Changes, conjures new harmonic currents and is ready to face other risks; the brief sketch Avanzando underlines the closeness of Perez-Grobet to contemporary music idioms; while Sube y baja brings us to multiculturalism and the unmistakable colors of our mestizo roots. Perhaps because of the title, perhaps the guitar that introduces the subject, but Camino a casa I am suddenly transposed to the late sixties, when Alvin Lee and Ten Years After surprised all of Woodstock with I'm going home. Regresando a la tierra, we will only remember that The 5th Element's great strength lies precisely in the subtlety with which each one of its members weaves days and concepts. And also, of course, that this is one of the rare cases where a jazz group has held together physically and emotionally through the years. And that is noticeable from the very first chord. - Antonio Malacara.