Johnny Blas Indestructible Spirit CD

At long last, Latin jazzman Johnny Blas is back with a new recording, his first in the 21st century. It has been eight years since King Conga, almost a decade since Mambo 2000, and almost 11 since his debut for Cubop in 1997 with Skin & Bones. Those records, with their quartet of trombones (one of them played by Dan Weinstein, who was the band's musical director), electric guitars, violins, claves, and flute along with Blas' killer congas and other percussion, set some new standards for Latin jazz in the 21st century. That said, all three of those recordings were of a piece, in a sense. They were all solid (actually, Mambo 2000 was simply killer), innovative, and using earlier forms while simultaneously reinventing the wheel. Indestructible Spirit is a complete shift from his previous catalog. Blas has not only taken the reins in his new group, he is, along with bassist Jeff Hawley, co-producer. There are nine tunes here, all but two of them written by Blas. For starters, four trombones have become two -- Steve Johnson and Leonard Luna -- and sometimes even one. Weinstein is absent (though he is represented by one of his tunes). Pianist Ryan Prior is now a core part of the band's sound -- and he plays a Rhodes as often as an acoustic piano. Blas has also picked up the saxophone (a soprano) again for the first time in a decade, and plays it on two cuts. Ray Zepeda plays soprano on one and tenorist Paul Clark appears on another. Of course, Blas' conga is everywhere, and timbales and coro are almost as ubiquitous as well. In addition to bass, Hawley plays cuatro and coro, and even does some drum programming on a couple of cuts.

Sound like a mess? Hardly. Indestructible Spirit is a reinvention to be sure, but first and foremost ...