JORGE SYLVESTER: MusiCollage

“Sylvester shines as composer and player… MusiCollage is the quintessence of creative teamwork.” – JazzTimes Magazine

On this debut Postcards album, “Jorge Sylvester: MusiCollage”, saxophonist and composer Jorge Sylvester has created a true fusion of Modern Jazz and Latin Music. In Sylvester’s playing, the listener can hear strong influences of every great Jazz alto player from Bird through Wayne Shorter. His compositions wax poetically through the sounds of Latin America, the Carribean, Africa, and urban street music of New York and his native Panama, all with a Jazz soul. His masterful playing has put him on stages next to Jazz greats like Dave Holland and Stefon Harris.

“Critic’s Choice: A fresh, eclectic blend of straight-ahead, Latin and avant-garde jazz styles.” – Billboard Magazine

On “Jorge Sylvester: Musicollage”, which consists entirely of his own compositions, Sylvester is joined by trumpeter Claudio Roditi, a rhythm section that includes drummer Gene Jackson and vibraphonist Monte Croft, Bobby Sanabria, an exciting, combustible encyclopedia of Latin percussion, and guitarist Marvin Sewell, who adds a contemporary urban feel. With this album, Jorge Sylvester takes us on a clever yet soulful, textured yet comprehensible, and thoughtful yet danceable musical odyssey that displays his adept playing ability, spirited musical vision, and multicultural compositions.

Song Selection:

1. Token – 7:35
2. Resolution 88 – 8:23
3. Arkara – Moi Moi – 6:01
4. Lila (dedicated to my daughter, Lizka Sylvester) – 5:10
5. Colón – Bocas del Toro – 7:27
6. Illusiones – 8:12
7. Lines – 5:40
8. Dizzy Bird (dedicated to Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker) – 4:44
9. Like a Twilight – 6:59

All compositions and arrangements by Jorge Sylvester.

Jorge Sylvester: Alto sax and soprano sax
Claudio Roditi: Trumpet and flugelhorn
Gene Jackson: Drums
Monte Croft: Vibraphone
Santi Debriano: Bass
Bobby Sanabria: Percussion
Marvin Sewell: Guitar

Produced by: Ralph Simon
Executive Producer: Sibyl R. Golden
Total Time: 60:11 minutes

What the Critics Say:

“…Jorge Sylvester’s distinctive alto saxophone sound is imbued with the volatility of Caribbean basin’s complex mosaic, transformed and focused by the probing musical linguistics pioneered by the great saxophonists of modern jazz. Jorge’s composer’s imagination is the matchless structural coherence of his improvisational work.” – Ramsey Ameen, 12/2005

“…If Ornette Coleman had be born and reared in Nassau, his music would have sounded like this.” – C. Michael Bailey, All about Jazz

“Sylvester’s alto work is deeply rooted in bebop but fluent in the most modern of horn vocabularies… …he makes his mark as one of the more advanced, imaginative voices in Afro-Caribbean jazz.” – David R. Adler, All Music Guide

“”In The Ear Of The Beholder”, bespeaks variety in the form, with each track opening up a different vista.” – Billboard Spotlight, February 24, 2001

“…There are no clichéd romantic notions of breezy island music on this bold adventure led by Panamanian alto saxophonist Jorge Sylvester. With his edgy rhythmic pulse and diamond-hard tone, Sylvester has crafted an album that boasts the same sort of Herculean, calypso-driven improvisations of Sonny Rollins and the lofty intentions of Julius Hemphill and Oliver Lake’s 1970s Arista Freedom dates.” – John Murph, Jazz Times Magazine Review of “In The Ear of The Beholder”

About Jorge Sylvester:

Jorge Sylvester was born in Colon, Panama attended the Panama Conservatory of Music and the University of Panama. He received a Bachelor of Science in Music from the State University of New York College at New Paltz in 1981.

A unique innovator in the idiom of creative music, Sylvester’s sound is reminiscent of another time in jazz history when artists like Dolphy and Ornette were exploding on the scene and experimenting with concepts that would ultimately revolutionize music at large. A throwback to the future, Mr. Sylvester has been on the cutting edge of that scene since 1980 when he first came to New York City. His blend of African-Caribbean rhythms with new music is what gives Sylvester his distinguished voice.

Beginning his professional career at age 14, Jorge was leading his own Caribbean dance band, writing his own arrangements and compositions. Heading for Europe in his early twenties, Sylvester spent ten years touring and recording with his ensembles and freelancing throughout Europe. In 1979 he studied advanced harmony with Argentinean pianist, composer Luis Vecchio in Las Palmas de Gran Canarias, Spain.

Upon his arrival to New York in 1980, he studied with Dave Holland, Oliver Lake, Steve Lacy, Ramsey Ameen, Marion Brown and many others at vibraphonist Karl Berger’s Creative Music Studio in Woodstock. Since that time, Sylvester has performed with: Stefon Harris, Rodney Kendrick, Karl Berger, the David Murray Big Band, poet Sekou Sundiata, the Black Rock Coalition Orchestra, the Oliver Lake Big Band and many others.

Jorge Sylvester toured Europe and Israel with the World Saxophone Quartet filling the chair formerly occupied by its founding father Julius Hemphill, Arthur Blythe, James Spaulding, Eric Person, John Purcell and Bruce Williams. Mr. Sylvester performed alongside luminaries David Murray, Oliver Lake and Hammiet Bluiett.

In 2007 Mr. Sylvester returned to his native Panama as a member of the Panamanian All-Stars led and directed by pianist Danilo Perez at the fourth annual Panama Jazz Festival performing with Carlos Garnett, Santi Debriano, Billy Cobham and Renato Thoms.

Mr. Sylvester performs frequently and conducts workshops throughout New York and elsewhere in the United States teaching his unique approach to composition using Afro-Caribbean rhythms.