Yosvany Terry and Columna B Chart Some New Currents

The confluence between jazz and Cuban music dates back more than a half-century in direct terms, and probably much more than that indirectly. During that period, the direction of musical flow has generally been the same: American jazz improvisation moving into Cuba; Cuban and Afro-Cuban rhythms coming out.

The performance of saxophonist Yosvany Terry and the group Columna B at the Jazz Bakery on Sunday night suggested an intriguing change in the flow, one in which Cuban musicians are discovering their own improvisational styles--related to, but no longer dependent upon, American models. It’s a change that has already been forecast in the work of Cuban artists such as Jesus “Chucho” Valdes, Gonzalo Rubalcaba and (from a Puerto Rican perspective) David Sanchez. But the music of Terry and Columna B has a more confidently youthful manner, one that finds all the common linkages between jazz and Afro-Cuban rhythms without favoring one or the other.

That’s not a particularly easy accomplishment. Jazz rhythms, with their emphasis on a grounded pulse and forward-surging sense of swing, are vastly different from the multilayering of Cuban rhythms, in which seemingly disconnected elements are held together by a repeated, but often elusive, clave rhythm. Most Afro-Cuban jazz has tended to keep the two approaches separate, occasionally overlaying one with the other, but rarely combining into a completely homogeneous musical blend.

For much of their set, Columna B--the rhythm firmly driven by pianist Roberto Carcasses, bassist Yunior Terry (the saxophonist’s brother), percussionist Jesus Diaz and drummer Jimmy Brantley--simply brought everything together in completely seamless fashion. On several numbers, they were joined by the pianist’s father, Bobby Carcasses, a veteran of the Cuban jazz scene whose highly individualistic scat singing triggered enthusiastic cheers from a moderate-sized audience.

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Although several of the Columna B players now live in the U.S., their roots were apparent in their rhythmic work, and the high quality of the improvising clearly indicated that a young generation of Cuban musicians is now emerging.

Terry’s alto saxophone playing roved comfortably from sweet-sounding lyricism to wild-eyed avant-garde, and the younger Carcasses’ soloing--especially in a climactic “Noticiero” (from an as yet unreleased Columna B album)--was the work of a pianist with breakout potential. Indeed, he has his own solo album out on Velas Records.

Fully capable of competing with American players on an improvisational basis, the players in Columna B--like a growing number of other young Cuban artists--also possess the added advantage of a rhythmic sophistication with a transformative potential for 21st century jazz.