Sandoval Goes Above, Beyond Usual Talents

There was an unusually high-spirited sense of enthusiasm at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center on Friday night, even before the concert featuring the Arturo Sandoval Quintet took place. Part of the reason undoubtedly could be traced to the presence of a substantial number of young people in the full-house crowd, present as a result of the center’s continuing efforts to make performances available to school groups.

But the enthusiasm was also generated by a crowd clearly anticipating Sandoval’s appearance, the interest undoubtedly whetted by the recent television dramatization of the Cuban trumpeter’s remarkable life story. And the anticipation was rewarded almost immediately, when the Sandoval ensemble came on stage and kicked off an astonishingly fast number, instantly announcing that this would be an evening of electrifying jazz.

Nothing surprising about that, to anyone who has seen the multitalented Sandoval in action. In this performance, however, he stretched the envelope of even his skills.

His trumpet playing was superb, moving easily from blinding strings of precisely articulated notes and rafter-rattling high notes to lush-toned middle-register balladry. He occasionally switched to fluegelhorn, finding even more romantic coloration in its darker tones.

That was only the start. Add to that Sandoval’s scat singing, which is like no other. It wasn’t surprising that his lines were harmonically intricate and stunningly rapid; they were, after all, a reflection of his horn playing. But his sense of humor, in which he injected squeaky falsettos, pretended to play a string bass and tossed in rapid-fire bebop lines (“Donna Lee” among them), was the work of a master. Best of all, he delivered it with an entertaining manner that had the youngsters in the crowd screaming with delight.

And there was more. Sandoval took a crack at straight singing with a respectable version of “When I Fall in Love,” played piano on his own “Romantico,” set the rhythm on fire with his timbales playing and led the crowd in a dance-in-your-seat version of “Sandungo.”

Longtime partner Charles O’Neill provided his familiar role as front-line musical partner, and the rhythm section of Robert Rodriguez on piano, Ernest Simpson on drums and Samuel Torres on percussion both supported and energized Sandoval’s turns in the spotlight. No wonder the crowd, which wound up the evening with a Sandoval-led cha-cha, seemed so reluctant to have this immensely entertaining program come to a close.