Album Notes

Jazzpora

With this latest collection, Jazzpora, Buyu Ambroise returns to the trenches. Armed with enough new inspiration to fill a third CD, and deploying his characteristic musical style, Buyu skillfully executes six original compositions through which he explores a variety of styles: from the Afro-Cuban in “L’esprit et Le Corps,” to the Haitian Yanvalou in “Just in Caze,” and “Transcendence,” which reveals ( especially for the purists) the artist's ability to navigate through the complexity of the traditional modern jazz idiom.

On Jazzpora, Buyu adds his own interpretation of American “jazz standards" such as “Fifth House” and “Naima” by John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter’s “United.”

Fortunately for us, Buyu does not neglect the canon of Haiti’s musical classics. He plays popular standards such as “D’Leau” by Nemours Jean-Baptiste, “Haiti” by composer Arsene Apollon—a classic composition through which the Haitian Diaspora’s tribulations are expressed. “En Vacances,” composed by Dr. Edgard Dougé, is brilliantly rendered by Melanie J.B. Charles, a young jazz vocalist of Haitian descent. Buyu’s heartfelt interpretation of these standards delivers sonic gratification layered with poetical references in "En vacances" that walk the English-speaking listener through the Haitian countryside and evoke the warm Sargasso breezes of the summer vacations of an earlier time.

Jazzpora graciously exposes its listeners to the artist’s influences while subtly offering a unique insight into the creative process . In this new recording, Buyu and the Blues in Red Band invite listeners to immerse themselves in over an hour of thoughtful, intelligent, and joyful compositions. The band takes us on a journey in which we explore decades of Buyu’s musical development, marked by his exposure to the music of three cultures: Haitian, West African, and North American. In guiding us through this journey, Jazzpora clearly contradicts the old adage “rolling stone gathers no moss.” While his cultural and musical roots run deep (and in a few directions), Buyu the artist has never remained static. The ever-changing, ever-evolving musician has observed and absorbed, throughout his excursions, over four decades of life in the Diaspora and we are fortunate to be able to enjoy his ruminations on that experience.