FRANK VILLAFANE - SOUTH BEACH (2006)

Frank Villafañe's debut CD featuring five instrumenal Latin Jazz compositions. His style encompasses a blending of Afro-Cuban and Brazilian rhythms, while haunting evocative melodies ride over the percussive mixture

Review by Paul J. Youngman - KJA Advocate for WWW.VINILEMANIA.NET

South Beach the CD, not the place, is a Latin Jazz project put together, performed and arranged by pianist Frank Villafane. A five song EP, taking up about twenty five minutes and going down easy, it’s over before you’ve really had a chance to enjoy it. South Beach is very well done for a single person endeavor. Frank Villafane shows all kinds of skill at laying down a Latin groove, with intricate drum and percussion parts, bass lines and piano solos of passion and excitement.

The title track, “South Beach” is a laid back tune, like a day at the beach, the music gently rolls on a wave of pleasing salsa like rhythms, with the one man band providing a large percussion section, full of the sounds of Carnivale, setting the mood of a party spirit and providing a relaxing, full simulated instrumental listen.

The tune “Deco Drive” has a samba feel to it, with whistles, maracas, guiros and claves pounding out the rhythm, a background of congas aids in providing a full sound, another pleasing listen with nice arrangements and good piano playing.

The Latin jazz song “Can’t Find Love” features piano, when piano is the solo instrument, as it is for most of the song, it is an excellent, well written - well played tune, lots of feel and a nice spirit.

The final song of the EP, “I heard The Bells” with vibes as the featured instrument mixes a pop style melody with a conga heavy Latin vibe. The song on closer inspection reveals a drum track of machine made metronome clicking and swishing, a repetitive beat that is just too synthetic for pure Latin spirit.

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