Time to Say is an apt title for Sergio Pamies’ recording. The title track is a tribute to the late Chick Corea. Sergio captures the wide spectrum of style that lived within Chick’s music: Latin grooves mixed with advanced harmony, elliptical melodic phrases that travel around the groove, and syncopated rhythms that momentarily shatter the fixed rhythmic bed.

Sergio’s composition begins with a floating melodic phrase that implies the meter and tempo that is eventually interrupted with syncopated rhythmic figures. After teasing the listener, the music resolves into a defined groove with the cascara and clave now in place. But the expected montuno bass line is replaced by a sophisticated and syncopated ostinato thickened by Sergio’s piano; it notifies the listener that this is also modern jazz.

Sergio and the heralded veteran Dave Liebman craft their improvised solos to the characteristics of the compositional elements. Sergio’s composition ends with some wonderful surprises.

1. Time to Say (featuring Dave Liebman) (6:45)
2. Puerta de Oro (9:06)
3. Sleep Delirium (5:31)
4. Dudú (5:14)
5. Último Rezo (para Carmen) (6:12)
6. Corazonada (4:13)
7. Miold Man (4:41)
8. Nana para Sergito (featuring Paquito D’Rivera) (5:40)

The album opens on the flourishing Time to Say (featuring Dave Liebman) and the playful Puerta de Oro and the brings us the shimmering Sleep Delirium, the upbeat and impassioned Dudú, the lushly sculpted Último Rezo (para Carmen), before we are graced with the beat driven rhythms of Corazonada, the album closing on the dancefloor swirls and twirls of Miold Man and the beautifully languishing Nana para Sergito (featuring Paquito D’Rivera).

Musicians:
Alex Norris trumpet and flugelhorn
Michael Thomas alto and soprano saxophones
Marshall Gilkes trombone
Samuel Torres percussion
Jimmy Macbride drums
Ricky Rodriguez bass
Sergio Pamies piano

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