Paquito D'Rivera skyrocketed to fame with Irakere in the 1970s with a virtuosity on alto sax and clarinet that propelled the instrument to new heights in Afro-Cuban jazz. It was an important step that would open up ears to other important contemporary voices on the island like German Velazco (Irakere), Carlos Averhof (Irakere), Jose Carlos (Emiliano Salvador) and pre-Paquito titans Gustavo Mas and Jose "Chombo" Silva.
 
Now another important evolutionary step is occuring as a bold new generation of Cuban jazz musicians assert themselves like Tony Martinez, Orlando Sanchez, Fernando Acosta, David Suarez and Nardy Castellini. Only Martinez has recorded as a leader but that's changing as Nardy puts in his bid with "IDENTITY," an excellent debut outing for this world class tenor, soprano and alto sax player.
 
With a complex mix of street and sacred beats he renders a musical personality fusing modern jazz harmonies and melodies that unites "two branches of the same tree" as the late Afro-Cuban jazz pioneer Mario Bauza used to say. Choosing the rumba complex of West African drum and dance that cross pollinated with Spanish flamenco as his rhythmic foundation, the 35 year-old goes for authenticity employing rustic instruments like cajones, the wood box drums that evolved from the cargo crates and barrels played by enslaved Africans on the docks of Matanzas and La Habana.
 
Growing up in both these cities surrounded by rumbas, abakuas and santeros is the inspiration of Nardy's music. Educated in Havana music schools, he largely resided with his father in Havana but spent vacations and weekends with his mother's family in Matanzas. Through his father and uncle he found a love for music. His father sang and played the guitar in a style known as "filin" (feeling) and wrote songs. A jazz aficionado, as a child Nardy heard Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, Lester Young and many great singers that he loved.
 
With his families support he got a degree in music as an educator but has largely worked as an instrumentalist. First professional included the Orquesta de Musica Moderna de Matanzas, studio work at EGREM and ICAIC in Havana and playing salsa cubana with Orquesta Costa Caliente. His first jazz gigs occurred in the late 1980s when pianist Omar Sosa invited him to join Taller Extra, a group that was recording and touring with singer Xiomara Laugart. He recorded two albums with her including the outstanding "Como Algo Que Quema" (Artex) but the association with Sosa would open many more doors for Castellini.
 
In the early 1990s Nardy started working with arranger Pucho Lopez and performed at the Havana and Toronto Jazz Festivals with his group. In '93 he appears with Lopez as featured soloist with Orquesta de Musica Moderna de Villa Clara in a homage to Armando Romeu. By 1994 he joins Afrocuba, the popular jazz fusion band led musically by flautist Oriente Lopez. He did three CDs with the group and toured internationally. 1995 he joins Kilmax, the popular Timba dance band led by Giraldo Piloto, where he plays on their debut album,"Mira Si Te Gusta."
 
In 1996 Castellini settles in Granada, Spain with his wife and new born daughter and forms Nardy's Jazz Quintet and begins to blossom as a jazz soloist. Stints at the Nerfertiti in Switzerland and Jazz House in Denmark helped season him. Then he gets a call from trumpeter Jesus Alemañy to join Cubanismo in 1997 and goes on the road throughout the US and Europe until 1999 when the desire to create his own music leads him to IDENTITY.
 
The group on board for this maiden voyage includes special guests Tata Guines (congas/percussion), Omar Sosa (piano) and Sherman Irby (alto sax) with the nucleaus of Cesar Correa (piano), Oscar Rodriguez (acoustic bass) and Moises Porro (traps/percussion). The eleven tracks presented show Nardy in a variety of settings. His playing is excellent, the compositions are intricate hardbop with rivers of rhythm and a chemistry exists between the musicians that helps all sparkle with improvisational imagination.
 
"Un Domingo en El Solar" clearly examplifies Nardy's vision as his full throated tenor sax dances into a wave of percussion with Guines playing cajon quinto (the high pitched wood box drum), Moises Porro on tambora (the low-toned conga drum) and Amado Zulueta on the hourglass-shaped Iya bata drum. The montuno of Correa glides over a swinging tumbao by Rodriguez. Stepping into the pocket Nardy builds a solo that crys with emotion and lyrical melodies.
 
"Having Tata Guines on this recording is a dream come true," writes Nardy. "What he is to Cuban music is what Joe Henderson is to jazz, an institution yet a genuine human being with amazing swing." As a child living in the Barrio Jesus Maria, he recalls his father talking to the now 72 year-old conga drum legend as he would walk by on his way home a few blocks away. On "Fifty - Fifty Con Tata," the two enjoy an exquisite conversation with interplay that demonstrates Tata's melodic nuance on congas.
 
"El Camino" uses a soprano-alto texture for an upbeat run through intricate melodies and driving guaguanco beats. The match up between Castellini and Irby is simpatico and shows a natural breathing quality between the two. The folkloric tapestries of "Kumbachikata #1 & 2" show the pirouetting beauty of these layered counterpoints with a spiritual timbre. Cesar Correa's ballad "Ge - Ge" is a beautifully articulated melody by Nardy with lush piano chords accompanying.
 
Bassist Oscar Rodriguez contributes the "Hersey's Train," an upbeat rumba with a hypnotic glissando of tenor and alto that paints an impressionistic portrait of the rail line between Matanzas and La Habana. Nardy's originals : "Late at Night, Lejos," a meloncholy ballad with its laid back bluesy delivery; "Dia Tras Dia," a medium up tune reminiscent of the Timba new school funk feeling; "Conga Pa' Ti," a tour-de-force of comparsa carnival rhythms. Add Omar Sosa to the mix on "Un, dos, tres...ah!!!" and the results take a fascinating turn that widens the improvisational scope.
 
From beginning to end, Nardy Castellini establishes himself on this album with a never-ceasing fountain of improvisational ideas and a soulful conservational style. But he's also a rumbero that when the quinto sounds his horn reacts like a sonero (singer) and adds to the colorful counterpoint. Through Nardy ancestral rhythms are given new life as he infuses them with the improvisational language of African American jazz and enlightens us all to their beauty. "IDENTITY" says who I am," he concludes," where I come from and been. We all need our own identity. It's the only truth we have."