What occurs when an immovable object meets an irresistible force? Or when the kinetic alchemy of some random meeting between a 3x Grammy Award-nominated jazz pianist and a 6x Downbeat Magazine Award-winning tenor saxophonist happens on stage?
That’s what I dreamt would happen when The Axel Tosca Trio, led by its brilliant pianist Axel Tosca and tenor saxophonist Rico Jones, would combust in a wild frenzied jam!
I’d been trying to get these two together on the same stage to jam for months. It finally happened on March 7th at Zinc Bar on West 3rd Street in Greenwich Village during the Axel Tosca Trio’s incendiary “Cuban Jam” late night set.
I must say, it gave me great joy to finally bring these two musical titans together for an all-out jam, accompanied by the amazing rhythm section of Junior Terry on upright bass and David Frazier Jr. on drums.
Meet Rico Jones: 6x Downbeat Magazine Award-Winning Tenor Saxophonist
If you are one of my awesome readers who follows my past articles, you might remember the story I wrote in September 2023 of how tenor saxophonist Rico Jones and I first met while he was busking in front of the Apple Store in the West Village in late 2022. We’ve since become good friends. (Read my article on the link below.)
Meet Axel Tosca: 3x Grammy-Nominated Cuban Jazz Pianist
When I first saw the stand-in keyboardist Axel Tosca performing with the fantastic 10-piece Salcedo Latin Soul led by bandleader tenor saxophonist Steve Salcedo at the Bitter End, I knew I was encountering a very special musician. After introducing myself, Axel and his wife invited me to come see Axel perform with his own band at his weekly Thursday night gig at Zinc Bar.
When I actually watched the Axel Tosca Trio play live at Zinc Bar at his weekly Cuban Jam, was I able to truly grasp the breadth of musical talent, compositional, and innate creative improvisational ability this man possessed. (Read my article on the link below.)
Now back to bringing these two musical titans together for the first time ever.
The Night of the Show
On March 7th, I arrived early for Axel’s 10:30 p.m. show. Rico texted me that he was running quite late.
What I remember most that night was seeing the club completely packed and filled with extremely happy faces enjoying the great show with not one empty seat to spare. With Rico still nowhere to be found, I have to admit this looming specter made me both equally thrilled and nervous!
However, luckily for us the band’s early set was running way over. They would soon be taking a 20-30 minute break before their late show. Such an unlikely convergence of events, yet such an auspicious fluke occurrence. But I’ll take it.
Axel’s legendary mom, Xiomarra Laugart “the Voice of Cuba” who regularly performs songs with the band near the end of their sets, happened to be sitting near the back where band members and special guests have reserved seating.
The March article I recently wrote about Xiomarra’s past performance was resting next to her on the table. (Read my article on the link below.) She immediately spotted me and gave me a big warm hug. Then pointing to the packed crowd in front she told me, “You won’t believe it. This is all because of your newspaper story. Everyone either read it or at least seen the headline!” That really gave me goosebumps.
Rico Finally Arrives at Zinc Bar
Rico finally arrived with his horn at 11:15 p.m. while the band was near the end of their break and about to go on. Whew! That was a really close call!
“Axel meet Rico Jones,” I said. Within a few seconds I could already sense there was some familiarity. I believe Axel even mentioned he’d once seen Rico play at Smalls. Not surprising as Axel would go to Smalls to relax after his gig and check out other upcoming jazz musicians.
Without wasting time, Axel and Rico talked about what songs they should play. Within a few seconds, they quickly decided on Caravan written by Juan Tizol and popularized by Duke Ellington.
A “Caravan” Jazz Explosion!
Now on stage behind the Baldwin piano, Axel greeted the crowd — which was still quite packed — and introduced Rico Jones as a special guest to the “Cuban Jam!”
Then Axel began playing 16-bars of the quizzical yet memorable opening line of Caravan. Soon the upright bass and drums joined in during the open mellow “floating” section. They were still building the introduction; the band hadn’t even started cooking yet!
Rico began playing the Arabian-sounding musical hook, before building up into his first solo where he unleashed a wild flurry of notes. It was chaotic and beautiful.
Led by Rico’s charge, the band was now swinging hard! Axel, Junior Terry and David Frazier Jr. were holding it down. Six minutes into the jam, Axel joined in with his own incredible piano solo and together they ripped a hole into the space time continuum!
After ending the jam, the stunned crowd gave these jazz titans a raucous ovation.
That’s the night a total jazz explosion happened!
Links:
villageview.nyc/2023/09/08/rico-jones-tenor-saxophonist-making-waves-on-the-nyc-jazz-scene
villageview.nyc/2024/03/03/xiomarra-laugart-the-voice-of-cuba-does-it-again-at-zinc-bar
KAJU ROBERTO is an accomplished musician, singer/ songwriter, journalist, and an award-winning producer. He is the artist Rad Jet on Spotify.