Patricio Morales
La Tierra Canta
(Northsouth Records)
Don’t be fooled by its laid-back Latin rhythms: La Tierra Canta, the latest album from Chilean American jazz guitarist, composer, and Red Hook resident Patricio Morales, is welling with emotion. The title track introduces us to Morales’s guitar dexterity as well as the light-fingered accordion of Vitor Goncalvez and is filled with ascending, misty-eyed harmonies. The second track, “Armando,” veers into a boisterous samba, emboldened by the earthy upright bass of Sebastian de Urquiza. In “Tale of Tales,” an angular and suspenseful piano solo (also from Goncalves) confirms the band’s improvisatory wizardry, while the arrangement meanders like a multi-chaptered epic poem. The masterful push and pull of Morales’s guitar is felt in full force on “4 De Diciembre,” a lonesome track that builds into a canter. “Realismo Magico” starts with a dusty desert groove laced with South American inflections but abandons form completely and settles into free improv, a place that, along with Chile and the Hudson Valley, feels right at home for Morales.
This article appears in August 2025.
