Dafnis Prieto Proverb Trio is an album of a trio of the same name made of drummer Dafnis Prieto, keyboardist Jason Lindner and vocalist Kokayi.
The beginnings of the Proverb Trio go eight years back into 2004, when Cuban drummer Dafnis Prieto and American vocal artist Kokayi performed together for the first time at the Saalfelden Jazz Festival in Austria.
Strong communication and mutual understanding inspired the two artists to keep on performing in New York and around Europe. After Lindner joined the duo in 2009, they started performing under the name Proverb Trio.
Combining Kokay’s freestyle poetry with explosive drum improvisations and rhythmycally intense electric keyboards, the trio effectually merges Afro-Cuban rhythms and contemporary jazz, resulting in a wide spectrum of stylistic diversity, giving the latin jazz a whole new energy. Extatic and intelligent music, complex compositional structures and exquisite technical abbilities are just a few qualities of this trio.
“We did the entire album in six hours. We did not sprawl jams, but created concise and infectious grooves on the fly around poetry that is as improvised as the instrumental parts”, Prieto explained.
This artist lives in New York since 1999. He has worked with names like Eddie Palmieri, Henry Threadgill and Steve Coleman. He is the winner of last year’s MacArthur Fellowship, also known as the Genius Award.
„Dafnis Prieto is a revolutionary drummer as well as visionary composer and bandleader“, the Drummhead magazine wrote about him. „He plays on the edge of perfection and as a composer, he brings new ideas of how a drummers knowledge can transform ensemble composition into something that hasn’t been heard before.“