Catalan guitarist, composer and bandleader Oscar Peñas´ fourth album and second release in the United States, Music of Departures and Returns, includes a Brazilian choro and a tribute to flamenco master Paco de Lucia; a jazz standard and a classic from the Cuban Nueva Trova songbook; and music by the great Catalonian composer Frederic Mompou. Yet this is neither a music sampler nor a showcase of Peñas´talents in different settings and styles. quot;This is more or less who I am. I'm not trying to push boundaries, prove anything or show off in any way,quot; explains Peñas. quot;It's a collection of pieces, some mine, some by other composers that I have always admired, that I felt had a common mood, a certain sound that reflects my personality and where I come from.quot; Music of Departures and Returns features his quartet, comprised of his long-standing rhythm section featuring six-string electric bassist Moto Fukushima, drummer Richie Barshay, and violinist Sara Caswell. The band is augmented by special guests such as bassist and singer Esperanza Spalding, reedman Paquito D'Rivera and pianist, producer and arranger Gil Goldstein who appears on accordion. Born in Barcelona, Peñas began his career in music studying classical guitar as a child. He graduated with honors from Berklee College of Music and later earned a Masters Degree in Jazz Performance from New England Conservatory before settling Brooklyn. He arrived at his musical discoveries step by step. quot;I started to explore jazz a bit out of boredom. As a teenager (and still is the case) it was more appealing to me to pick up my own melodies within a style and interact with other musicians than spend hours of solitude trying to perfect a technical dexterity and devote my youth to learn a repertoire by others. Discoveries and interests come sometimes erratically... listening to Pat Metheny's Letter from Home or Wayne Shorter's Native Dancer you end up coming across Toninho Horta, Gismonti or Milton [Nascimento] and their music opens doors to a sea of possibilities, that's how I learned about choro.quot; quot;I didn't study choro, but listened to a lot of them and love Pixinguinha and Guinga. If you ask a purist, maybe he won't approve of the form or the harmonies of 'Paquito's Choro,' but this is my unpretentious take on it.quot; As for the recording of the track, which demands a virtuoso performance by the clarinetist, Peñas recalls that at the end of the recording, the irrepressible D´Rivera, a superior player and an excellent reader, quipped, quot;I don´t know if you wrote this for me or against me.quot; Being from Barcelona, many would expect a strong flamenco influence and some sort of flamenco-jazz fusion in Peñas' music. He did include a flamenco-tinged piece in his previous album, but he says, while he quot;grew up with the sound of flamenco around, I never sat down to analyze it or study it. Mine is not an academic approach. I'm no expert. I just let it seduce me and wash over me.quot; In quot;Paco,quot; his tribute to guitarist Paco de Lucia, who has marked a before and after in modern flamenco, Peñas features violin and electric guitar, and the 6/8 rhythm evokes the feel of flamenco but again, from a personal perspective, never attempting to mimic or make an explicit reference to De Lucia´s playing. But in Music of Departures and Returns Peñas features other composer´s songs for the first time in his recorded work and the choices often speak to personal experiences. Such is the case for quot;Rabo de Nube,quot; a standard from the Cuba
