Jaime Rosas Trio - Extremos

The Jaime Rosas Trio hails from Chile but apart from the fact that the man himself plays keyboards, and I means PLAYS, I can’t find much background information on either Jaime or the band.  The link to his website, as shown on the back cover of the CD casing, is defunct and whilst I know he performed at Baja this year (2004), that’s about it, so I thought.  In the end, I found Jaime’s new website (link below) but no bio to speak of (but plenty of MP3s).  Anyway, it’s the music that is important here.

Extremos is a 42-minute album consisting of nine tracks, seven of which are short-ish pieces of around the three-minute mark, largely showcasing Jaime’s virtuosity on keys.  That, however, does not mean that guitarist, Rodrigo Godoy and drummer, Alex Von Chrismar, are left to loiter in the background as both these guys get the opportunity on some of the tracks to take the lead role.

Much of the music is fast, furious and complex yet it is not without more delicate moments, living up to the album’s title.  Jaime’s style is a mix of classical and contemporary (Emerson, Wakeman, Ars Nova) with great piano and Moog/synth led pieces.  Melodies are ever present but the shorter tracks are a little like those extended improvised moments you get at gigs, full of ideas yet could be expanded.

Closing track, Viajero Astral, is an expanded work and somewhat of an epic.  This 15-minute piece incorporates vocals (Rodrigo Godoy), flowing melodies and those more aggressive powerful bits which have more meaning here than if they were used as stand alone tracks.  Maybe because this track contains many contrasts, it seems to be as short as the short tracks.

When all’s said and done, it is all good stuff and worthy of investigation.  I would like to see Jaime explore a one or two track work, combining and expanding his ideas rather than separating them out on his next album.  

Jem Jedrzejewski

Jaime Rosas

Musea

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