There’s something of D’Angelo in his vocal stretches, a gentle timelessness, a lived-in humanity, and when applied to intently grooving songs like “Perdon” and “Twice,” it feels like the deeply soulful balm our summer needs. But if there’s a star, it's Toribio’s velvety tenor.
The secret sauce is the funky majesty of these catchy songs, full of Cesar’s layered keyboards and synths, Gabo Lugo’s flowing percussion, and the occasional trumpet fanfares (courtesy of Aquiles Navarro and Scott Bevins). Here, it is a pathway to contemporary Latinx-ification of New York dance culture, with Toribio building on a century of localized Afro-Caribbean influences from Machito’s 1940s Cubop and Eddie Palmieri’s boogaloo to the Nuyorican soul of jazz/house/hip-hop producers Masters at Work. The project helmed by vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Cesar Toribio and Scott Scribner takes as its inspiration the “clave,” a rhythmic pattern at the center of much Afro-Cuban music - and relatedly, most American rhythm music. The key insight to the musical source of Conclave’s self-titled debut comes in how you pronounce its name: “con klɑ-veɪ.” Support local music and the musickers who enable it. Which is exactly what Bklyn Sounds will be doing periodically from now on. That also means shouting loudly about great new music those artists are releasing. That means flag-waving artists playing shows.
Among the reasons for the birth of Bklyn Sounds was frustration at seeing excellent local music lacking media venues through which to find an audience that doesn't already follow them on social media.