Ivanna Cuesta Gonzalez: A Letter To The Earth

From the onset of its spiraling, corkscrew self, A Letter to the Earth finds two ever-emerging forces—pianist Kris Davis and drummer Ivanna Cuesta Gonzalez—locked into the mindset that home base (Earth) is screwed-up and (we) had better do something about it!

Like yesterday.

Gonzalez, hailing from the climate-buffeted Dominican Republic, knows firsthand of what she speaks. Revealing a hyper sense of self and her surroundings, she intuits the chaos and combat ahead. The pretty pictures of ugly things. The legislative men and women writing and interpreting bad law.

Davis and Gonzalez kick-off and take charge of "Chaos" as if they were barely two steps ahead of the foment. Both soul-adjacent sisters, in mad design, pursue and parlay. Representing the rushing force of nature at their backs, bassist Max Ridley steps in the middle of the maelstrom. Saxophonist Ben Solomon calls out and wails, giving voice to the very planet under our feet. And just like that we too are running for higher ground.

"Humans vs Human," with its shattered groove and angular aesthetic allows for more than just a glimpse of what will be when we all reach said higher ground at the same time: broken homes, bones, societies shattered. It is a bleak vision but one Gonzalez and company keep confidently, or better still resolutely. "A Letter to the Earth," as one might suspect from the title, is a sincere, collaborative plea to our better selves. "Este Lugar," with a cameo spoken word performance by Mexican singer/songwriter Pauli Camou is even more personal, more heartfelt.

An adept sounds/electronics manipulator as well as a composer for films, Gonzalez's musical and percussive vision encompasses and supplants, so "Ongoing Cycles" sounds old and new. But it is only a setup for the startlingly charged parity between drums and piano on the moment capturing "Duality." Laced with starry electronics, it is a sonic and rhythmic tour-de-force as neither woman gives ground but warmly accedes to the others' will. There may or may not be many hummable passages to be found on A Letter to the Earth but it is a debut by a fiery talent not soon forgotten.

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