'Perseverance' by Fabio Rojas

'Perseverance' marks the new album release from drummer and composer, Fabio Rojas, who assembles an elite New York-based collective to help bring life to a long-gestating musical vision.

As perhaps easily deduced from the album title, the project's running theme is rooted within the concept of adversity, and each of our own willingness to see that struggle through to the other side - a theme that strives to, both, bring attention to Venezuelan politics that have distanced the country from its once thriving position as a democracy to a country in dire economic circumstances struggling under a repressive and corrupt dictator.

And while perseverance in that context has served very much as a driving force for Rojas in the creation of this album, the ideal also serves as a credit to his own hurdles that have ultimately brought the versatile artist from Venezuela to New York some fourteen years ago.

Rojas' musical journey has certainly garnered its own storied path but delivered some monumental successes as well - having achieved his Bachelor of Music from Boston's Berklee College of Music, Rojas then went on to score his Master of Music in Jazz Studies at Cuny Queens College.  Now an educator in his own right, teaching at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, Rojas has managed to garner incredible accolades through the commitment to his craft.  That very commitment has further seen the drummer either record or perform with luminaries including Geri Allen, Terri Lyne Carrington and Regina Carter, and perform on stages across the US.

Rojas' lengthy ties to New York have afforded him access to a phenomenal ensemble of musicians that inject scintillating energy and proficiency across the album's seven tracks.  Featuring Greg Osby and Gustavo D'amico on saxophones, Kevin Harris on piano and Osmar Okuma on bass, the musicians relish in pieces that revolve around improvisation as building blocks to more intricate compositions.  

From the sparse yet vibrant bounce of album opener 'Ni Un Paso Atras', to the urgency of 'Atlas', to the sublime charm of 'Loneliness', Rojas conducts proceedings in a manner that affords his collaborators the freedom to explore the space around them and to enthusiastically interact with each other while respectfully adhering to Rojas' musical framework.  

Although Rojas has been open about his motivations stemming from the phrase "he who perseveres, wins", there's another sentiment about perseverance that is perhaps apt regarding this album: "I may not be there yet but I am closer than I was yesterday".  Sometimes, perseverance can just be a way of life.  A self-taught discipline to continually work hard towards achieving the unattainable or just the acknowledgement that the ideal isn't attached to one big end-goal but lots of smaller ones.  Through his inability to quit, Fabio Rojas continues to raise the bar for himself while determinedly maintaining his path.