The Oakland, CA-based Filipino-American guitarist Karl Evangelista is a dynamic and versatile player. On August 22 his quintet Apura releases Bukas, a live set, on compact disc in a digipak limited to 300 copies through 577 Records. Along with Evangelista, Apura features Lewis Jordan on alto sax and voice, Francis Wong on tenor sax, Rei Scampavia on keyboards and electronics, and Lisa Mezzacappa on bass. For Bukas, the group welcomes veteran drummer Andrew Cyrille back into their lineup, with the rapport superb throughout.
Karl Evangelista has been on the scene for a while, leading Apura (the name is Tagalog for “very urgent”) and releasing Ngayon on the Astral Spirits label in 2023, a record that also included Andrew Cyrille but lacked in input of Lewis Jordan. Prior, there was Apura!, a quartet session with pianist Alexander Hawkins, drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo, and saxophonist Trevor Watts, which Astral Spirits released in 2020.
Evangelista is also half of the duo Grex alongside multi-instrumentalist Rei Scampavia. They most recently released Everything You Said Was Wrong on LP through Geomancy Records in 2020. Earlier this year, the quintet session Solace Angles, featuring Evangelista with Bobby Bradford on cornet and voice, William Roper on tuba and voice, Scampavia on keyboards, and Robert Lopez on drums, became available.
It’s clear that Evangelista enjoys dialogue with musicians from earlier generations. For Bukas, his first recording for 577, Cyrille returns to the Apura fold. However, the first track on the album, “For Good,” is a spoken piece by Jordan that grows increasingly glitchy as it progresses and slowly fades out, giving way to “What I Am Concerned About Now,” where everybody contributes, but with Scampavia and Evangelista shining in particular.
Next is “Midas,” with Evangelista delivering an extended spoken text before diving in on guitar. The whole way, Mezzacappa lays down the sturdy foundation only to bring it even heavier in tandem with Cyrille across the following track “High Temperature,” Evangelista’s clean tones wiggling outward and roaming forth mightily. “Confirm the Truth” is a showcase for Scampavia’s electronic spillage, the soaring, searching horns of Jordan and Wong, plus more bent licks and a wild gust of amp roar from Evangelista.
For “Ghost Captain,” Mezzacappa unfurls the bedrock like a titan while Evangelista peppers his second spoken piece with bold string excursions as the reeds ache and wail, and Scampavia injects the hovering texture. From there, “Walking Ayler in Tarzana” gradually emerges as an extended beauty move that, in no small part due to Cyrille’s gently roving kit motions, harkens back to earlier eras for inspiration.
Likewise, “Balikbayan Box,” although the progression is far more rooted in free improv, dishing a robust dose of abstraction that tees up the extended, expansive closer “Anti,” the album’s standout track with Jordan offering another spoken piece as the assembled players deepen the impact of his words. It caps a splendid performance document and reinforces Evangelista’s strengths as a leader, collaborator, and pure instrumentalist.
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