Few musicians can make a piece of pipe, a mere couple of feet long, sound as sensuous as Carlos Jimenez. On Mambo Dulcet/Red Tailed Hawk there is ample evidence to show that Jimenez does not so much as play the flute as he caresses its keys. In his hands that instrument would appear to be a woman’s body, which Jimenez strokes. His fingers appear to trace the curves of her body, stopping every once and awhile to emphasis a particularly beautiful part [...]
Aguabella – Nuestra Era (Self Published 2011)
There has not been much activity in the form of homages or tributes to Francisco Aguabella, so perhaps the arrival of Nuestra Era is a blessing. The late percussionist has come to be revered as one of the greatest masters of Afro-Cuban music. He spent the mature years of his life enriching the music of the American West Coast bringing the sanctity and aural worship of the Santeria with his batá drums to the idiom of Latin Jazz [...]
AfroBop Alliance – Una Más (OA2 Records 2011)
There is a sensuous, almost bordering on lustful, quality to the music on Una Más by the big band, AfroBop Alliance. Not that it is a bad thing at all; quite the contrary, the viscosity of the music is a result of the molten mix of bronzed horns and beautifully clouded woodwinds with elementally raw drums and percussion. The result is a saffron-coloured paella of swirling contra-danzas and soaring son-montuno and on event, a wistful bolero [...]
Meeco – Beauty Of The Night (Connector Records 2012)
The extraordinary songwriter and producer, Meeco’s new album, Beauty Of The Night comes with a hidden cautionary note which is not visible or audible until the first strains of the music is heard: It is an elementally sad album and a box of Kleenex may be de rigueur. However, this is not to say that the album is not beautiful. After all, in immense sadness there is beauty as well. Meeco should know this. He is smitten with things Brazilian [...]
Chilcano – Madera Corazón (Saponegro Records 2011)
Trumpeter Gabriel Alegría’s first album to attract attention was the sensational Nuevo Mundo, which featured his seminal sextet, an ensemble that included one of the greatest living Peruvian musical masters, Freddy “Huevito” Lobaton, a percussionist whose genius is every bit the equal to that other great Latin American, Nana Vasconscelos of Brazil. The personnel in that ensemble—with a change of bassist—produced another startling album, Pucusana [...]
Yoel Diaz Cuban Jazz Session – Encuentros (Artic Records 2011)
For the young, expatriate Cuban musician to survive the many assaults on the character of his music from all ends of the musical spectrum must be a remarkable event. Surely it must take a rock-solid technique to preserve his chops and his tumbao. Not only is this evident from the first few notes that Yoel Diaz plays on the piano, but the maturity of his playing and his ability to follow through on a viscous near-miraculous stream of ideas with conviction [...]
Miguel Zenón – Alma Adentro (Marsalis Music 2011)
That Miguel Zenón has been recognized as one of the most exciting young alto saxophonists to break into the scene has been known for several years now. So it should come as no surprise when he released a third album, Alma Adentro: The Puerto Rican Songbook, in a loosely constructed trilogy that also included Jibaro (2004) and Esta Plena (2009). While these are all truly fine albums, this last one breaks the mould in both style and substance [...]
Sammy Figueroa Latin Jazz Explosion – Urban Nature (Senator 2011)
Master percussionist, Sammy Figueroa is a two times Grammy nominee and member of Sonny Rollins band. With these credentials it is no surprise that his third release Urban Nature is an album full of intense harmonic and rhythmic music and outstanding compositions, starting with the fast paced opening track "Gufillo", a composition of Venezuelan pianist Sivano Monasterios. Figueroa is one of those musicians who know when to turn up the energy [...]
Jon Gold – Bossa of Possibility (Blujazz Productions 2012)
Jon Gold is one of the most exciting virtuoso pianists, imaginative composers and original orchestrators in art of two important musical idioms—Brazilian and American. The fact that he melds musical linguistics like that other master who is tucked away in the Northwest, Jovino Santos Neto, shows him to be possessed of an essentially Brazilian soul. And this makes Gold a Brasiliero – a Carioca, when he makes an invisible leap into the sand and surf of Ipanema [...]
Enrique Fernandez – Cantos del Sexto Sol (Round Whirled 2011)
There is a visceral intensity to Cantos Del Sexto Col, the fiery album by reeds and woodwinds maestro Enrique Fernandez. This comes from the ferocious viscosity that swirls and swaggers in what appears to be a myriad of layers of sounds emerging from the instruments he plays, seemingly all at once. Each is annunciated with an apocalyptic shout and all meld with molten splendour into a soup of idiomatic musical dialects—spiritual and profane [...]