Review and photographs by Wilbert Sostre Friday, January 27 It was an exciting opening night for the third edition of the Puerto Rico Jazz Jam, an event created by trumpet player, composer, arranger and now producer Humberto Ramirez. Two extraordinaire...
ARTURO O’ FARRILL AND THE AFRO LATIN JAZZ ORCHESTRA ANDY AND JERRY’S: A TRIBUTE TO THE GONZALEZ BROTHERS PETER NORTON SYMPHONY SPACE, NEW YORK OCTOBER 14 AND 13, 2011 Performance Review and Commentary by New...
Last weekend Bogotá, the Colombian capital, celebrated another edition of Salsa al Parque, one of the biggest salsa festivals in Latin America. This is the fourteenth time the “capitalinos” (people from Bogota) enjoyed the great...
THE PAUL AUSTERLITZ QUARTET LIVE AT THE STONE, NEW YORK CITY SUNDAY, MARCH 29, 2011 Performance Review by Tomas Peña On Sunday March 29, Paul Austerlitz and his quartet transformed a performance space on New...
Arturo O’ Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra with special guest Donald Harrison Jr. at Symphony Space, Saturday February 26, 2011 Performance Review by Tomas Peña Fresh from a triumphant trip to Cuba, Arturo...
Maestro Chucho Valdés and the Afro Cuban Messengers performed to a full-house at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Allen Room. The show was part of the institution's Afro-Cuban celebration, which served to promote cultural and artistic exchange between American and Cuban jazz musicians and culminated in a series of events in Havana, Cuba and New York City [...]
Pianists abound in the Island of Cuba. Excellent pianists indeed, but only a selected group meet the high standards of virtuosity. Hilario Luis Durán Torres, better known as Hilario Durán belongs to that group. His nickname "Con Tumbao" fits him perfectly well. His percussive attack is killer. Born in Havana, Cuba in 1953, Durán never dreamed he would become a Canadian citizen one day, even less that he would make Toronto his permanent residence [...]
This unique musical group was first conceived in Havana, Cuba in 1992 at the National Theatre with the great Cuban pianists José María Vitier and the late Frank Emilio. It was brought to fruition in Canada in 1993 with a ground-breaking concert at the Glenn Gould Theatre (CBC) and became Jane Bunnett's recording debut for EMI/Bluenote [...]
La Perfecta 2 is the reincarnation of Conjunto La Perfecta, which came to be known as La Perfecta and whose over arching mission was “to destroy the dancer’s.” The band reigned supreme from 1961 to 1968 and was notorious for its trademark duo trombone sound and killer rhythm section. La Perfecta is one of the most influential and imitated bands in the history of Latin music [...]