The artistic goldmine that is Cuba continues to give up its riches. Even before Machito was “discovered” by Dizzy Gillespie (and much later, Gonzalo Rubalcaba) there were stellar musicians flourishing there; way before Batista that...
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More Noteworthy Recordings of 2011
Most fans, even aficionados of contemporary music, still only vaguely know the great trumpeter Claudio Roditi as the “Brazilian who joined Arturo Sandoval in Dizzy Gillespie’s United Nations Orchestra”. It is a pity that Roditi’s musical reputation rests on so narrow a spectrum in his enormous musical career. Few know, for instance, that Roditi was one of the first Brazilian musicians to relocate in the United States of America: in 1970 as a matter of fact [...]
Federico Britos – Voyage (Sunnyside Records – 2010)
As the world continues to awake to the rising tide of undiscovered music and musicians from the South American paradigm—in an almost ironic kind of reversal of Alejo Carpentier’s voyage of musical discovery in Los Pasos Perdidos (E.D.I.A.P.S.A, 1953) or to the English-speaking world The Lost Steps (Alfred Knopf, 1956, Univ. of Minnesota, 2001)—the Cuban violinist Federico Britos celebrates five decades in the lonely and all but forgotten [...]
Arturo Stable Quintet – Call (Origen Records – 2009)
There are a few times—only just a few times—when musicians are able to find the intensity in a performance where the primordial cry is so distinct that communication with the Divine is so total, it may be experienced almost like an out-of-body one. Such is the intensity with which the artists have made the compositions of Arturo Stable come alive on Call [...]