Best Recordings of 2010: Hilario Durán Trio – Motion; Danilo Perez – Providencia; Roberto Fonseca – Akokan; Jovino Santos Neto – Veja o Som/See the Sound; Alain Perez - Apetecible; Paquito D’Rivera with the Pablo Aslan Ensemble – Tango Jazz; Alex Brown – Pianist; Chicago Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble – Blueprints; Samuel Torres – Yaoundé; Hector Martignon – Second Chance [...]
Catching Up with Percussionist, Composer, Arranger Samuel Torres
My grandfather, Manuel Martinez was a trombone player. He came from a small town in southern Colombia near Ecuador. At the age of fourteen he escaped from the Ecuadorian army and he traveled throughout the Caribbean during the 1930s and 1940s. Before returning to Colombia he picked up a lot of musical influences. My grandmother was a self-taught musician and my uncle, Francisco Martinez, who is the father of (pianist, composer, arranger) Edy Martinez [...]
Samuel Torres – Yaoundé (Self Produced – 2010)
For the spirits to materialise when they are summoned in worship the practice of the worship must reach a level of intensity—get to the blue part of the flame, so to speak—and arouse the angels and God as well to come down and bless the worshippers a million-fold. When David played his harp, so intense was his music that Samuel was inspired to anoint him King. Now it is the turn of another Samuel, not to anoint, but to call up the angels and saints [...]

