Albums
Orquesta Faílde: Faílde con Tumbao
Eight years have passed since Ethiel Faílde (he’s the great-great-nephew of the musical creator of the danzón Miguel Faílde) and a group of talented musicians created in 2012 the Orquesta Miguel Faílde, later known as Orquesta Faílde, and today simply called La Faílde by his loyal admirers in the province of Matanzas, through the island of Cuba and throughout the world. Made up of young musicians, La Faílde has earned its very important place in the wide Cuban artistic scene. In fact, they have become a musical benchmark, an example to follow when combining talent, artistic education, hard work and passion and love for the work that is done, without forgetting of course the decisive support of the musical industry and cultural organizations. This explosive mix makes anything possible, and when we add the promotional component now available through social media, from platforms that help artists make themselves known worldwide, the result has to be encouraging and positive.
Faílde con Tumbao is the third album recorded by this magnificent ensemble, under the Egrem label. Recently released to the market only in digital format, due to the restrictions imposed globally by the pandemic we are experiencing, it will be offered in compact disc format when conditions allow. Now, this album was released with only eight songs, which does not diminish its quality and content at all, but my first impression when I heard it was to keep waiting for more songs. The reason is that a decision was taken to avoid delaying the launching of the album and two songs that were still unfinished will be included in the physical edition of the album. One theme will be La Faílde’s version and vision of “Nereidas”, the most famous of the Mexican danzones, and the other theme will be a surprise.
Ethiel Fernández Faílde, flutist, arranger and director of La Faílde told us about this project: “This album shows like no other the breadth of genres and styles that La Faílde assumes in its live performances, with a repertoire that covers more than one century of Cuban music. In this case the time counter begins in 1883, when Miguel Faílde writes the danzón “Nievecita” and continues to the present day with themes specially conceived for this album.” The fact that this is the first time this beautiful song is recorded is remarkable. “By 2012 (almost at the same time that we founded the orchestra) we began this ‘archaeological’ work in the archives of the National Museum of Music. We found several scores of Miguel and his brother Cándido. I felt as if Faílde himself was telling me: here is my legacy so that you can show it to the world, from one Faílde to another Faílde, this is my challenge for you. From the danzón “Nievecita” we only found the melody, with reminiscences of the classical style and a playful and naive air. I made the orchestration and defined the harmonic progression. I was tempted to add a montuno, make everything more complex, but in the end I preferred to respect the tradition and its concept of structure and melody. I took very few liberties, especially in the last part to achieve an unexpected closing effect.”
There is a very important component in this project that has to do with that indispensable task of rescuing musical history, promoting the heritage of Cuban music. In this regard, Ethiel talks about how “that rescue work, the promotion of the Cuban music heritage is vital for us, as much as “creating” new hits or showing our contributions. Miguel Faílde Pérez, despite being the musical creator of the danzón, has been known during the second half of the 20th century and until today, solely as the author of “Las Alturas de Simpson”, a widely known danzón. Something similar occurs with (José Manuel) Aniceto Díaz, also from Matanzas, who is one of the most outstanding creators of dance music, outstanding flutist, composer, conductor and pedagogue. That is why we have practically done archaeological work with the scores of both, and we want to record and include in each album something of those authors, in addition to showing our own creations. We also bet on high-quality versions, the music today is very ephemeral, everything is diluted very quickly between what is fashionable and so much poor quality content.”
There are many elements to highlight in the creation and completion of this successful project. The guest musicians, the arrangers, starting with Alejandro Falcón, who has collaborated closely with La Faílde throughout many years. Falcón was in charge of arranging four songs: “Esas no son Cubanas”, a classic by Ignacio Piñero; “Me desordeno”, a poem by Carilda Oliver Labra, set to music by Pedro Pablo Cruz; who also contributes two songs of his authorship: “La Cumbanchá” and “Tumbao”. Gonzalo Rubalcaba, one of the most renowned and internationally recognized Cuban pianists, is responsible for arranging the theme that opens this album, “Concierto en Varsovia”; José Antonio González made the arrangement for “Havana”, an international hit of recent times in a hot and very Cuban version. Ethiel Faílde and José Antonio González collaborate in the arrangement of “Nievecita”, written by Miguel Faílde in 1883; Yosvany Terry, brilliant saxophonist, chékere virtuoso, visionary composer and educator based in the United States was in charge of arranging “It do me good”.
It is worth noting the work of Pedro Pablo Cruz in the general and executive production for Egrem, as well as in the musical production, which he shares with Ethiel Failde and Ignacio “Nacho” Molino. Pedro Pablo accurately explains to us that “La Faílde is at a time when it is important to incorporate a new repertoire and not just do the great danzón classics of traditional music, now we need songs that people will hear for the first time in La Faílde, with the format of this young orchestra that defends the danzón, that defends the best essences of Cuban music, but that also has the mission of being a musical bridge and a generational bridge between all Cubans and all of us who love our music.”
One of the songs that shines with its own light on this album is undoubtedly “Me desordeno”, a literary gem written by poet Carilda Oliver Labra brought to the musical field by Pedro Pablo Cruz. It was recorded in 2017 and now it has found its very appropriate place in Faílde con Tumbao. This leads us to talk about the splendid participation of the special guests. First of all we have the incomparable Omara Portuondo. Pedro Pablo talks about her and about the special song that she was invited to sing: “Talking one day with Omara, I told her about the poem and she tells me that she has a special affection for that text and for Carilda Oliver. This was the opportunity also because the poem celebrated a milestone anniversary in 2017 and in 2018 Carilda turned 95 years old, so we set ourselves to the task of bringing that to a melody that was conceived specially for Omara. She has an extraordinary facility for halftones, to play with the tempo (rubato), to extend her voice to unimaginable, unsuspected places.”
“Me desordeno”, with an arrangement by Alejandro Falcón, is a captivating danzón that opens with tango airs, and then segues into an inebriating cha cha chá. A true tribute to Carilda Oliver. For Ethiel Faílde at that time, having the participation of the Lady of Cuban Song was the realization of a big dream: “It was really a privilege to have the great Omara Portuondo, the diva of the Buena Vista Social Club and for me she is a very personal diva… I had been searching for a long time how to get to Omara, and with what theme, and that I had been given the opportunity to have her sing this poem (which is also so important for us the people from Matanzas and for Cuban culture) by Carilda Oliver, putting it to music and somehow reaching other audiences, other than just literature, was a big dream that we finally realized.”
Then we have the participation of one of the icons of the island of Borinquen, the legendary singer-songwriter Andrés Montañez Rodríguez, better known as Andy Montañez. His 15 years with El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico made him an international star, and his duet performance of Ignacio Piñeiro’s “Esas no son Cubanas” with Yurisán Hernández adorns this album.
Two virtuous musicians, the Uruguayan violinist Federico Britos, and the Cuban pianist Alejandro Falcón are in charge of giving a touch of elegance and sophistication to the theme that opens this album, “Concierto en Varsovia”. A trumpet giant, Julito Padrón, from Matanzas, is responsible for raising an original and very Cuban version of “Havana” to another level. Impossible not to get carried away by its contagious rhythm.
“Faílde con Tumbao allows us to better show the identity of the orchestra, the musicians have matured more, understand the dynamics of the studio and have lived many enriching experiences such as international presentations and musical accompaniment to Lizt Alfonso Dance Cuba. This chapter in particular forced us to look at other musical references and practices that have made us grow,” says Ethiel Faílde, who also believes without a doubt that “in addition to the sound of La Faílde, the format, in this album you can better appreciate the work of our vocalists (Yerlanis Junco and Yurisán Hernández), the timbres and styles of each one contribute to seal the identity of the group. Although we think of a global recipient, on this album “la matanceridad” is very present, we are proud to be from Matanzas, the land of White, Faílde, Pérez Prado, Frank Domínguez, the land where Arsenio Rodríguez, Barbarito Diez, Celina González, Ernesto Duarte were born, the land of the Sonora Matancera and rumba capital with Los Muñequitos de Matanzas as emblem. That is very present from the cover and to the selection of the repertoire. Matanzas is our starting point, we feel like ambassadors of that land and successors of a legacy.”
Ethiel explains that in this project they have given special attention to the sound. Although there is a lot of musical quality in Cuba and the vitality of its exponents is impressive, it should be noted that the technique of recording and post-production of the sound has not necessarily gone hand in hand. “That is why this material is enriched with the vision of Ignacio” Nacho “Molino and Alex Psroudakis who assumed the jobs of mixing and mastering, respectively. They took the sound of La Faílde to another level, starting of course with the essential recording work of Daelsis Pena at Egrem’s studios in Cuba. Nacho and Alex are multiple Grammy Awards winners and have worked with artists such as Rubén Blades and Joan Manuel Serrat, just to mention two names. There is no doubt that his ears and experience have been vital for the realization of this project.”
To conclude this conversation Ethiel expresses the following: “In summary, Faílde with Tumbao shows the evolution of the Faílde Orchestra in the last five years. Our very first album was recorded in 2015, and our previous studio work Siempre tu voz was more a commission, a petition from Egrem to celebrate the centenary of Benny Moré, which involved a work more focused on the work of that great artist and to support Omara Portuondo, who was the main protagonist of that phonogram. This album is more what we are and want to be, there are versions of the songs that we like the most [“Concierto en Varsovia”, “Havana”, “Esas no son cubanas”, “It do me good”]; there are premieres [“La Cumbanchá”, “Tumbao”]; and you can appreciate the rescue work and promotion of Cuban heritage and musical memory [in songs like “Nievecita” and Me desordeno”].”
- Related Article: Ethiel Faílde – Keeper of the Flame of Danzón
Track list – 1: Concierto en Varsovia (Richard Addinsell/Roy Douglas); 2: Esas no son Cubanas (Ignacio Piñeiro); 3: Havana (Camila Cabello y various authors); 4: Me desordeno (lyrics: Carilda Oliver/music: Pedro Pablo Cruz); 5: Nievecita (Miguel Faílde/Ethiel Faílde); 6: It do me good (Brenda Brandony Huey “Piano” Smith); 7: La Cumbanchá (Pedro Pablo Cruz); 8: Tumbao (Pedro Pablo Cruz).
Personnel – Orquesta Faílde – Ethiel Faílde: Flauta; Yurisán Hernández: main voice on 2, 8 and choirs; Yerlanis Junco: main voice on 3, 6, 7 and choirs; Roldany Hernández: piano on 2, 3, 5, 6; Andy Cantera: double bass on 5, 6, and electric bass on 1 and 3; Rosalí Bazán y Roldany Hernández: violins; Katerina Pérez: second violin on 5, 8, 11; Lucio Carriera: tumbadora on all tracks except 3; Rey Manuel Silveira: timbales on all tracks except 3 and 8; Manuel Alejandro Acosta: trumpets; Adrián Peña: trombone; Mario Rodríguez: alto sax and clarinet; Wilbert Tarajano: choirs; Pedro Pablo Cruz: choirs.
Special Guests – Omara Portuondo: main voice – Me desordeno; Andy Montañez: main voice – Esas no son Cubanas; Federico Britos: violin – Concierto en Varsovia; Julito Padrón: trumpet – Havana; Alejandro Falcón: piano – Concierto en Varsovia.
Arrangers – Alejandro Falcón: 2, 4, 7 y 8; Gonzalo Rubalcaba: Concierto en Varsovia; José Antonio González: Havana; Ethiel Faílde y José Antonio González: Nievecita; Yosvany Terry: It do me good.
Guests Musicians – Alejandro Falcón: piano on 1, 4, 7 y 8; Lázaro Rivero (El Fino): double bass on 4; Andrés Coayo: minor percussion, miscellaneous and güiro on all tracks; timbales on 3 and 12; Lázaro Antonio González (Tonito): first trumpet on 7 and 8; José Antonio González (Tony): keyboards and synthesizers on 1; Jorge Coayo: maracas, tumbadoras on 3; Roberto Vázquez (El chino): baby bass on 2, 7 and 8.
General and Executive Production for EGREM: Pedro Pablo Cruz
Musical Production: Ethiel Faílde, Ignacio “Nacho” Molino y Pedro Pablo Cruz
Musical Direction: Ethiel Faílde
Assistant to the Musical Director: Roldany Hernández
Production Assistant: Osvaldo Pérez and Erioth Curbelo
Selection of Repertoire: Ethiel Faílde and Pedro Pablo Cruz
Recording: Daelsis Pena, Ana Laura Vilaragut, José Raúl Varona
Recording assistant: Rayco Alejandro Silva
Recording (violin) Federico Britos: José Antulio Mora
Edition: Ignacio “Nacho” Molino, Dayana Rodríguez, Daelsis Pena
Mix: Ignacio “Nacho” Molino
Mastering: Alex Psaroudakis
Most of the album was recorded at Egrem Studios 18, in Havana, between October 2019 and January of this year. Mixing and mastering were done in New York.
For Claudia Acuña, home has never been a fixed destination. It is something carried—in the body, in memory, in language, and in sound.
On Ave de Luz, the Chilean vocalist brings those fragments together with unusual clarity. After three decades in New York, Acuña no longer treats her roots as something to weave quietly into jazz. She places them at the center. Her striking declaration—“I’m coming in with my crown, my poncho, my everything”—captures the album’s spirit perfectly.
Raised in Concepción during Chile’s dictatorship years and later transformed by New York’s jazz scene, Acuña has spent much of her career moving between worlds. Ave de Luz feels like the moment when those worlds stop competing with one another.
A Specifically Chilean Jazz
Acuña has resisted the idea that “Latin jazz” can be reduced to a single vocabulary. Afro-Cuban and Brazilian traditions may dominate the popular understanding of the term, but Latin America contains countless rhythmic, folkloric and indigenous languages.
Her own metaphor is simple: noodles and spaghetti may look related, but they are not the same thing.
That idea shapes Ave de Luz. The album is not merely jazz with Chilean colour added to it. It is music whose identity emerges from cueca, Andean traditions, indigenous sonorities, poetry, migration and improvisation.
The trutruka, charango, zampoña, tormento and Chilean pandero become part of the album’s grammar. They interact with Manu Koch’s piano and keyboards, Carlos Henderson’s bass and Yayo Serka’s drums and percussion without sounding ornamental or exoticized.
Poetry, Memory and Resistance
“Chinga La Ka Chinga” captures one of the album’s most expansive ideas. Festive on the surface, the piece also acknowledges Afro-Chilean and northern Chilean currents, suggesting how celebration can carry history, resistance and cultural memory within its pulse.
Elsewhere, the music turns inward. “Piececitos de Niño,” inspired by Gabriela Mistral, brings poetry and childhood into the album’s emotional landscape, while “Rezo” feels almost elemental: voice, charango, atmosphere and silence shaping a meditation on nature, distance and belonging.
Acuña’s reading of Violeta Parra’s “La Jardinera” is equally significant. Its imagery of planting, tending and healing becomes an apt metaphor for tradition itself. Culture survives not by remaining untouched, but by being replanted. Acuña does precisely that.
The Wind From the South
“Viento del Sur” also carries special resonance, recalling the title of Acuña’s 2000 debut, Wind from the South. Then, the image suggested a Chilean artist arriving in the international jazz world. Here, the meaning has changed.
The south is no longer where she came from. It is something she continues to carry.
That idea finds its fullest expression in the title track. The “bird of light” becomes an image of migration without erasure—a figure moving forward while remaining connected to its place of origin. The metaphor fits Acuña herself.
Her longtime musical relationship with Koch, Henderson and Serka gives Ave de Luz much of its freedom. Years of trust let the ensemble move naturally between folk memory, jazz improvisation and contemporary textures without forcing boundaries between them.
Ave de Luz may be Claudia Acuña’s most complete artistic statement because it no longer asks her identities to compromise.
The crown is experience.
The poncho is memory.
Jazz is the road between them.
And Claudia Acuña travels that road carrying Chile fully into the light.
Album Information
- Artist: Claudia Acuña
- Album: Ave de Luz: Chilean Jazz & Soul
- Label: Delfin Records
- Release date: July 10, 2026
- Genre: Jazz / Vocal Jazz / Chilean jazz
- Format: Digital/streaming
- Final digital release: 7 tracks, approximately 36 minutes
Tracklist
- Chinga La Ka Chinga – (Claudia Acuña, Coch, Hernandez & Serka) – 4:43
- Ave de Luz– (Mario Rojas) – 5:48
- Viento del Sur– (Claudia Acuña & Jason Lindner) – 6:01
- Rezo– (Claudia Acuña) – 3:49
- Piececitos de Niño– (Based on a poem of Gabriela Mistral / Music by Claudia Acuña) – 6:10
- Un Gorro de Lana– (Víctor Acosta) – 4:18
- La Jardinera– (Violeta Parra) – 6:01
Personnel
- Claudia Acuña – vocals, percussion/claps, tormento; producer
- Manu Koch – piano and keyboards (tracks 1, 2, 3, 5)
- Carlos Henderson – bass
- Yayo Serka – drums and percussion
- Pablo Vergara – piano (tracks 6, 8)
- Andrés Pollak – piano, organ; producer (track 7) | organ (track 1)
- Pablo Zárate – accordion, Chilean pandero (track 2)
- Fredy Torralba – traditional Chilean/Andean instruments including charango, trutruka and zampoña
- Paulina García – spoken word (track 6)
- Daniel Kelley-Acuña – vocals (track 6)
Production Credits
Produced by Claudia Acuña and Andrés Pollak. Most of the sessions were recorded at East Side Sound in New York in November 2025, with “Ave de Luz” recorded at TOC Música in Santiago in October 2025 and additional recording completed at Banduria Studio in Santiago. Andrés Pollak handled engineering on the principal New York sessions; Rafael Chaparro engineered the Santiago title-track session with Javier Lizana assisting. Marc Urselli mixed and mastered the project.
With La Malinche, Eva Cortés delivers one of the most ambitious recordings of her career—a project in which history, identity, migration and music converge around one of the most contested figures in the Americas.
Malintzin, also known as Doña Marina or La Malinche, has long been portrayed through conflicting narratives: interpreter, intermediary, mother of mestizaje, victim, survivor and, in later nationalist mythology, traitor. Cortés does not try to settle that debate. Instead, she uses Malintzin as a symbol of cultural transition, displacement and survival.
That choice makes particular sense for an artist whose own life has unfolded across borders. Born in Honduras (Central America), shaped culturally in Seville (Spain) and later immersed in New York’s jazz community, Cortés has always made music from the space between traditions. On La Malinche, that in-between space becomes the heart of the album.
A Music of Crossings
The album brings together flamenco, Latin jazz, contemporary jazz and Indigenous-inspired imagery without turning the result into a forced fusion.
Rather than attempting to recreate pre-Columbian Mexican music literally, Cortés evokes Indigenous memory through percussion, communal voices, repetition and themes of ancestry, earth and maize. Flamenco enters through Spanish guitar, vocal inflection and the expressive grit associated with cante. Jazz supplies the harmonic freedom and improvisational space that allow those elements to interact.
The musicians surrounding Cortés are crucial to that balance. Pianists Pepe Rivero, Jon Cowherd and Zaccai Curtis, bassists Christian McBride, Luques Curtis and Reinier Elizarde “Negrón,” and drummers Antonio Sánchez, Adam Cruz and Georvis Pico give the album both rhythmic strength and harmonic flexibility. Roman Filiú, Paco Heredia, Marvin Sewell, Bandolero and others expand the palette further. The result is music that never feels boxed into one category.
The Voice at the Center
Cortés’ singing remains the album’s most powerful instrument. Her phrasing can be loose and conversational, then suddenly sharpen into something more urgent and flamenco-inflected. She moves between reflection, mourning, protest and defiance without sacrificing musical control.
Most importantly, she refuses to define Malintzin through betrayal. Her interpretation focuses instead on endurance and complexity.
The opening “Abuelita Malinche” immediately makes that clear. By calling her “Abuelita,” Cortés transforms Malinche from a figure of accusation into an ancestral presence. The arrangement blends Latin-jazz movement with flamenco coloration, while her wordless vocal passages move naturally between scat and cante.
“Hij@s del Maíz” extends that idea of cultural mixture. Paco Heredia’s guitar, Pepe Rivero’s piano, Antonio Sánchez’s drums and the accordion create a sound that travels across regions rather than belonging to one. Maize becomes a symbol of Indigenous continuity, while the music reflects the constantly changing character of mestizaje itself.
From History to the Present
The album becomes even more powerful when it connects the past to contemporary realities.
“Letters to Heaven” and “Remember Me” introduce themes of Indigenous loss and the disappearance of women from both historical memory and present-day communities. “Sur Global” shifts toward resistance, combining rhythmic drive with a broader reflection on colonialism, migration and inequality.
Then “Spanish Harlem” brings the journey firmly into the present. Horns, flute, tumbao and call-and-response place Cortés within New York’s Latin-jazz tradition, completing a musical path that stretches from ancestral memory to the modern city.
A Major Statement
La Malinche is more than an album built around a historical figure. It is a meditation on who controls history, who gets remembered and how identity continues to change across generations and borders.
Cortés turns her own musical hybridity into the album’s central idea. Jazz, flamenco and Latin American traditions do not simply coexist here—they help tell the story.
The result is one of her strongest and most focused recordings to date: emotionally direct, musically sophisticated and deeply rooted in the ongoing conversation between memory and transformation. La Malinche is not about recovering a pure past. It is about reclaiming the right to reinterpret it.
Album Information
- Artist: Eva Cortés
- Album: La Malinche
- Label: Truth Revolution Records / TRRcollective
- Release: June 2026
- Official press release date: June 5, 2026
- TRRcollective Bandcamp release date: June 19, 2026
- Format: CD / Digital
- Number of tracks: 11
- Total running time: 51:53
- Genre: Jazz / Latin Jazz / Flamenco / Afro-Latin
- Recorded in: Madrid, Spain, and Little Falls, New Jersey, USA
Tracklist
- Abuelita Malinche — 4:35
- A Tribo do Vento — 5:46
- Soy el Aire — 5:31
- Light and Sorrow — 3:59
- Hij@s del Maíz — 4:24
- Letters to Heaven — 5:04
- Remember Me — 3:28
- Sur Global — 5:43
- No Me Limites — 4:33
- Indians of All Tribes — 3:53
- Spanish Harlem — 4:57
Personnel
- Eva Cortés — vocals, composer, lyricist, backing vocals
- Pepe Rivero — piano, keyboards, arrangements
- Jon Cowherd — piano
- Zaccai Curtis — piano, keyboards
- Christian McBride — bass
- Luques Curtis — bass
- Reinier Elizarde “Negrón” — bass
- Paco Heredia — Spanish guitar, guitar, arrangements
- Marvin Sewell — guitar
- Roman Filiú — saxophone, flute, backing vocals
- Bobby Martínez — saxophone
- Manuel Machado — trumpet
- Antonio Serrano — harmonica
- Javier Colina — accordion
- Bandolero — percussion
- Roland Guerrero — percussion
- Antonio Sánchez — drums
- Adam Cruz — drums
- Georvis Pico — drums, vocal solo, backing vocals
Production Credits
- Produced by: Eva Cortés, Roman Filiú and Pepe Rivero
- Label: Truth Revolution Records / TRRcollective
- Session One: Camaleón Music Studio, Madrid, Spain
- Recording Engineer, Madrid: Diego Román
- Session Two: Studio Mozart, Little Falls, New Jersey, USA
- Recording Engineer, New Jersey: Kostadin Kamcev
- Mixing: David Darlington
- Mastering: David Darlington
- Mixing and Mastering Studio: Bass Hit Studios, New York, NY
- Photography: Noah Shaye
The title Abriendo Puertas—“Opening Doors”—captures the spirit of guitarist Roni Ben-Hur’s latest recording with unusual precision. Recorded in Havana with an accomplished group of Cuban musicians, the album is built not around the novelty of a visiting jazz guitarist encountering Cuban music, but around something more meaningful: musicians listening closely enough to find a common language.
Ben-Hur has spent much of his career moving naturally between musical worlds. Born in Israel to a Tunisian family and shaped professionally by New York’s jazz community, his playing draws from bebop, Brazilian music, Mediterranean traditions and Latin rhythms without sounding like a collection of influences. His years with pianist and mentor Barry Harris helped establish the melodic clarity, swing and understated sophistication that remain central to his guitar style. On Abriendo Puertas, those qualities fit remarkably well within a Cuban setting.
The key creative partner is pianist Alejandro Falcón, who contributes four of the seven compositions: the title track, “Gua’ One Blues Pal Bobby,” “Lo que es del César” and “El Teide.” Rather than treating Ben-Hur as a soloist placed in front of a Cuban rhythm section, Falcón helps create an ensemble language in which guitar and piano continuously exchange roles. Their compatibility is evident from the opening title track, where rhythmic momentum and lyrical improvisation develop patiently rather than through display.
“Gua’ One Blues Pal Bobby” pushes the conversation toward the blues while retaining a strong Cuban rhythmic identity. It is one of the album’s most spirited performances, illustrating how readily the vocabulary of jazz can coexist with the rhythmic imagination surrounding Ben-Hur in Havana. By the time the ensemble reaches “Lo que es del César” and “El Teide,” the distinction between guest and host has largely disappeared. What remains is a cohesive band responding to one another in real time.
The album’s romantic center comes through three classic Latin American songs. José Antonio Méndez’s “Mi Mejor Canción” brings the intimacy of the Cuban filin tradition into the program, while Osdalgia Lesmes appears on Isolina Carrillo’s “Dos Gardenias” and Armando Manzanero’s “Esta tarde vi llover.”
Lesmes brings warmth and emotional directness to both performances, and Ben-Hur proves once again what a sensitive accompanist he can be. His guitar surrounds the voice rather than competing with it, reflecting an approach he has developed through years of working with singers, including the late Brazilian vocalist Leny Andrade. Ben-Hur has spoken of the importance of leaving space for vocalists and allowing melody and lyric to remain at the center of an arrangement.
That same sense of space benefits the entire recording. Pedro Pablo Gutiérrez on acoustic bass, Ruy López-Nussa on drums and Octavio Rodríguez Rivera on percussion provide a foundation that is rhythmically rich without becoming overcrowded. Tenor saxophonist Emir Santa Cruz, featured on four tracks, adds another expressive voice and gives several performances a broader jazz-ensemble character.
Recorded at DBega Studios in Havana in November 2025, Abriendo Puertas is part of the Cuban Notes recording series co-produced by Ben-Hur and Dot Time Records founder Johanan “Jo” Bickhardt. Yet the album succeeds beyond the concept behind the series.
Its strength is ultimately found in the musicians themselves. Nobody appears interested in proving how effortlessly jazz and Cuban music can be combined. They simply play together until those distinctions become secondary.
For listeners who appreciate expressive jazz guitar, Cuban music and recordings where collaboration matters more than spectacle, Abriendo Puertas is easy to recommend. Warm, sophisticated and deeply conversational, it finds Roni Ben-Hur opening another musical door—and discovering an ensemble waiting on the other side.
Album Information
Artist: Roni Ben-Hur
Album: Abriendo Puertas
Label: Dot Time Records
Catalog: DT9192
Genre: Jazz / Latin Jazz
Release Date: June 26, 2026
Recorded: November 2025
Studio: DBega Studios, Havana, Cuba
Format: CD / Digital
Program: 7 tracks, approximately 49 minutes.
The project is part of Cuban Notes, co-produced by Johanan “Jo” Bickhardt and Roni Ben-Hur. It follows Alejandro Falcón’s Falcón in Blue as the second album in the series.
Tracklist
1. Abriendo Puertas – Alejandro Falcón – 8:12
2. Mi Mejor Canción – José Antonio Méndez – 6:32
3. Dos Gardenias – Isolina Carrillo – 5:23
4. Gua’ One Blues Pal Bobby – Alejandro Falcón – 9:23
5. Esta tarde vi llover – Armando Manzanero – 5:56
6. Lo que es del César – Alejandro Falcón – 6:17
7. El Teide – Alejandro Falcón – 7:49
Personnel Credits
Roni Ben-Hur — guitar
Alejandro Falcón — piano
Pedro Pablo Gutiérrez — acoustic bass
Ruy López-Nussa — drums
Octavio Rodríguez Rivera — percussion
Emir Santa Cruz — tenor saxophone, tracks 1, 4, 5 and 7
Osdalgia Lesmes — vocals, tracks 3 and 5
Production Credits
Executive Producer: Johanan “Jo” Bickhardt
Co-Producer: Roni Ben-Hur
Recorded at: DBega Studios, Havana
Recording date: November 2025
Sound Engineer: Carlos D’Bega
Label: Dot Time Records
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