This album by the composer and tenor saxophonist Jacques Schwarz-Bart Jazz Racine Haïti is significant for several factual reasons and the core aspects and of the internecine connection of these aspects with the music triangulated between Africa, Europe and the Americas. First the facts: the people of Haïti—erstwhile slaves from the kingdom of Dahomey were the first to be freed from bondage. It is known that groups of this Diaspora dispersed between Haïti, Guantanamo, Cuba and Louisiana, especially New Orleans. This gave rise to a new triangulated source of the African-Cuban-American music of early jazz and what has seemingly fueled the spiritualism of jazz throughout its history until even the modern day, via Santeria, Voodoo and Candomblé. Haïti has and will always be uniquely related to jazz in the same manner as Santeria is to African-Cuban music and Candomblé is to African-Brasilian music. The base of the musical roots of Haïti is Racine, which in turn is distinctly related to man’s spiritualism and is also the relationship of the relentless God with his human subjects; as ancient as man himself, but also more ancient than that as it formed the existence of a God that transcends time and place. This is also the God of Racine who pursued the soul of man relentlessly, often with tragic consequences, but nevertheless with singular intent: to possess man as his own creation.
As with his soul so also with his music and relationship lies at the heart of the meditative music of Jacques Bart-Schwarz. Music; that is the “Racine” music and the kinship that lies at the root of Voodoo melds with jazz and—in the very essence of this (jazz) music—the blood-curdling, spine-chilling blues from whence Jazz was born is what bursts forth as in a vortex from the horns of Mr. Schwarz-Bart and Etienne Charles and from the chants of the Voodoo priests Erol Josue and Ronza Zila. The drumming and ritual drumming of Obed Calvaire and Jean Bonga… Sound and silence; silence and sound… Echoes in the chamber of each note that is played by the musicians and uttered by the Voodoo priests. The cultural collision that lies at the sound burst of Jacques Schwarz-Bart’s Jazz and between the chants of Dahomey open out the whole cosmology of Voodoo multiplying the Christian galaxy of spirituals with the deities subsumed by Christianity. But through clever creativity, unbridled invention and ingenious improvisation this clash is turned into a profane celebration with spiritual overtones.
Mr. Schwarz-Bart through his liquid glissandos that dapple bluesy phrases and spiritual intercessions has created a new language between tenor saxophone and trumpet. And for that Mr. Charles seems to be in the right place at the right time. Mr. Charles is himself highly spiritual and these bedfellows are pre-eminently disposed to making music that is complex in its proverbial imagery of Voodoo and the moveable metaphor of jazz. This is beautifully expressed in “Kouzon” and “Bande” as well as in “Blues Jon Jon”; as well as in the exquisite and dancing “Kontredans,” “Je Vous Aime Kongo” and “Legba Nan Baye”. The beauty of this music is one of those rare occurrences that come when musicians are truly inspired and are falling with their instruments, through a time warp. It happened once when Chucho Valdés discovered his epiphany and expressed it through Briyumba Palo Congo (Blue Note, 1999( and then again with Roberto Fonseca, who had his own epiphany and expressed it through “Yo” (Harmonia Mundi/Jazz Village-Montuno Producionnes, 2013). This extraordinary benediction from Voodoo is Jacques Schwarz-Bart’s epiphany and it is going to remain in the mind’s mind for a long time indeed.
Track List: Kouzin; Bande; Blues Jon Jon; Bade Zile; Night; Kontredans; Sept Fe; Vaudou Zepole; Je Vous Aime Kongo; Legba Nan Baye.
Personnel: Jacques Schwarz: tenor saxophone; Erol Josue: lead vocals (1, 2, 9); Ronza Zila: lead vocals (4, 8, 9); Stephanie McKay: lead vocals (6); Etienne Charles: trumpet (1 – 9); Milan Milanovic: piano (1 – 4, 7 – 9); Ben Williams: upright bass (1 – 4, 7 – 9); Obed Calvaire: drums (1 – 4, 7 – 9); Gaston Jean-Baptiste “Bonga”: percussion (1 – 4, 7 – 9); Alex Tassel: flugelhorn (5, 6); Gregory Privat: piano (5, 6); Reggie Washington: electric bass (5, 6); Arnaud Dolmen: drums (5, 6); Claude Saturne: percussion (6).
Jacques Schwarz-Bart was born of mixed races. His early experience as a man taught him that one can be a harmonious receptacle for several cultures, as long as each one is given its value and importance. After graduating from the French School of Government (Sciences Po Paris), Jacques has been working for the French Senate. While his first instrument is the Gwoka Drums from Guadeloupe – his native country, he discovers the tenor saxophone at age 24, and three years later, quits his career to go and study at the Berklee College of music.
After playing alongside such luminaries as Roy Hargrove, Danilo Perez, Ari Hoenig, Meshell n’Degeocello, D’angelo or Chucho Valdes, Jacques finally decides to follow his own vision as a band leader. He then leaves Roy Hargrove’s band in 2005 and finalizes his Gwoka Jazz Project, gathering some faithful and talented musicians such as Sonny Troupé, Olivier Juste or Milan Milanovic. Jacques and his Gwoka Project record two albums for Universal, “Soné Ka La” and “Abyss”, which have built his current career as an internationally acclaimed jazz band leader.
In 2010, he releases “Rise Above”, which revives his long lasting collaboration with singer – and spouse – Stephanie McKay. As Bob Davis puts it: “This album sounds like what might have happened if John Coltrane and Minnie Ripperton were to make an album together”.
More recently, Jacques, whose fertile brain seems to never rest, has launched three new projects, ranging from straight jazz to Caribbean roots music. The first one is a free trio with guitar, drums and saxophone. The absence of bass, while freeing the music from the ground, provides an aerial –almost ethereal – quality to the music. The wide open space becomes a formidable launching pad for the multi-dimensional playing of Gilad Hekselman and Obed Calvaire.
During these last years, Jacques had the opportunity to play with drummer Leon Parker, pianist Baptiste Trotignon and bassist Thomas Bramerie. From these encounters, a Quartet came up. The music takes off effortlessly. The players soar with unpredictable but purposeful creativity, while showing an unbreakable sense of unity. All the members of the band contribute in the writing and direction of the music. After playing extensively with Baptiste Trotignon, Thomas Bramerie and Hans van Oosterhout over the course of the last four years, Jacques decided to document their very special chemistry on CD. This quartet recording is entitled “The Art of Dreaming”. It came out in Europe in February 2012 and in the USA in September 2012. It has been received everywhere with critical acclaim.
Last but not least, Jacques has created a project that synergizes modern jazz and ritual voodoo music from Haiti. It features two Voodoo priests: the great singer Errol Josué, and percussionist Gaston Bonga, as well as some of the finest Jazz musicians: Etienne Charles, Obed Calvaire, Luques Cutis, and Milan Milanovic. While remaining a jazz project, the music is lifted by the powerful spirituality of voodoo music. Band members and audience seem to be sailing together on a sea of light. The music has been presented as the headliner for the opening day of the famous Banlieues Bleues festival on March 11th, 2011 in Paris. Jacques then has toured with this project, including concerts in Morocco (Essaouria Festival), France (la Rochelle), Guadeloupe (IloJazz), and more to come.
Based in Milton, Ontario, Canada, Raul is a poet, musician and an accomplished critic whose profound analysis is reinforced by his deep understanding of music, technically as well as historically.
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.
Claudia Acuña – Ave de Luz: Chilean Jazz and Soul (album cover)
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.
PLAYLIST (7 TRACKS) – CLAUDIA ACUÑA – AVE DE LUZ
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
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.
La Malinche – Eva Cortés (album cover)
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.
PLAYLIST (11 TRACKS) – EVA CORTÉS – LA MALINCHE
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
Jazz guitarist Roni Ben-Hur - Photo: www.ronibenhur.com
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.
Roni Ben-Hur – Abriendo Puertas (cover art)
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.
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
