Raul da Gama
Canadian writer. Based in Milton, Ontario, Canada, Raul is a musician and an accomplished writer whose profound analysis is reinforced by his deep understanding of music, technically as well as historically.
Wayne Wallace Latin Jazz Quintet: The Rhythm of Invention
To the unsuspecting ear, this album The Rhythm of Invention from the Wayne Wallace Quintet (plus) might seem like just another Latin-Jazz recording, but...
Yuri Juárez | Jhair Sala: Lima
Yuri Juárez has been exploring music for the guitar in what he calls “música criolla”, broadly, the Afro-Peruvian cultural topography. Following his epic guitar...
Chucho Valdés & Irakere: A 2-CD Retrospective
While you might have to wait until “My Reverie” on Disc Two to experience the full virtuosity of leader and pianist Chucho Valdés, it’s...
Josean Jacobo & Tumbao: Cimarrón
The frequency and intensity of Afro-centric music being created and released across the African Diaspora born and bred among the erstwhile Spanish colonies within...
Remembering Jerry González on his 70th Birthday
Not long ago, I was interviewing two important contributors to the world of American music and letters – Eddie Palmieri and the other was...
David Sánchez: Carib
The words “profoundly beautiful” are often used to describe works of art, but often some works appear to give new meaning to those words...
Michel Camilo: Essence
Following his success with his solo album Live in London Michel Camilo returns to revisiting his music on a very large palette – his...
Chiemi Nakai: Ascendant
Chiemi Nakai displays her remarkable piano chops with the heavy left hand tumbao while still managing to be delicately eloquent. Even when she is...
Cristina Morrison: Impredecible (Voces de Mujer)
When Cristina Morrison released Baronesa she may have been considered an vocal artist of boundless promise, but since then and with the advent of...
New Bojaira: Zorongo Blu
BUY THIS ALBUM ON AMAZON.COM
Jesús Hernández and Alfonso Cid (one half of New Bojaira – the others...
Marlon Simon: Rumba a la Patato
There are many reasons why it is a remarkable travesty of justice that the celebrated Venezuelan drummer and percussionist, Marlon Simon, has had to...
Señor Groove: Little Havana
The real Cuba may be just about ninety miles away from the tip of Florida, but where Señor Groove come from, in Miami, there’s...
Gregor Huebner: Los Soñadores
To listen to the voice of The Dreamers struggling against a manic administration in the 2019 White House is not too much to ask...
Rafael Zaldivar: Consecration
This album from the Quebec-based Rafael Zaldivar entitled Consecration is completely sonically apposite to almost anything Afro-Cuban you might be used to listening to....
Various Artists: The Complete Cuban Jam Sessions
There is much anecdotal evidence – some of it apocryphal – that the Cubans brought a diabolical complexity to Jazz when the musicians among...
Ray Barretto: Standards Rican-ditioned
This album Standards Rican-ditioned by Ray Barretto has a very special – albeit tragic – place in the history and in the everlasting...
Felipe Salles: The Lullaby Project
When you are so perfectly attuned to your ancestry and your culture as Felipe Salles is then you are halfway to producing the most...
Gastón Joya: Mama Ina
A fierce energy leaps out of the opening notes of Mama Ina, the exquisitely-crafted debut album by the prodigiously-gifted bassist Gastón Joya. It is...
Omar Sosa & NDR Big Band: es:sensual
Everything about the music of Omar Sosa seems not only to say that “Tradition is a wonderful reality,” but also something else: “not understanding...
Joaju Cuarteto: Ahoraite
Few recordings that have come out of the pen of (and performances by) Paraguayan musicians have captured the frenetic effervescence of Ahoraite by the...