Patato y Totico: Patato and Totico
This seminal recording by one of the finest congueros Carlos “Patato” Valdés and Eugenio "Totico" Arango, another great Cuban musical figure, also features two...
Tito Puente: The Best of the Concord Years
Producing a compilation of the music of someone like Tito Puente is no easy task. With scores of recordings where do you start? What...
The Caribbean Jazz Project: Dave Samuels, Paquito D’Rivera, Andy Narell
This 1995 recording, made on the Telarc label, Heads Up was the debut album for the iconic group, The Caribbean Jazz Project. On the...
Mongo Santamaría: Mongo at The Village Gate
Mongo Santamaria, more than any other Cuban percussionist, has had a wider appeal across musical idioms and metaphors. His music comes from deep within...
Bebo Valdés Trio: El Arte Del Sabor
There is no “one” single iconic recording by the great Bebo Valdés. The pianist was an epitomé of good taste, which is not the...
Marlon Simon and The Nagual Spirits: Rumba a la Patato
Essential Albums Revisited
There are many reasons why it is a remarkable travesty of justice that the celebrated Venezuelan drummer and percussionist, Marlon Simon, has...
Patato: Masterpiece
Arguably the greatest Afro-Cuban percussionist that ever lived (bar Tata Güines, perhaps), Carlos “Patato” Valdés is, also one of the greatest showmen of the...
Estrellas de Areito: Los Héroes
Although much of the world was welcoming of Cuba after the Revolution and although many artists did flee the country for a new world of freedom and...
Pancho Quinto: Rumba Sin Fronteras
Few drummers have had such a profound effect on Cuban music as Pancho Quinto. Superlatives are often risqué in music, but suffice it to...
Pérez Prado & Shorty Rogers: Voodoo Suite
Essential Albums Revisited
Who knew that Dámaso Pérez Prado, the “Mambo King”, director of Sonora Matancera between 1936 and 1939, long before he formed his...
Ray Barretto: Time Was – Time is
The ubiquitous and colourful conga drum often resides in a cluttered space especially in Latin Jazz, a music that it seems to have shaped...
Cal Tjader: The Very Best of the Concord Years
These recordings have captured the vibraphone artistry of Cal Tjader in what was to become the last years of his life. He was only...
Cal Tjader, Eddie Palmieri: El Sonido Nuevo / The New Soul Sound
Essential Albums Revisited
“The finest work to date is, without question, El Sonido Nuevo. Vocal music is jettisoned, thus revealing, once and for all, the...
Chico O’Farrill: The Afro-Cuban Jazz Suites 1 and 2
Arturo “Chico” O’Farrill, who was born in Cuba in 1921, decided to follow family tradition and enter into law practice. But before he could...
Herbie Mann: Flautista
This recording by Herbie Mann is an extremely rare and beautiful disc. Originally recorded in 1959, it has been available as an analogue recording...
Armando Romeu: 1er Concierto de la Orq Cubana de Música Moderna
The Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna was one of the early swing bands that rocked Cuba and it’s hardly surprising why. The big band...
Bobby Sanabria Big Band: Live & in Clave
Sixteen years ago Bobby Sanabria took his Big Band on the road and when they were in Birdland on May 20 in 1999, the...
Kenny Dorham: Afro-Cuban
The fabled Spanish tinge has hovered on the fringes of jazz a lot longer ago that it was known to have been introduced into...
Jane Bunnett: Spirits of Havana
Every one of the albums that Jane Bunnett has made, with or without her husband and trumpet/flugelhorn player, Larry Cramer, with or without Don...
Stan Getz-Charlie Byrd: Jazz Samba
The year 2014 marks fifty-two years after the classic album Jazz Samba, was recorded. There is a very good reason for the extraordinary longevity...