Paquito Hechavarría: Frankly
This album by the late pianist Paquito Hechavarría, Frankly was recorded in 2007 and released in 2009. Although it has been in circulation for just...
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...
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...
Ritmo y Candela – Rhythm at the Crossroads
Patato, Changuito, Orestes - Ritmo y Candela
Put three mighty Cuban percussionists together at any time and the unquenchable fire of creativity is bound to...
Rubén González: Introducing Rubén González
It is one of those travesties of justice that some of Cuba’s greatest musicians were discovered or re-discovered by adoring audiences worldwide when they...
Cachao: Master Sessions Volumes I & II
Israel “Cachao” López is one of those larger-than-life figures, a monumental Cuban musician. Although not as famous as Bebo Valdés, he was still one...
Victor Assis Brasil: Esperanto / Toca Antonio Carlos Jobim
The first point worth making is that Roberto Quartin’s 1970 recordings of Victor Assis Brasil Esperanto and Toca Antonio Carlos Jobim (now combined by...
Paquito D’Rivera: Tico Tico
Nothing – and I mean nothing; no track list and probably no ensemble either – is more suitable to the emotional intimacy and urgency...
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...
Angá: Echu Mingua
This record Echu Mingua pays tribute to Miguel ‘Angá’ Diaz’s Yoruba deity. This prophetic return to his roots – he says in his notes,...
Dizzy Gillespie y Machito: Afro-Cuban Jazz Moods
Dizzy Gillespie honored his African roots in many ways. His chameleonic writing was a testament to this fact. He also, along with Chano Pozo,...
Hilton Ruiz: Heroes
Although the extraordinary pianist Hilton Ruiz made many superb recordings in his short career, none is more iconic than Heroes and it is not...
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...
Cal Tjader: Mambo with Tjader
Sixty-five years on this seminal album has been credited as the one Cal Tjader album that set the vibraphonist on a course that put...
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...
Hilario Durán: Habana Nocturna
I thought that this Justin Time recording Habana Nocturna (1999) by Hilario Durán was going to be all-but-forgotten. I also thought, for no rational...
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
Who knew that Dámaso Pérez Prado, the “Mambo King”, director of Sonora Matancera between 1936 and 1939, long before he formed his iconic mambo...
The Billy Taylor Trio with Candido
The great Candido Camero moved from Cuba to New York in 1952. The lure of Jazz must have been too strong for the percussionist. Sixty-four years on...
Machito: Kenya
Far from being the obligatory “essential Latin Jazz” album, Machito’s Kenya escapes this glib epithet by the skin of its teeth. Drumming out the...
