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...
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...
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...
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...
Michel Camilo: One More Once
When Michel Camilo recorded One More Once and released the record on Columbia in the Fall of 1994, it created quite a sensation. Not...
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...
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...
Wayne Shorter: Native Dancer
The ultimate expression of Wayne Shorter’s desire to make a “Brasilian” record is Native Dancer. However it is further from being a “Brasilian” record...
Peruchín Y Su Grupo: Piano Con Moña
Pedro “Peruchín” Jústiz is one of the most iconic and seminal figures in Afro-Cuban music, a pianist who was an important influence on Charlie...
Giovanni Hidalgo: Villa Hidalgo
Giovanni Hidalgo is just fifty-two years old, but he has been a professional percussionist for a little over forty years. This is remarkable. Very few percussionists, even those in the rest of...
Herbie Hancock: Inventions & Dimensions
Herbie Hancock was just twenty-three when he recorded this Inventions & Dimensions. The music on the recording, and the fact that Mr. Hancock was...
Rumbajazz: Tribute to Chombo Silva
Chombo Silva performed in the legendary Cuban Jam Sessions and shared the stage with Machito, Ray Barretto, Johnny Pacheco, the Alegre-All Stars, Charlie Palmieri,...
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...
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...
Frank Emilio, Guillermo Barreto y su Cuban-Jazz Combo: Drume Negrita
The clave that is pronounced in Afro-Cuban music is almost stealthily present in Jazz and has been lurking secretly in that idiom ever since...
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...
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...
Linda Ronstadt: Frenesí
It is one of those ironic twists of fate that Linda Ronstadt was forced into retirement in 2011, the year her seminal Afro-Caribbean album,...
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...
