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...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Generoso “Tojo” Jiménez: Trombón Majadero
This 2007 reissue of two classic albums from the inimitable Cuban trombonist Generoso “Tojo” Jiménez bookends five years between 1969 and 1965. Entitled ...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Peruchín Y Su Grupo: Piano Con Moña
Essential Albums Revisited
Pedro “Peruchín” Jústiz is one of the most iconic and seminal figures in Afro-Cuban music, a pianist who was an important influence...
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,...
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...