Chucho Valdés: Briyumba Palo Congo
In 1999 the maestro Chucho Valdés made one of his most significant records for the Blue Note. In seven relatively short – by the...
Horace Silver: Song for my Father
Of all the iconic recordings of the 50’s and 60’s, Horace Silver’s Song for my Father will always be remembered as one of...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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 ...
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,...
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...
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...
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,...
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...