The name of José Miguel Crego “El Greco” is a familiar one to those who view the long line of radiant Cuban trumpeters that includes several...
“Ray Barretto, percussionist and conductor, known throughout the world as Manos Duras, belongs to a generation of children of Boricua immigrants who settled in the Big...
The faux-image of rumba as a glitzy ballroom-dance is mostly one made in North-America [read that as USA]. The genuine article, heard in Cuba itself, is...
Miguel de Armas has always come across as a musical voluptuary, born of a kind of rhythmically seductive pianism with which we first heard him in...
Arturo O’Farrill has – for a very long time – been exploring long-form composition and using it to express [by American standards, at least] his rather...
This music by Charlie Sepúlveda has the indelible stamp of the Afro-Caribbean rhythms that makes the music he plays unique unto himself – just as it...
It is, indeed, so easy to make the proverbial “conexión” between the Bronx and the interminable rhythm that echoes seemingly throughout El Barrio when you listen...
It is first the exotic and beautifully whimsical blue make-up and floral hat that draws you into her world, before the album title – Kumbhaka, so...
Both dedicatory albums by Alex Conde – Descarga for Monk and now, Descarga for Bud – are ineffably compelling [as only the prodigious Mr Conde is...
The title of the album Inheritance couldn’t be a more appropriate one for an album by Alí Bello for it firmly establishes him as a worthy...
Cuatrista Fabiola Méndez Pays Tribute to her Afro-Puerto Rican Roots As a child, kids teased Fabiola Mari Méndez (not to be confused with cuatrista, Fabiola Muñóz...
There’s uncommon poise and elegance in spades in this incredible debut recording of Noah Bless; incredible because Mr Bless has, for years, brought his gifts to...
A review of the breathtaking feature-length documentary Los Hermanos/The Brothers by Marcia Jarmel and Ken Schneider No matter how many times stories about separation are told...
In his second and most ambitious book to date, the Grammy-nominated musician, professor, educator, author Benjamin Lapidus makes a compelling case for how New York-based musicians...
Isla del Encanto, Borinquen, Puerto Rico, small in dimension, but has given the world a host of exceptional artists. Among these, the monumental figure of Humberto...
