The Europeans have almost always been adventurous first. After all, it was the Europeans who sailed to the New World and not the other way around. So also with Charlie Parker; it was Boris Vian who was among the first to really appreciate his music, while others were still calling it offensive and wrong. The Europeans were also first to “get” musicians from Sidney Bechet, Thelonious Monk, Kenny Clarke to Ben Webster; the Dutch and Swedes to “get” Eric Dolphy; and Albert Ayler… and so on… So it should come as no surprise that Think of Two by the Austrian, David Helbock’s Random Control is a magnificent album. After all it is a tribute to Thelonious Monk and that great Brasilian, the Sorcerer, Hermeto Pascoal. The music is inspired—well beyond what music inspires it—and it is truly original, creative, venturesome and quite beautiful. Being an homage does not mean to say that it must copy or reproduce, but rather explain and enhance the music and the musicians that it seeks to pay homage to. This it does in the grand manner. And for that all praise must go to the three musicians who play this music—the repertoire of Mr. Monk and Mr. Pascoal. This is the brass player Johannes Bär, the woodwinds and reeds player, Andreas Broger and or course the man who re-invented it all: the keyboard wizard and all-round genius, David Helbock, who helms the group, Random Control.
The music is riveting, recognisable and yet so new that it just might have been created by the original artists in another day and age. It is also humorous as the original artists intended it to be. Too bad no one was taking notice then. But here is a second chance to do so. Most of all it is played by musicians who are unbridled virtuosos, well-versed in music history as well as all good conservatoire musicians are required to be (although this should never be seen as a pre-requisite for any good music). But the fact is that Mr. Helbock gets it. His “New Orleans” march and strut and his “stride” piano is exquisite and played to perfection. He seems to have mastered the art of pianoforte as well as its myriad styles (for want of a better word). This is also true of Johannes Bär, who is a virtuoso on a variety of horns and he plays each with such mastery as if it were his main instrument. His accents are superb and that makes his expression something quite breathtaking. This is also true of Andreas Broger, who plays his reeds as if he were master of all. But there is more. The musicians are also masters of the idiom in which the music is played. Not only are they proficient in jazz, but also choro, forró, and other Brasilian patterns and their brilliance in each is truly amazing. But technicality is one thing; being able to use and invent in each form is quite another.
The music of Thelonious Monk is deconstructed as no one—except Heiner Stadler—has done before. “’Round Midnight” is one of the most temperamental charts, but the manner in which it has been tamed by these musicians and astoundingly re-constructed is something that will leave the listener breathless. The moodiness of the hour is turned into real crepuscular music; its colours are indigo blue and bible-black. “Pannonica” is another masterful re-construction; exquisitely coloured by virtue of the instrumentation and the gorgeous timbres of the instruments. So also are the other Thelonious Monk compositions. It is also of note that the manner in which the more contemporaneous Hermeto Pascoal’s music is played is astonishing and truly memorable. “Nas Quebradas” is a masterpiece. The choro, “Palhinha do Hermeto e da Aline” is beyond beautiful and makes a gorgeous tribute to the master as is “Hermeto”. Both these compositions are not only true to the very nature of Brasilian music but they also capture the idiosyncrasies of Mr. Pascoal’s unique voice.
If anything this is a flawless album and it will be the envy of many musicians. It also goes to reinforce the idea that most European players keep a more open and more fearless mind when it comes to invention and improvisation, and when it comes to paying real tribute to the giants of music in any idiom.
Track List: Voa, Ilza; ‘Round Midnight; Nas Quebradas; Raise Four; Música das Nuvens e do Chão; Trinkle Tinkle; Tupizando; Pannonica; Palhinha do Hermeto e da Aline; Para Hermeto; Floresta; Think of One.
David Helbock, born on the 28th of january 1984, began playing the piano at the age of six. He studied at the Feldkirch Conservatory with Prof. Ferenc Bognar, where he finished 2005 with an “excellent” degree in performance and since 2000 he took lessons with the New York jazz pianist Peter Madsen, who became his teacher, mentor and friend.
David Helbock played Tours and Recordings with different projects in countries like the US, Australia, Mexico, Russia, Kasachstan, Kirgistan, Ethopia, Kenia, Senegal, Marokko, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Argentinia, Chile and all over Europe.
Since the start of his musical career David Helbock is also very active as a composer. One of his works is among others a big “One-Year compositional project” where he wrote a new piece every day for a whole year (in April 2010 his Personal Redbook with over 600 pages of music was released).
Two rewards and the audience prize at the world biggest jazz-piano-solo competition of the Montreux Jazz Festival, a lot of enthusiastic/international reviews for his CDs and the most important prize in Austria 2011 – the “Outstanding Artist Award” – David Helbock, the piano player coming from a small little village in Austria called Koblach, is with no doubt, on his way up to a great international musical career. Helbock is not only a great pianist, he is also a very individual thinker, who is investing not only a lot of dexterity but also quite an amount of brain activity to his projects.
Based in Milton, Ontario, Canada, Raul is a poet, musician and an accomplished critic whose profound analysis is reinforced by his deep understanding of music, technically as well as historically.
For Claudia Acuña, home has never been a fixed destination. It is something carried—in the body, in memory, in language, and in sound.
On Ave de Luz, the Chilean vocalist brings those fragments together with unusual clarity. After three decades in New York, Acuña no longer treats her roots as something to weave quietly into jazz. She places them at the center. Her striking declaration—“I’m coming in with my crown, my poncho, my everything”—captures the album’s spirit perfectly.
Raised in Concepción during Chile’s dictatorship years and later transformed by New York’s jazz scene, Acuña has spent much of her career moving between worlds. Ave de Luz feels like the moment when those worlds stop competing with one another.
Claudia Acuña – Ave de Luz: Chilean Jazz and Soul (album cover)
A Specifically Chilean Jazz
Acuña has resisted the idea that “Latin jazz” can be reduced to a single vocabulary. Afro-Cuban and Brazilian traditions may dominate the popular understanding of the term, but Latin America contains countless rhythmic, folkloric and indigenous languages.
Her own metaphor is simple: noodles and spaghetti may look related, but they are not the same thing.
That idea shapes Ave de Luz. The album is not merely jazz with Chilean colour added to it. It is music whose identity emerges from cueca, Andean traditions, indigenous sonorities, poetry, migration and improvisation.
The trutruka, charango, zampoña, tormento and Chilean pandero become part of the album’s grammar. They interact with Manu Koch’s piano and keyboards, Carlos Henderson’s bass and Yayo Serka’s drums and percussion without sounding ornamental or exoticized.
Poetry, Memory and Resistance
“Chinga La Ka Chinga” captures one of the album’s most expansive ideas. Festive on the surface, the piece also acknowledges Afro-Chilean and northern Chilean currents, suggesting how celebration can carry history, resistance and cultural memory within its pulse.
Elsewhere, the music turns inward. “Piececitos de Niño,” inspired by Gabriela Mistral, brings poetry and childhood into the album’s emotional landscape, while “Rezo” feels almost elemental: voice, charango, atmosphere and silence shaping a meditation on nature, distance and belonging.
Acuña’s reading of Violeta Parra’s “La Jardinera” is equally significant. Its imagery of planting, tending and healing becomes an apt metaphor for tradition itself. Culture survives not by remaining untouched, but by being replanted. Acuña does precisely that.
The Wind From the South
“Viento del Sur” also carries special resonance, recalling the title of Acuña’s 2000 debut, Wind from the South. Then, the image suggested a Chilean artist arriving in the international jazz world. Here, the meaning has changed.
The south is no longer where she came from. It is something she continues to carry.
That idea finds its fullest expression in the title track. The “bird of light” becomes an image of migration without erasure—a figure moving forward while remaining connected to its place of origin. The metaphor fits Acuña herself.
Her longtime musical relationship with Koch, Henderson and Serka gives Ave de Luz much of its freedom. Years of trust let the ensemble move naturally between folk memory, jazz improvisation and contemporary textures without forcing boundaries between them.
Ave de Luz may be Claudia Acuña’s most complete artistic statement because it no longer asks her identities to compromise.
The crown is experience. The poncho is memory. Jazz is the road between them.
And Claudia Acuña travels that road carrying Chile fully into the light.
PLAYLIST (7 TRACKS) – CLAUDIA ACUÑA – AVE DE LUZ
Album Information
Artist: Claudia Acuña
Album: Ave de Luz: Chilean Jazz & Soul
Label: Delfin Records
Release date: July 10, 2026
Genre: Jazz / Vocal Jazz / Chilean jazz
Format: Digital/streaming
Final digital release: 7 tracks, approximately 36 minutes
Tracklist
Chinga La Ka Chinga – (Claudia Acuña, Coch, Hernandez & Serka) – 4:43
Ave de Luz– (Mario Rojas) – 5:48
Viento del Sur– (Claudia Acuña & Jason Lindner) – 6:01
Rezo– (Claudia Acuña) – 3:49
Piececitos de Niño– (Based on a poem of Gabriela Mistral / Music by Claudia Acuña) – 6:10
Pablo Zárate – accordion, Chilean pandero (track 2)
Fredy Torralba – traditional Chilean/Andean instruments including charango, trutruka and zampoña
Paulina García – spoken word (track 6)
Daniel Kelley-Acuña – vocals (track 6)
Production Credits
Produced by Claudia Acuña and Andrés Pollak. Most of the sessions were recorded at East Side Sound in New York in November 2025, with “Ave de Luz” recorded at TOC Música in Santiago in October 2025 and additional recording completed at Banduria Studio in Santiago. Andrés Pollak handled engineering on the principal New York sessions; Rafael Chaparro engineered the Santiago title-track session with Javier Lizana assisting. Marc Urselli mixed and mastered the project.
With La Malinche, Eva Cortés delivers one of the most ambitious recordings of her career—a project in which history, identity, migration and music converge around one of the most contested figures in the Americas.
Malintzin, also known as Doña Marina or La Malinche, has long been portrayed through conflicting narratives: interpreter, intermediary, mother of mestizaje, victim, survivor and, in later nationalist mythology, traitor. Cortés does not try to settle that debate. Instead, she uses Malintzin as a symbol of cultural transition, displacement and survival.
That choice makes particular sense for an artist whose own life has unfolded across borders. Born in Honduras (Central America), shaped culturally in Seville (Spain) and later immersed in New York’s jazz community, Cortés has always made music from the space between traditions. On La Malinche, that in-between space becomes the heart of the album.
La Malinche – Eva Cortés (album cover)
A Music of Crossings
The album brings together flamenco, Latin jazz, contemporary jazz and Indigenous-inspired imagery without turning the result into a forced fusion.
Rather than attempting to recreate pre-Columbian Mexican music literally, Cortés evokes Indigenous memory through percussion, communal voices, repetition and themes of ancestry, earth and maize. Flamenco enters through Spanish guitar, vocal inflection and the expressive grit associated with cante. Jazz supplies the harmonic freedom and improvisational space that allow those elements to interact.
The musicians surrounding Cortés are crucial to that balance. Pianists Pepe Rivero, Jon Cowherd and Zaccai Curtis, bassists Christian McBride, Luques Curtis and Reinier Elizarde “Negrón,” and drummers Antonio Sánchez, Adam Cruz and Georvis Pico give the album both rhythmic strength and harmonic flexibility. Roman Filiú, Paco Heredia, Marvin Sewell, Bandolero and others expand the palette further. The result is music that never feels boxed into one category.
The Voice at the Center
Cortés’ singing remains the album’s most powerful instrument. Her phrasing can be loose and conversational, then suddenly sharpen into something more urgent and flamenco-inflected. She moves between reflection, mourning, protest and defiance without sacrificing musical control.
Most importantly, she refuses to define Malintzin through betrayal. Her interpretation focuses instead on endurance and complexity.
The opening “Abuelita Malinche” immediately makes that clear. By calling her “Abuelita,” Cortés transforms Malinche from a figure of accusation into an ancestral presence. The arrangement blends Latin-jazz movement with flamenco coloration, while her wordless vocal passages move naturally between scat and cante.
“Hij@s del Maíz” extends that idea of cultural mixture. Paco Heredia’s guitar, Pepe Rivero’s piano, Antonio Sánchez’s drums and the accordion create a sound that travels across regions rather than belonging to one. Maize becomes a symbol of Indigenous continuity, while the music reflects the constantly changing character of mestizaje itself.
From History to the Present
The album becomes even more powerful when it connects the past to contemporary realities.
“Letters to Heaven” and “Remember Me” introduce themes of Indigenous loss and the disappearance of women from both historical memory and present-day communities. “Sur Global” shifts toward resistance, combining rhythmic drive with a broader reflection on colonialism, migration and inequality.
Then “Spanish Harlem” brings the journey firmly into the present. Horns, flute, tumbao and call-and-response place Cortés within New York’s Latin-jazz tradition, completing a musical path that stretches from ancestral memory to the modern city.
A Major Statement
La Malinche is more than an album built around a historical figure. It is a meditation on who controls history, who gets remembered and how identity continues to change across generations and borders.
Cortés turns her own musical hybridity into the album’s central idea. Jazz, flamenco and Latin American traditions do not simply coexist here—they help tell the story.
The result is one of her strongest and most focused recordings to date: emotionally direct, musically sophisticated and deeply rooted in the ongoing conversation between memory and transformation. La Malinche is not about recovering a pure past. It is about reclaiming the right to reinterpret it.
PLAYLIST (11 TRACKS) – EVA CORTÉS – LA MALINCHE
Album Information
Artist: Eva Cortés
Album: La Malinche
Label: Truth Revolution Records / TRRcollective
Release: June 2026
Official press release date: June 5, 2026
TRRcollective Bandcamp release date: June 19, 2026
Format: CD / Digital
Number of tracks: 11
Total running time: 51:53
Genre: Jazz / Latin Jazz / Flamenco / Afro-Latin
Recorded in: Madrid, Spain, and Little Falls, New Jersey, USA
Tracklist
Abuelita Malinche — 4:35
A Tribo do Vento — 5:46
Soy el Aire — 5:31
Light and Sorrow — 3:59
Hij@s del Maíz — 4:24
Letters to Heaven — 5:04
Remember Me — 3:28
Sur Global — 5:43
No Me Limites — 4:33
Indians of All Tribes — 3:53
Spanish Harlem — 4:57
Personnel
Eva Cortés — vocals, composer, lyricist, backing vocals
Jazz guitarist Roni Ben-Hur - Photo: www.ronibenhur.com
The title Abriendo Puertas—“Opening Doors”—captures the spirit of guitarist Roni Ben-Hur’s latest recording with unusual precision. Recorded in Havana with an accomplished group of Cuban musicians, the album is built not around the novelty of a visiting jazz guitarist encountering Cuban music, but around something more meaningful: musicians listening closely enough to find a common language.
Ben-Hur has spent much of his career moving naturally between musical worlds. Born in Israel to a Tunisian family and shaped professionally by New York’s jazz community, his playing draws from bebop, Brazilian music, Mediterranean traditions and Latin rhythms without sounding like a collection of influences. His years with pianist and mentor Barry Harris helped establish the melodic clarity, swing and understated sophistication that remain central to his guitar style. On Abriendo Puertas, those qualities fit remarkably well within a Cuban setting.
Roni Ben-Hur – Abriendo Puertas (cover art)
The key creative partner is pianist Alejandro Falcón, who contributes four of the seven compositions: the title track, “Gua’ One Blues Pal Bobby,” “Lo que es del César” and “El Teide.” Rather than treating Ben-Hur as a soloist placed in front of a Cuban rhythm section, Falcón helps create an ensemble language in which guitar and piano continuously exchange roles. Their compatibility is evident from the opening title track, where rhythmic momentum and lyrical improvisation develop patiently rather than through display.
“Gua’ One Blues Pal Bobby” pushes the conversation toward the blues while retaining a strong Cuban rhythmic identity. It is one of the album’s most spirited performances, illustrating how readily the vocabulary of jazz can coexist with the rhythmic imagination surrounding Ben-Hur in Havana. By the time the ensemble reaches “Lo que es del César” and “El Teide,” the distinction between guest and host has largely disappeared. What remains is a cohesive band responding to one another in real time.
The album’s romantic center comes through three classic Latin American songs. José Antonio Méndez’s “Mi Mejor Canción” brings the intimacy of the Cuban filin tradition into the program, while Osdalgia Lesmes appears on Isolina Carrillo’s “Dos Gardenias” and Armando Manzanero’s “Esta tarde vi llover.”
Lesmes brings warmth and emotional directness to both performances, and Ben-Hur proves once again what a sensitive accompanist he can be. His guitar surrounds the voice rather than competing with it, reflecting an approach he has developed through years of working with singers, including the late Brazilian vocalist Leny Andrade. Ben-Hur has spoken of the importance of leaving space for vocalists and allowing melody and lyric to remain at the center of an arrangement.
That same sense of space benefits the entire recording. Pedro Pablo Gutiérrez on acoustic bass, Ruy López-Nussa on drums and Octavio Rodríguez Rivera on percussion provide a foundation that is rhythmically rich without becoming overcrowded. Tenor saxophonist Emir Santa Cruz, featured on four tracks, adds another expressive voice and gives several performances a broader jazz-ensemble character.
Recorded at DBega Studios in Havana in November 2025, Abriendo Puertas is part of the Cuban Notes recording series co-produced by Ben-Hur and Dot Time Records founder Johanan “Jo” Bickhardt. Yet the album succeeds beyond the concept behind the series.
Its strength is ultimately found in the musicians themselves. Nobody appears interested in proving how effortlessly jazz and Cuban music can be combined. They simply play together until those distinctions become secondary.
For listeners who appreciate expressive jazz guitar, Cuban music and recordings where collaboration matters more than spectacle, Abriendo Puertas is easy to recommend. Warm, sophisticated and deeply conversational, it finds Roni Ben-Hur opening another musical door—and discovering an ensemble waiting on the other side.
Artist: Roni Ben-Hur Album: Abriendo Puertas Label: Dot Time Records Catalog: DT9192 Genre: Jazz / Latin Jazz Release Date: June 26, 2026 Recorded: November 2025 Studio: DBega Studios, Havana, Cuba Format: CD / Digital Program: 7 tracks, approximately 49 minutes.
The project is part of Cuban Notes, co-produced by Johanan “Jo” Bickhardt and Roni Ben-Hur. It follows Alejandro Falcón’s Falcón in Blue as the second album in the series.
Tracklist
1. Abriendo Puertas – Alejandro Falcón – 8:12 2. Mi Mejor Canción – José Antonio Méndez – 6:32 3. Dos Gardenias – Isolina Carrillo – 5:23 4. Gua’ One Blues Pal Bobby – Alejandro Falcón – 9:23 5. Esta tarde vi llover – Armando Manzanero – 5:56 6. Lo que es del César – Alejandro Falcón – 6:17 7. El Teide – Alejandro Falcón – 7:49
Personnel Credits
Roni Ben-Hur — guitar Alejandro Falcón — piano Pedro Pablo Gutiérrez — acoustic bass Ruy López-Nussa — drums Octavio Rodríguez Rivera — percussion Emir Santa Cruz — tenor saxophone, tracks 1, 4, 5 and 7 Osdalgia Lesmes — vocals, tracks 3 and 5
Production Credits
Executive Producer: Johanan “Jo” Bickhardt Co-Producer: Roni Ben-Hur Recorded at: DBega Studios, Havana Recording date: November 2025 Sound Engineer: Carlos D’Bega Label: Dot Time Records
The Europeans have almost always been adventurous first. After all, it was the Europeans who sailed to the New World and not the other way around. So also with Charlie Parker; it was Boris Vian who was among the first to really appreciate his music, while others were still calling it offensive and wrong. The Europeans were also first to “get” musicians from Sidney Bechet, Thelonious Monk, Kenny Clarke to Ben Webster; the Dutch and Swedes to “get” Eric Dolphy; and Albert Ayler… and so on… So it should come as no surprise that Think of Two by the Austrian, David Helbock’s Random Control is a magnificent album. After all it is a tribute to Thelonious Monk and that great Brasilian, the Sorcerer, Hermeto Pascoal. The music is inspired—well beyond what music inspires it—and it is truly original, creative, venturesome and quite beautiful. Being an homage does not mean to say that it must copy or reproduce, but rather explain and enhance the music and the musicians that it seeks to pay homage to. This it does in the grand manner. And for that all praise must go to the three musicians who play this music—the repertoire of Mr. Monk and Mr. Pascoal. This is the brass player Johannes Bär, the woodwinds and reeds player, Andreas Broger and or course the man who re-invented it all: the keyboard wizard and all-round genius, David Helbock, who helms the group, Random Control.
