Albums
Elio Villafranca: Standing by the Crossroads
The musical journey of the consummate pianist and erudite composer, Elio Villafranca may be described as nothing if not what the celebrated Victor Frankl described in his iconic book [as] Man’s Search for Meaning. Consequently, Mr Villafranca’s music – while being enormously entertaining in it being tous les sens de l’esthétique des beaux-arts – has also always attempted to penetrate the skin of his singular humanity. His last two albums – Cinque [2018], which told the story of the famous freed slave Joseph Cinque, performed with his group Jass Syncopators, and Don’t Change My Name [2020] which was a brilliant journey into the life of Florentina/Victoria Zulueta, a young slave girl from Dahomey. Both epic narratives enabled Mr Villafranca to discover his own Afro-Cuban origins as a child of Pinar del Rio in Cuba.
Through all of his musical adventures Mr Villafranca has made it clear that while his musical roots were Afro-Cuban, that musical route almost always ran parallel with the twin cultural tributary that was indeed improvised Afro-American music. In fact, his use of the word ‘jass’ in the name of his ensemble permanently inked his [Mr Villafranca’s] name in the music continuum as being a ‘black musician’, deeply rooted in the Black Music of the Americas, to give the cultural topography of this improvised music the widest possible sweep.
Now Mr Villafranca has taken a step or two back to cast a sort of refocus in his journey. The result in Standing by the Crossroads, a two-disc expose of an inward-looking perspective into what has created the real Elio Villafranca and the raison d’être, if you will, for his entire oeuvre – indeed for his musical existence. Of course, the journey begins in Cuba, with what is entitled H.B.C. Habana Blues Chronicle, but by shaping it right from the outset in a beautifully sculpted ostinato figure shaped by its minor variation that suggests an inward-looking musical interrogative, which is masterfully transformed towards a sense of resolution by the harmonics of augmented notes. All of which suggests the creative dilemma that is further explored in the second track – Standing at the Crossroads – however, not before the Lucumi invocation further establishing Mr Villafranca’s singular “Afro-Cubanism”.
The album’s booklet notes written by Mr Villafranca describe the origin of each of the tracks on the double-disc. Better still is to read the wonderfully written and produced 130+ page book documenting both the very personal journey that led to this recording. The book came after the initial release but is an essential compendium to the two-disc package. An interesting graphic on the inside of the disc package plots the vectors involved in the creation of the musical vortex that is Standing by the Crossroads. It reiterates the fluidity of the musical continuum that is almost always ignored by writers who critique contemporary music. Unsurprisingly Mr Villafranca’s linear and cyclical vectors go back and forth between traditional culture, and stylistic terms such as classical, jazz, Latin Jazz and folklore [done to death by the kind of academic pursuit that often seeks to explain music as if it is something that occurs outside the human body].
Of course, the best way to ‘enjoy the ride’ is to listen avidly to this riveting music which combines Mr Villafranca’s pianism, which is also informed by an almost insolent virtuosity and an eloquence that come from fingers that seem to easily the ebony and ivory and glide across the keyboard in gravity-defying arcs and ellipses; long-limbed, elegantly shaped inventions created by probing single note phrases, adorned – not occasionally – by bold arpeggios and swirling glissandos. All of this is matched by the masterful orchestrations, something we have grown to admire greatly from Mr Villafranca’s past three recordings [including the one under review]. The arrangements cleverly fuse the dramatic and emotive, expressed in the exquisite tone-textures provided by horns and the rumbling thunder of a wall of percussion – both traditional Afro-Cuban [bàtá drums, tumbadoras and barrils, and other percussion instruments peculiar to the Africanised [and Indigenous] music of South America. Horns howl as they mimic the voices of the invisible characters portrayed by the music. Mr Villafranca elaborates on the emotions interacting with each of the soloing instruments – and the ensemble – as the stories about his life unfold.
Two vocalists – Mar Vilaseca with her winged vocalise on Standing at the Crossroads from disc one and Cécile McLorin-Salvant, who is pitch perfect and highly emotive on I Belong to You, which is a most vividly emotional sort of truth-telling love story of Mr Villafranca’s relationship with his ‘Afro-Cubanism’, his links to Lucumi [however loose] and the lyric suggesting his [Mr Villafranca’s] whimsically indifferent relationship to Lucumi spirituality which also seems to [quite strikingly] reference the [opening] verses of the Gospel according to St John The Divine. This reverential subtext underscores the inevitable – albeit somewhat blurred – line between Mr Villafranca’s substantive association with Lucumi [the kind you might experience at Callejón de Hamel in Habana], his spirituality which he claims not to flaunt, but seems to inhabit – if not in life, then certainly in his music, at any rate.
There is profundity in these musical stories the best of which on both discs [H.B.C Habana Blues Chronicle on disc one as well as Keep the Eye on the Bull and Solitaris on disc two] feature saxophonists Vincent Herring and Dayna Stephens as well as trumpeter Freddie Hendrix at their very best. The thundering rhythms of bassist Edward Pérez, drummer Domo Branch and percussionists extraordinaire Jonathan Troncoso and Mauricio Herrera are masterful throughout. Flamenco guitarist Guillermo Guillén makes a star turn on Keep the Eye on the Bull, while guitarists Jonathan Kreisberg illuminates both Standing at the Crossroads and No Man’s Land. But make no mistake, the spotlighted centre-stage belongs to Elio Villafranca and he fills it with his elegant and important musicianship.
Deo gratis…
Elio Villafranca: Standing by The Crossroads
Music – Disc One 1: H.B.C. Habana Blues Chronicles; 2: Standing by the Crossroads; 3: Panel de Abejas; 4: Yo Soy Lori Obá; 5: I Belong to You; 6: San Isidro – Part I; 7: San Isidro – Part II. Disc Two 1: Son for Freedom; 2: Keep the Eye on the Bull; 3: No Man’s Land; 4: Solitaris; 5: Picture Window.
Musicians – Elio Villafranca: compositions, piano, ekón, guataca, handclaps and coro; Vincent Herring: alto saxophone [Disc One 2, 3, 5 – 7; Disc Two 2, 3, 5], soprano saxophone [Disc One 1, 4], flute [Disc Two 1, 5] and clarinet [Disc Two 4]; Dayna Stephens: tenor saxophone [Disc Two 1 – 4, 6, 7; Disc Two 1 – 5] and bass clarinet [Disc Two 2]; Freddie Hendrix: trumpet and flugelhorn [Disc Two 1]; Jonathan Kreisberg: electric guitar [Disc One 3; Disc Two 3]; Edward Pérez: contrabass; Domo Branch: drums; Jonathan Troncoso: bàtá drums [Disc One 2; Disc Two 3], hand claps and coro; Mauricio Herrera: bàtá drums [Disc Two 2], congas [Disc One 1, 37; Disc Two 2, 5] and cajón [Disc Two 2]. Guest Musicians – Cécile McLorin-Salvant: vocals [Disc One 5]; Mar Vilaseca: vocals [Disc One 2]; Guillermo Guillén: Flamenco-style guitar [Disc Two 2]; assorted percussion [uncredited].
Released – 2023
Label – artistShare [AS 0204]
Runtime – Disc One 42:23 Disc Two 31:06
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.
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.
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
- Un Gorro de Lana– (Víctor Acosta) – 4:18
- La Jardinera– (Violeta Parra) – 6:01
Personnel
- Claudia Acuña – vocals, percussion/claps, tormento; producer
- Manu Koch – piano and keyboards (tracks 1, 2, 3, 5)
- Carlos Henderson – bass
- Yayo Serka – drums and percussion
- Pablo Vergara – piano (tracks 6, 8)
- Andrés Pollak – piano, organ; producer (track 7) | organ (track 1)
- 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.
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.
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
- Pepe Rivero — piano, keyboards, arrangements
- Jon Cowherd — piano
- Zaccai Curtis — piano, keyboards
- Christian McBride — bass
- Luques Curtis — bass
- Reinier Elizarde “Negrón” — bass
- Paco Heredia — Spanish guitar, guitar, arrangements
- Marvin Sewell — guitar
- Roman Filiú — saxophone, flute, backing vocals
- Bobby Martínez — saxophone
- Manuel Machado — trumpet
- Antonio Serrano — harmonica
- Javier Colina — accordion
- Bandolero — percussion
- Roland Guerrero — percussion
- Antonio Sánchez — drums
- Adam Cruz — drums
- Georvis Pico — drums, vocal solo, backing vocals
Production Credits
- Produced by: Eva Cortés, Roman Filiú and Pepe Rivero
- Label: Truth Revolution Records / TRRcollective
- Session One: Camaleón Music Studio, Madrid, Spain
- Recording Engineer, Madrid: Diego Román
- Session Two: Studio Mozart, Little Falls, New Jersey, USA
- Recording Engineer, New Jersey: Kostadin Kamcev
- Mixing: David Darlington
- Mastering: David Darlington
- Mixing and Mastering Studio: Bass Hit Studios, New York, NY
- Photography: Noah Shaye
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.
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.
Album Information
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
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