This recording Te Llevo Bajo le Piel brings together the last orchestra of the great Tito Puente waxing eloquent behind one of the El Rey’s favourite divas, Yolanda Duke. The only thing is that Mr. Puente is no longer fronting his band. Does that diminish the excitement of the album? Perhaps, but only very slightly. His spirit continues to charge the orchestra; even haunt it in the nicest possible way. The fact is that Tito Puente left his orchestra in fine shape and it is truly none the worse for wear without him. Better still the glorious voice of Yolanda Duke is there to carry the orchestra as if as on the wings of a dove and pushing it beyond where it might have gone were it not for her powerful and memorable vocals. Ms. Duke has sinewy vocal chords.
Ms. Duke can introduce a song at any pitch. There are times when she enters the lyric in the upper register, beginning her flight as if she were leaping off a far off promontory high up on a hillside. Then she appears to—as if she were a condor—catch a thermal, which is usually her own high C, and soar in the azure beyond. Ms. Duke is simply unafraid of leaping off the proverbial musical ledge and letting her lyric free fall, filled of course, by the powerful warm burst of air from her infinitely expandable lungs. She gets her power, of course from the bottom of her soul where the music and lyrics meet and churn a mighty wheel, mixing them for Ms. Duke to inhabit as if she were the protagonist of each song; as if the song were written for her.
This is not true of the Great American Songbook, the songs of which have been written by some of the finest musical and lyrical minds on the continent. But here is where Yolanda Duke seems to weave a magic spell on the repertoire, making them her own. She sings them with unabashed, almost naked emotion, in her majestic contralto. But every once and a while Ms. Duke takes flight into ranges that she would not normally venture, where she is absolutely and devastatingly beautiful. There is a magnificent example of this in “Nadie Me Lo Podra Quitar (They Can’t Take That Away From Me).” Of course, all of “Luna Azul,” performed as a cha cha cha seems to exist in a rarefied realm. The haunting beauty of “Medley Myrta Silva” is a most spine chilling bolero, especially as Ms. Duke reaches for those high notes as if she were singing an aria.
The crowning glory—or at least one of them—comes in the form of another exquisite bolero, “Contigo En La Distancia” a classic if ever there was one. Here Ms. Duke is at her absolute best as she matches the ingenuity of the ineffable trumpeter Arturo Sandoval. The trumpeter informs the song with a glow that only he can, from a burnished horn that seems to come alive at his touch. Yolanda Duke, for her part matches the trumpeter tone for tone and creates her own palette of colours so that the song floats on a diaphanous tapestry that swathes the rest of the album in colours and tones that continue haunting the listener long after the last notes of the Italian version of “Dio, Como Ti Amo!” die down.
Track List: La Neblina De Tu Amor; Te Llevo Bajo La Piel; Contigo En La Distancia; Eso Que Llaman Amor; Muchos Besos; Dios, Como Te Amo!; Nadie Me Lo Podra Quitar; Luna Azul; Medley Myrta Silva; Extraño Aquellos Años; Dio, Como Ti Amo! (Version Italiana).
Personnel: Yolanda Duke: vocals; Arturo Sandoval: trumpet, piano and other instruments (3); Sonny Bravo: piano; Gerry Madera: bass; Willie Martinez: drums; José Madera: timbales; John Rodriguez: bongo, bell, guiro; George Delgado: congas; Bobby Porcelli: alto saxophone, flute; Pete Miranda: baritone saxophone; Pete Brainin: tenor saxophone, flute; Todd Bashore: tenor saxophone, flute; Mitch Frohman: tenor saxophone; John Walsh: trumpet; Keven Bryan: trumpet; Pete Nater: trumpet; Richard Viruet: trumpet; Reynaldo Jorge: trombone; Sam Burtis: trombone; Lewis Kahn: trombone; Noah Bless: bass trombone; Champion Fulton: piano (1, 2); Ricky Gonzalez: conga, bongo, guiro, bell, timbales (6); Ruben Rodriguez: bass (6); Strings: Anga Wood, Ant. Silverman, Belinda Whitney, Juliet Haffner, Larry Payking; Paul Peabody, Robert Chauson; Chorus: C. Sierra, C Rodriguez, Franky Vasquez, J Martinez, Marco Bermudez.
The lights go down, the band strikes the opening notes of the first song and for the next two hours Yolanda Duke mesmerizes the crowd with her mastery of Latin jazz, Merengue, Ballads, Bossanova, Salsa and Bolero. While that is a very real scenario today, it was but a recurring dream for young Yolanda growing up in New York City. She was the gifted little girl with the big voice, who––after taking singing lessons––began to take command of her talent and gain confidence in her ability to entertain.
In her early teens she entered singing contests and eventually won a local competition. Soon after she began her singing career, performing in local clubs in NYC and Toronto. This lead to her being booked as the headliner of a Vegas-style show at the number-one showplace in the Caribbean, La Fuente Nightclub, at the prestigious Hotel Jaragua, where she refined her performing skills and stage presence, beginning her transformation into ‘La Duke.’ She followed the success of that appearance by recording a hit tropical album for RMM/SONY Music. Yolanda then recorded a tribute to the famous Latin songstress La Lupe, who gained international fame performing with the Tito Puente Orchestra. A copy of the cd made its way to Tito, who was so impressed that he invited young Yolanda to appear as a guest vocalist at several concerts over the next few years. Then he made her an offer she couldn’t refuse––becoming a permanent singer in the band from 1994 -97, thrilling audiences all over the world. La Duke had the privilege of sharing stage with the likes of Ray Charles, BB King, Arturo Sandoval, Dianne Reeves and Al Jarreau.
As her fans will attest, what sets Yolanda apart is that she doesn’t just interpret a song, she takes it and makes it her own. Her voice is a wondrous instrument that yells with exuberance, cries with soul and whispers with intimacy. In the course of one song, she can inspire your mind, touch your heart and move your feet like no other singer. Today, Yolanda carries on Tito’s legacy, performing in venues around the world with the Tito Puente Latin Jazz Orchestra. She continues her prolific recording career as well, recently producing a new Big Band recording of standards. The little songbird might be all grown up, but deep inside she is still a young girl singing her heart out for all the world to hear.
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
This recording Te Llevo Bajo le Piel brings together the last orchestra of the great Tito Puente waxing eloquent behind one of the El Rey’s favourite divas, Yolanda Duke. The only thing is that Mr. Puente is no longer fronting his band. Does that diminish the excitement of the album? Perhaps, but only very slightly. His spirit continues to charge the orchestra; even haunt it in the nicest possible way. The fact is that Tito Puente left his orchestra in fine shape and it is truly none the worse for wear without him. Better still the glorious voice of Yolanda Duke is there to carry the orchestra as if as on the wings of a dove and pushing it beyond where it might have gone were it not for her powerful and memorable vocals. Ms. Duke has sinewy vocal chords.
