Tag: Giovanni Hidalgo
Elio Villafranca: Revealing the Secrets of Slavery
In the newly-crowded world of Afro-Caribbean music, where instrumentalists have always reigned supreme, the singularity of the composer is suddenly in the limelight. We...
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...
Michel Camilo: One More Once
When Michel Camilo recorded One More Once and released the record on Columbia in the Fall of 1994, it created quite a sensation. Not...
Michel Camilo: From Out of the Tumult
Santo Domingo de Guzmán stretches languidly along the Southern Coast of Dominican Republic, awash with the foam and salty breath of the Caribbean Sea....
Federico Britos: Hot Club of the Americas
Stories of Stéphane Grappelli meeting anyone in Latin America may be apocryphal but those of Federico Britos doing so are certainly not. Nor is...
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...
Brasstronomical: The Latin Connection
“Misterioso,” a sparkling Latin jazz track from the new Heavyweights Brass Band album Brasstronomical, pays tribute to the great José Luis "Changuito" Quintana. In fact, “Misterioso” composer and Heavyweights trombonist Christopher Butcher...
The Heavyweights Brass Band: Tones and Textures non pareil
The Heavyweights Brass Band (HBB) may seem to have taken a leaf out of the playbook of that other, more famous ensemble—the woodwinds ensemble,...
Iván Renta: Take Off A Musical Odyssey
If a musical odyssey takes place when tenor saxophonist Iván Renta divests himself from one of several ensembles he participates in, to finally record...
Reencuentros: Maraca and his Latin Jazz All Stars
Flutist, Orlando Valle, known to his followers as, “MARACA,” grew up in a musical environment. He took up the flute at an early age...
Federico Britos: Voyage
As the world continues to awake to the rising tide of undiscovered music and musicians from the South American paradigm—in an almost ironic kind...