There is a rare kind of confidence in knowing when not to play. Vibraphonist, composer, and bandleader Mike Freeman has clearly mastered that art, and Circles...
Marlon Simon and The Nagual Spirits return with the ambitious new album On Different Paths, blending a myriad of cultural and musical traditions. A Truth Revolution...
On his maiden voyage as a bandleader, playing wonderful repertoire [all] written and arranged by himself, Israel Tanenbaum has emerged as a consummate storyteller. It’s no...
To call this album Entre Amigos by Günther Brück magnificent and brilliant – or using another superlative epithet to describe the repertoire on it would be...
It took a while for Marlon Simon to launch his celebrated career as a leader of his own ensembles. He took the plunge, however, in 1998,...
There are many reasons why it is a remarkable travesty of justice that the celebrated Venezuelan drummer and percussionist, Marlon Simon, has had to resort to...
Mike Freeman and ZonaVibe pay wonderful homage to two of great vibraphone masters of musicians on Venetian Blinds; Tito Puente and Bobby Hutcherson. Tongue firmly in...
We are very familiar with the slew of prodigiously gifted Chinese pianists (and other instrumentalists) who have become renowned all over the world for their interpretation...
Editor’s Pick · Album of the Month · Big Bands are an endangered species. So it is with great excitement that one welcomes Hector Martignon’s Banda...
That Ralph Irizarry’s percussion has found numerous champions attests to the timbalero’s ability to play in a well-crafted, idiomatic manner in wide-ranging, accessible and passionate settings...
Jose Conde is a musician whom I have grown to admire recently. However, such repertoire, so close to traditional forms of Afro-Cuban music is not something...
On El Conde Negro Pete Rodríguez seems bask in the burnished glow of his horn as he stretches and relaxes his way through ten beautifully wrought...
This has to be the most hip album since “Low Ridin’” was first invented in the 50’s hydraulics and all. The fact that it has a...
Trombonist Papo Vázquez is the mightiest of the Mighty Pirates Troubadours. His sound is bold; his tone is brazen and ground out as if from a...
The incidence of percussionists playing music is far greater than musicians who happen to be percussionists. Luisito Quintero falls into the latter category. Luisito Quintero was...