Grammy Winner Raphael Cruz Reaffirms his commitment to Latin Jazz!
Raphael has long been recognized by his fellow musicians as a gifted percussionist and bandleader, possessor of exquisite sensitivity and impeccable timing, a veteran who has shared both the stage and the recording studio with such legendary performers as Mongo Santamaría, Ray Barretto, George Benson, Paquito D'Rivera, Herbie Mann, McCoy Tyner, Bette Midler, Flora Purim and Chaka Khan. He performs on Cuban, Brazilian, African and exotic...
Latin Jazz Network Radio – Jukebox – August 2010 Playlist
Jukebox - August 2010 Playlist: Alex Brown, Antonio Adolfo & Carol Saboya, Arturo Sandoval, Bobby Carcassés, El Movimiento, Chris Washburne, Claudio Roditi, Federico Britos, Hamilton de Holanda, Hector Martignon, Kenia, Mark Weinstein, Omar Sosa, Samuel Torres, Pedro Bermudez, Paul Austerlitz, Steve Pouchie, Trio Esperança, Nando Michelin, Ricardo Silveira [...]
Um Abraço Pra Claudio – An Interview with Claudio Roditi
My palms are wet, but I am not nervous—just uncontrollably excited to be talking with Claudio Roditi, an iconic figure in music. With Brasilian guitarist, Ricardo Silveira and percussionist Duduka da Fonseca, another Brasilian and long-time resident of the Big Apple, Roditi is a seminal figure in the pursuit of a rare idiom in music. Some call it Samba Jazz. If that was meant to conjure images similar to Latin Jazz it certainly goes a long way in to putting the sound [...]
Lucía Pulido: Time Darkened by Sorrow, Brightened By Passion
The sky darkens, Lorca-like and a primordial wail rips through it. “Ai…leh leh leh.../No sé qué tendrá mi pecho/no sé qué tendrá mi pecho…/que mi voz alevanta,” she sings as she cries… “I don’t know what’s in my chest/I don’t know what’s in my chest…/that my voice is arising.” Her voice cuts through the dense clouds and shoots across the sky towards the infinite… Beloved Carmelita has thrown her life away. Dressed like a siren [...]
In Conversation with Flutist, Composer, Arranger, Mark Weinstein
The reason I am focusing on Pedrito is that "Timbasa" is as much his project as it is mine. He co-produced the recording and set things up in response to a funny challenge. I ran into him somewhere and he asked me when we were going to collaborate on another project. Sort of goofing on him I said, "Find me a piano player and a bass player who are as good as you and bring a couple of drummers." I had no idea what he was going to deal me!
News
Music Icons to Judge 2010 International Songwriting Competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Peter Gabriel, Tom Waits, Steve Winwood, Kings of Leon, Rihanna,...
Photos
Bobby Carcassés en Jazz Gallery – Nueva York
Bobby Carcassés: Luna de Miel en Nueva York Un eterno romance entre lo cubano y...
Reviews
Hilario Durán Trio – Motion (Alma Records – 2010)
In his much-anticipated follow-up to the Grammy-nominated and Juno Award-winning Latin Big Band recording, From The Heart (Alma Records,2008) the piano master, Hilario Durán brings together a power trio comprising bassist, Roberto Occhipinti and drummer, Mark Kelso. In the process he has created Motion, a memorable, new canvas of sound, unveiled... [Read more]
Hector Martignon – Second Chance (Zoho Music – 2010)
In a literal world the music on Second Chance would simply represent “B” sides of music that pianist, Hector Martignon has played in the past. In reality they are anything but that. It is here that Martignon has provided wicked twists to all the music he has played before—he uses the term “devilish,” which in Spanish is a word fraught with... [Read more]
Trio Esperança – De Bach á Jobim (Disques Dreyfus – 2010)
There is a rare and celestial beauty that pervades throughout De Bach á Jobim, the album by the legendary a capella Brasilian group, Trio Esperança who share a very special connection with the 10-voice ensemble, Grupo Vocal Desandann. Both ensembles use the oldest instrument known to human kind in intricate harmonies that have a spirit connection... [Read more]
Federico Britos – Voyage (Sunnyside Records – 2010)
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 of reversal of Alejo Carpentier’s voyage of musical discovery in Los Pasos Perdidos (E.D.I.A.P.S.A, 1953) or to the English-speaking world The Lost Steps (Alfred Knopf, 1956, Univ. of Minnesota, 2001)—the... [Read more]
Bobby Carcassés – De La Habana a Nueva York (Vero Records)
The insane revelry of the guaguancó kicks off De La Habana a Nueva York, and produces a blue flame of energy from an all, but forgotten master musician, Bobby Carcassés. The Cuban-born flugelhorn player, pianist, percussionist, raconteur and vocalist of exceptional talent and virtuosity has been making a quiet noise—heard, sadly, only by... [Read more]
SunlightSquare Latin Combo – Havana Central (2010)
Just how contagious is the music of Cuba? It has spread far and wide in a veritable pandemic. It is no longer an underground thing, something the Brits love to call any music that is not conventional rock and pop (how inane those monikers now sound). The seismic activity that comes from SunlightSquare Latin Combo on Havana Central was in fact a cracking... [Read more]
Arturo Sandoval – A Time for Love (Concord Jazz – 2010)
The great trumpeter, Maurice André and Wynton Marsalis apart (who play in other musical realms as well, everybody really serious about the idiom of jazz—about music in general—dreams about making a recording with a string ensemble. Louis Armstrong made What a Wonderful World, his album of Broadway, Hollywood and standard charts. Cornetist,... [Read more]
Kenia Celebrates Dorival Caymmi (Mooka Records – 2010)
Dorival Caymmi was considered a seminal figure in the music of Bahia in Brazil. His influence on the Música Popular Brasileira movement was incalculable and Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso continue to pay him homage in their original work even today as it is impossible to escape his influence. In the appropriately entitled album, Kenia Celebrates... [Read more]
Paul Austerlitz – Journey (Innova Recordings – 2008)
There is very little precedence for Journey, a work of striking newness and dazzling virtuosity, by the reeds player, Paul Austerlitz. First of all it occupies a rather narrow stream in Afro-Caribbean music—Dominican music of African origin—and secondly it is largely played on reeds of the very lowest register—only the great Anthony Braxton... [Read more]
Roberto Fonseca – Akokan (Justin Time – 2010)
In his follow-up to 2007’s Zamazu (Enja/Justin Time), Cuban piano master, Roberto Fonseca deepens his journey into his quasi-mystical musical search. Like the mythical Gilgamesh, the pianist has embarked on a seemingly endless journey, a leap of faith into the musical unknown, to find the tonal center of pain and joy, heartache and ecstasy and yes,... [Read more]