Duduka da Fonseca Trio Plays Toninho Horta (Zoho Music – 2011)

One of the main reasons why Brazilian music has been preserved and, more importantly, kept alive through the generations has been the readiness of newer generations of musicians to create repertory albums in homage to that country’s master musicians. Over the years there have been a slew of beautiful tributes to classical masters such as Heitor Villa Lobos, from João Carlos Assis Brasil’s legendary album A Floresta do Amazonas [...]

Hendrik Meurkens – Live at Bird’s Eye (Zoho Music – 2011)

Hendrik Meurkens is, most certainly, one of the greatest musical adventurers from Europe. The harmonica wunderkind who also happens to be a fine vibraphone player seems to have almost singlehandedly rediscovered Brazil decades after Stan Getz and Joe Henderson did almost five decades ago. In doing so Meurkens along with the grandmaster of the harmonica, Toots Thielemans, has cast a refreshing light on Brazilian music [...]

Laura Fernandez – Un Solo Beso (Self Published – 2011)

There is a certain fire that burns with a quietude that, although atypical of the Latin soul, still contains much of the passion that is contained in it. In fact the passion is so contained that the fire actually soars with its very chill. The music of Laura Fernandez “burns” with this cold fire. Much of Miles Davis’ music was “hot” in that sense (that) it burned with a similar quiet fire. Conventional wisdom dictates that Latin music is not meant to be cool but fiery and hot [...]

Gilson Schachnik and Mauricio Zottarelli – Mozik (2011)

It is amazing how it sometimes takes a foreign adventure to find one’s appreciation for the culture of home territory. Whereas the love of fusion, jazz and rock music originating in the United States is embraced with verve in the Southern Hemisphere, likewise I have never run into a native jazz musician in the Northern Hemisphere who isn’t fascinated by the rhythms of African influenced Brazilian music, particularly the region of Bahia [...]

Steve Khan – Parting Shot (Tone Center – 2011)

Parting Shot (Golpe de Partida) is an extraordinary debut for the guitarist, Steve Khan. He is veteran by any stretch of imagination, but in the company of illustrious peers such as Al Di Meola, Lee Ritenour and others he appears almost self-effacing for this is his first full foray into the realm of the Latin American musical idiom. Khan has always been known for possessing near-perfect technique, which when combined with his whisper-soft [...]

Afrodisian Orchestra – Satierismos (Youkali Music – 2011)

It is hardly surprising that Erik Satie has become the darling of modern composers and musicians alike. The reputedly eccentric French composer who lived between the late-19th and the early 20th Century was very much a musician far ahead of his time. Breaking away from the late-Romantics, Satie predated many movements in various artistic disciplines, from Dadaism and Surrealism in painting; and muzak or elevator music, by fifty years [...]

T.K. Blue – Latin Bird (Motema Music – 2011)

The hypothesis that in Charlie “Bird” Parker’s music the cultures of the world collided may be new, even unheard of until now. The elemental polyrhythms of Africa were melded into the folk forms of America and both were glorified in the polyphony of European music as Bird soared. The alto saxophonist wrote and played like a pianist; sang like a choir of angels and broke endless boundaries creating a music so timeless and elastic that it will, no doubt, live forever [...]

The John Santos Sextet – Filosofía Caribeña, Vol. 1

John Santos wants to draw attention to the virtually institutionalized segregation between Afro-American and Afro-Caribbean communities. He has always been painfully aware of this and condemns it in more ways than one. The most damning condemnation of it is his daunting experiments to unify the two communities through the most extraordinary cultural collision: and that is through Filosofía Caribeña, Vol. 1. (Machete Records – 2011), a superb [...]

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 and was invited to join Irakere, one of Cuba’s most popular bands, at the age of twenty-two. During his six years with Irakere, he excelled as a flutist, keyboard player and arranger. To date Maraca has recorded nine albums as a leader, is the recipient of numerous awards, such as the 1st and 3rd national Composers [...]

Omar Sosa – Calma: Solo Piano &… (Otá Records – 2011)

If anything, Omar Sosa has always been a spiritual artist. Connected for generations with the practice of Santería, Sosa was surrounded by the worship together with a communion of saints, but in a truly Afro-centric manner. The particularly molten staccato of the batá drums has held sway in the melodic rhythms of his music. In fact, some of his finest earlier work has burst forth as out of a spiritual vortex shuffling with forthright swagger, churning in [...]