Rick Arroyo – Mr. P (Arroyando Music – 2011)

Born in Bronx, NY, multi instrumentalist Rick Arroyo began playing piano at the age of 9, drums at age 11, congas, vibraphone at the age of 14 and has worked with some of the best Latin jazz musicians in the US. All that experience shows on his album Mr. P. The album starts with “Mr. P”, dedicated to master Puerto Rican pianist Eddie Palmieri. The “afinque” on this piece (afinque means playing tight) is reminiscent of the glory days of salsa music [...]

Peter Schärli Trio w Ithamara Koorax – O Grande Amor (TCB Music)

Brazilian vocalist Ithamara Koorax and the Swiss trio of pianist Hans-Peter Pfammatter, Trumpeter Peter Schärli and bassist Thomas Dűrst work together to transcend any barriers of culture and physical distance. Switzerland, where the core of this group is from is not the first area one thinks about when considering Latin Jazz! These musicians are finely tuned with each other, particularly in the title cut, but why, oh why did they choose to leave out percussion [...]

Claudio Roditi – Bons Amigos (Resonance Records – 2011)

Most fans, even aficionados of contemporary music, still only vaguely know the great trumpeter Claudio Roditi as the “Brazilian who joined Arturo Sandoval in Dizzy Gillespie’s United Nations Orchestra”. It is a pity that Roditi’s musical reputation rests on so narrow a spectrum in his enormous musical career. Few know, for instance, that Roditi was one of the first Brazilian musicians to relocate in the United States of America: in 1970 as a matter of fact [...]

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 [...]

Andy and Jerry’s: A Tribute to the González Brothers

Arturo O’ Farrill, the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra and guest conductor, Miguel Blanco paid a heartfelt tribute to cultural warriors, Jerry and Andy González at Peter Norton Symphony space, a performance space on New York’s upper West Side. The highly anticipated event was promoted as “Andy and Jerry’s: A Tribute to the González Brothers,” an allusion to Andy and Jerry’s apartment in the Bronx during the 1970s, a place where veteran and second generation [...]

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 [...]