André Vasconcellos – 2 (Adventure Music -2011)

There is nothing predictable about the music of André Vasconcellos. To begin with, he is one of a crop of fresh Brazilian musicians that include guitarists Daniel Santiago and Yamandú Costa, mandolin-player, Hamilton de Holanda and, chief among them, pianist André Mehmari who are re-evaluating their native milieu and the idiom in which they write. They are doing this in relation to the Romantic Era of 17th and 18th Century music [...]

Jane Bunnett & Hilario Durán – Cuban Rhapsody

Both reeds and woodwinds maestro Jane Bunnett and piano virtuoso Hilario Durán have released enormously successful albums lately. Bunnett made Embracing Voices (EMI, 2009) with the celebrated Cuban a capela choir, Grupo Vocal Desandann. Durán recorded a masterful trio record, Motion (Alma Records, 2010)with bassist, Roberto Occhipinti and drummer Mark Kelso. The two musicians had not worked together in several years [...]

Patty Ascher – Bossa, Jazz ‘n’ Samba (Zoho Music – 2011)

Patty Ascher’s exquisitely floating soprano literally takes flight on her ever so memorable English album, Bossa, Jazz ‘n’ Samba, a collection of mostly original songs from her pen. With a voice that sounds as if she were so beautifully vulnerable, Ascher navigates a myriad of emotions from longing and sadness to wonder and joy. Although she is exacting in her interpretation of emotions, her voice, almost devoid of any vibrato is so fey and delicate [...]

Charito – Heal The World (Zoho Music – 2011)

The question that must have been uppermost in the minds of many of those involved in this project, Heal The World a tribute to Michael Jackson, must surely have been: “How do you top the King of Pop…?” Or, at least: “How do we pull this one off without fawning?” As it happens, producer and drummer Harvey Mason need never have worried too much as he could not have picked a finer musician to front the project than the vocalist extraordinaire Charito [...]

Presenting José Rizo’s Mongorama

José Rizo’s Mongorama picks up where the Jazz on the Latin Side All Stars left off. After a decade of fruitful existence, performing and recording four terrific CDs (Jazz on the Latin Side All Stars 1 and 2, The Last Bullfighter and Tambolero), the veteran KJazz radio host, producer, composer and bandleader takes a new direction and moves on to a new project, which is actually a continuation of the original Latin jazz all stars band concept [...]

Danilo Pérez – Providencia (Mack Avenue Records – 2010)

Danilo Pérez’s extraordinary album, Providencia is more than a delightful suite. It is a love story… a love story between a father and his daughters, between a native son and his country. Above all, it is a love story between an artist and his music. And this latter facet of the album means that conceptually, it transcends borders. The music bears out this thought: It is bold, global and almost galactic. It is always in motion as it traverses many continents [...]

The Paul Austerlitz Quartet – Live at The Stone

On Sunday March 29, Paul Austerlitz and his quartet transformed a performance space on New York’s Lower East Side into a house of worship. In a set that was short but sweet, the quartet showered the audience with a fusion of post-bebop, Afro-Dominican, Haitian and Nigerian rhythms, invocations, prayers and shades of Igor Stravinsky. The event took place at The Stone, a community based, not-for-profit performance space [...]

Paquito D’Rivera – Panamericana Suite (MCG Jazz – 2010)

The importance of Paquito D’Rivera’s Panamericana Suite cannot be diminished although it was released almost six months ago. D’Rivera premiered this Suite when he and his Orchestra made a stellar appearance playing a dramatic version of this chart in Fernando Trueba’s seminal film, Calle 54. However on this live performance, released in November 2010, D’Rivera and his Panamericana Orchestra embellish the suite with gorgeous other aspects of [...]

Bobby Matos & His Afro-Latin Jazz Ensemble – Beautiful As The Moon

The master timbalero, Bobby Matos not only carries on the great tradition of the timbales that he inherited from El Rey, Tito Puente, but finding inspiration in holistic healing, he has also developed deep roots in a Zen-like alchemy that melds mambo and rumba, with the jazz idiom. And then there is that delightful surprise that Matos springs—a magical touch of Jewish klezmer, rooted in an authentic Yiddish tradition. The results are always marvellous [...]

Phil Hawkins – Sugarcane Suite (P. Note Music – 2010)

The remarkable aspect of Phil Hawkins’ Sugarcane Suite is the fact that it connects seemingly disparate elements into a cohesive whole with cheerful alacrity. The resulting suite conjures a vivid expedition, a kind of rhythmic voyage that hugs the Caribbean coast, plunging several times into Brazilian waters. How Hawkins, a superb steel pans player, joins the dots in with his high-wire act is one of those mysteries that can only exist when [...]