Paquito D’Rivera with the Pablo Aslan Ensemble – Tango Jazz: Live at the Lincoln Center (Sunnyside Records – 2010)

One of the greatest love affairs in music is the one between folk music and dance. This extremely covert relationship has spilled over into contemporary music as well—more so in musical excursions in Europe (where even Igor Stravinsky sang its praises with compositions of his own) and in Latin America. One of the most beloved of all these affairs is the storied one of the tango, a voluptuous one between characters born in countries as far removed as [...]

Chico Pinheiro – There’s a Storm Inside (Sunnyside Records – 2010)

The near falsetto vocals of Chico Pinheiro perfectly offset the voluptuous music that he has created on There’s a Storm Inside. However narrow his vocal range, Pinheiro is a master storyteller and he weaves his lines like an elaborate tapestry, a sort of patchwork quilt that tells the story his way. Pinheiro has a softness that seems to accelerate and retard his very breath. This increases the dramaturgy of his vocalastics in both English and Portuguese [...]

Mike Marshall – An Adventure 1999—2009 (Adventure Music – 2010)

Few musicians deserve a retrospective more richly than the mandolin player, Mike Marshall. The ground-breaking, genre defying instrumentalist and composer has melded his prodigious skills with musicians as far removed as David Grisman and Darol Anger, Bela Fleck and Caterina Lichtenberg… to where his heart lies most comfortably and gracefully, with Brasilian musicians such as Hamilton de Holanda and Hermeto Pascoal. Marshall’s career has spanned [...]

Nelson Riveros – Camino al Barrio (Self Produced – 2010)

Nelson Riveros is one of the most proficient melodic guitarists inhabiting the world of music today. On top of that he is artful rhythmically. He puts both to use playing largely in the middle and lower registers of his instrument—unusual among guitarists, who, for some reason, prefer the wail of the upper register almost all the time. Riveros also seems in no rush to play a phrase or lick. Consequently his lines are longish and dally deliciously as they navigate [...]

Chucho Valdés & the Afro Cuban Messengers Live at Lincoln Center

Maestro Chucho Valdés and the Afro Cuban Messengers performed to a full-house at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Allen Room. The show was part of the institution’s Afro-Cuban celebration, which served to promote cultural and artistic exchange between American and Cuban jazz musicians and culminated in a series of events in Havana, Cuba and New York City [...]

Gabriel Palatchi Band – Diario de Viaje (Self Produced – 2010)

It is highly unlikely that when Gabriel Palatchi set off on his travels, out of Argentina, he thought he would be undertaking a musical excursion so vast and exciting. But the fact is that it ended up that way. Palatchi, now living in Canada—at least for now—has produced a fine album marking his musical sojourn entitled, Diario de Viaje. Leading a fine ensemble of musicians from various parts of South America, Palatchi works the idioms and metaphors of [...]

Benjamim Taubkin – Piano Masters Vol. 1 (Adventure Music – 2010)

Any musician with the daring to attempt a solo project has to be on his game from the moment his fingers touch the keys. However few pianists—since the great Bill Evans—have shown unrivalled touch and expression as Paul Bley, Keith Jarrett, Michel Pilc and now the majestic Brazilian pianist, Benjamim Taubkin. Fortuitously, Adventure Music selected him to inaugurate their forthcoming series with Piano Masters Vol. 1. Here he plays mostly [...]

Marcos Amorim Trio – Portraits (Adventure Music – 2010)

The music of guitarist Marcos Amorim penetrates the air so softly as he bends and folds notes gently creating a sort of glimmering light that wraps each note and phrase with a kind of warm glow that flickers and jumps where the accents of the music fall. Amorim is unique in that his music is a gilt-edged melding of Carioca rhythms and an almost vocal version of the ebb-tide of warm Atlantic waters that flavour the special voicings of Rio’s best singers [...]

Guillermo Klein – Domador de Huellas (Sunnyside Records – 2010)

Guillermo Klein’s third album for Sunnyside Records is also one of his most beguiling and very possibly one of the most memorable tribute albums of the year. Klein’s album, Domador de Huellas – Music of “Cuchi” Leguizamon, literally “the tamer of the footprints” has a deeply significant meaning. The “footprints” in question are a visceral element of a history that is close to disappearing. In this instance the footprint is also one that Gustavo “Cuchi” Leguizamon left [...]

Mike Marshall & Caterina Lichtenberg (Adventure Music – 2010)

It is no longer the necessity to use the term Third Stream that Gunther Schuller “invented” to describe the music created by the Modern Jazz Quartet in the 50’s, which was a confluence of the European Classical tradition streaming with cadenzas, infused with swaggering swing and syncopations of jazz idioms to describe much contemporary 21st century music, which does the same. Labels of any sort would diminish the excellence of the music played by Mike [...]