DON’T BOTHER
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A bunch of white guys getting together and playing Latin Jazz — sounds like a recipe for disaster, doesn’t it? Well, Sonando does has that feeling of oil slick deep Latin cliches, as on the snooze Done Estabas Anoche, but it isn’t as bad as it could be.
On the opener, Cancion del Rio […]

JAZZBO NOTE HIGHLY RECOMMENDED RECORDING
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On Afreecanos, the phenomenal pianist and musicologist Omar Sosa is still reminding us that most, if not all music, originates from the continent of Africa.
For example, on Oliu, at first the music sounds almost like a blues, until the vocalist joins in. I’m not sure what language he’s singing (I […]

JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING
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This collection gathers some of the early material of Machito and His Afro-Cubans, before Machito’s brother-in-law Mario Bauza started bringing in notable jazz performers as guests in the band, so the music has glints of big band jazz circa 1940, but most of the time, it’s pretty much straight up Cuban […]

DON’T BOTHER
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If the inclusion of multiple musical genres and thematic cohesiveness were enough to make a piece of music a masterpiece, Bob Moses’ The Story of Moses would surely qualify. A cursory analysis of The Story of Moses would reveal hip hop, funk, salsa, rock, and traditional Yiddish musical influences. No less an authority […]

JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING
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Omar Sosa is up to his old tricks on Free Roots, trying to cram the entire African diaspora into every tune. Amazingly, it doesn’t just sound like a freeway pileup, which is due to Sosa’s amazing skills as a pianist, composer, and arranger.
For example, on Travieso, hiphop collides with Latin, Afrocuban […]

JAZZBO NOTES RECOMMENDED RECORDING
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This oddly named album isn’t a live date, but never mind. Cal Tjader’s Latin Concert is aptly named in at least one way. It’s Latin jazz, not jazz with a Latin lilt. The rhythms are authentic, as well they might be considering that Tjader is using Mongo Santamaria on congas and […]

JAZZBO NOTES RECOMMENDED RECORDING
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I’ve got to admit, I’m fond of Art Blakey. I like the way he ostentatiously plays constrasting cross rhythms every chance he gets. He’s a highly theatrical showoff, which is not a criticism. Besides, he’s probably the drummer who best understands Thelonious Monk, which definitely earns him brownie points with me.
Aside […]

JAZZBO NOTES RECOMMENDED RECORDING
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Yet another jazz pianist from Cuba, Elio Villafranca is very much his own man. He is not a showoff like Chucho Valdez, and he isn’t wild and crazy like Omar Sosa. Villafranca limits his influences to Afro-Carribean music and American jazz. Again, unlike Omar Sosa, you don’t get sections which are […]

JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING
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If you own any one Omar Sosa release from his early period, it should probably be Prietos (on Sosa’s own Ota Records label). It is the most extreme of his African Diaspora releases.
In Omar Sosa’s early career, he seemed determined to jam every corner of the African diaspora into his recordings, […]

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CLASSICS THAT I HATE
Let me just say it straight out: pianist Chucho Valdes’ New Conceptions is awful, almost unlistenable.
Why am I so repulsed by New Conceptions?
Perhaps it’s the selfconsciously “soulful” ballads, which drip syrup but not a drop of genuine feeling. Or perhaps it’s the ghastly rendition of […]