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Jazz Articles about Ricardo Monzon
About Ricardo Monzon
Instrument: Percussion
Related Articles | Concerts | Albums | Photos | Similar ToRon Rieder: Latin Jazz Sessions
by Jack Bowers
Even while pursuing a long and successful career in the physical sciences, Bostonian Ron Rieder never abandoned his life-long love for jazz, especially the tantalizing melodies and lively rhythms of Latin America, composing music at every opportunity before returning to writing full-time and at long last recording his debut album, Latin Jazz Sessions It was worth the wait. Rieder's colorful tunes ensnare the ears from the outset and never let go, while his septet plays Latin jazz about ...
read moreMiles Donahue: Just Passing Thru
by Jack Bowers
Miles Donahue is a versatile musician, a talent that serves him well on Just Passing Thru, an album wherein he not only plays soprano, alto and tenor saxophones, trumpet and keyboards but also wrote all but one of the session's nine selections. This is basically a quintet with guitarist Mike Stern added on the last three tracks, guitarist Sal Difusco and accordionist Joey Barbato on one each. Barbato is an especially welcome addition on the closer, Ireland," a nod to ...
read moreEarl MacDonald: Open Borders
by Jack Bowers
Open Borders brings to the fore Canadian-born pianist Earl MacDonald's burnished tentet in a program that consists of eleven sunlit and swinging themes, five of which were composed by the leader. Besides writing, MacDonald did most of the arranging, and he excels in both arenas, as he does on piano (most notably on the standards Blame It On My Youth" and East of the Sun" as well as on Percy Mayfield's R&B classic Hit the Road Jack" and his own ...
read moreEarl MacDonald: Open Borders
by Mike Jurkovic
Not many piano led ensembles finds the pianist laying as far back in the musical dialogue as Earl MacDonald, who doesn't come anywhere near an extended solo until Miles Apart" and Percy Mayfield's Ray Charles blow- out Hit The Road Jack" (tracks five and six respectively). But that's just fine given that MacDonald has charted the conversations and man oh man, do these arrangements crackle with spirit.From the high-flying Dig In Buddy" to the exhilarating Latin flavors Dolphy ...
read moreEarl MacDonald: Open Borders
by Dan Bilawsky
Politicians might do well to take a few pointers from pianist-arranger Earl MacDonald. As this fine album attests to, it's far better to build bridges than walls, and far more productive to open borders and dialogue than close hearts, minds, and doors. While MacDonald didn't initially set out to make a political statement with this recording, both the events of the day and the make-up of the marvelously tight dectet that brings this music to life got ...
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