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Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez & Robby Ameen: Robby & Negro At The Third World War (La Timba No es Como Ayer)
by Jerry D'Souza
Horacio El Negro" Hernandez and Robby Ameen pack a whole lot into this collaboration. The prime beat comes from Latin music, but there is hip-hop, classical, and jazz as well. How does it all fit in? Just perfectly, thank you!
The different strands go to make a compact body which the players get into and bring alive, with the arrangements adding to the potency. On The Moon Shows Red (Tzuki...) Jerry Gonzalez sits in on trumpet and Ameen ...
Continue ReadingHoracio "El Negro" Hernandez/Robby Ameen: Robby & Negro At The Third World War (La Timba No es Como Ayer)
by Michael McCaw
Have you ever heard a salsa version of Sympathy for the Devil ? With the piano carrying the melody and a myriad of percussion instruments forming the swaggering beat? No matter what preconceptions or feelings you have towards the original, it's hard not to find yourself moving with the opening track on Robby & Negro at the Third World War. And if you weren't swaying, as the song transitions into el Cielo, the second part of the medley, there is ...
Continue ReadingHoracio "El Negro" Hernandez: Live at the Modern Drummer Festival
by John Kelman
With a breadth of ability, drummer Horacio El Negro" Hernandez still maintains strong roots in the traditional music of his native Cuba. Despite playing in a variety of contexts since relocating to New York City a few years ago, and recording with artists including Victor Mendoza, David Samuels, Steve Turre and, most notably, on Carlos Santana's mega-hit Supernatural , the clave has never been far from the surface. No more evident is this fact than on Live at the Modern ...
Continue ReadingHoracio "El Negro" Hernandez: Italuba
by Dan McClenaghan
Drummer Horacio El Negro" Hernandez arrived in New York from his native Cuba (via Italy) and slipped into the percussion driver's seat on recordings by pianists Michael Camilo and Chucho Valdes, trumpeter Roy Hargrove and guitar legend Carlos Santana, helping those artists snag a bunch of Grammy Awards. Italuba "the title a melding of the names of his native land and that of the country that welcomed him on his initial expatriation""marks his overdue debut as a leader.
Continue ReadingHoracio 'El Negro' Hernandez : One Size Fits All
by R.J. DeLuke
Horacio El Negro" Hernandez is a drummer for all seasons. One size fits all. A consummate pro with broad musical tastes, he graces the bands and recordings of a wide variety of performers, not just those in the jazz realm. He's a drummer. Period. Don't mistake that for any ol' drummer," because he is far from that. He is determined. He worked hard to become a percussionist extraordinaire. He's passionate about his art, devoted to creating music.Simply stated, ...
Continue ReadingJoanne Brackeen: Pink Elephant Magic
by Glenn Astarita
One of the great pianist’s and unsung heroes in Modern Jazz returns in incendiary and dynamic fashion. Joanne Brackeen’s Pink Elephant Magic is stunning, articulate and easily one of the premier jazz recordings of 1999.
The title track and opener, “Pink Elephant Magic” is simply an outstanding composition! The complex and seemingly difficult to perform arrangement is multifaceted, cleverly orchestrated and superior in scope and altogether artfully constructed. Brackeen, with the assistance of Nicholas Payton (trumpet), Chris Potter (soprano sax) ...
Continue ReadingJoanne Brackeen: Pink Elephant Magic
by Jack Bowers
This new recording showcases not one but two of Joanne Brackeen’s conspicuous talents, and is uplifted not only by her exemplary keyboard work but her persuasive writing as well. Brackeen, now some 30 years removed from her early service with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, writes with clear images in mind, and the results can be observed in such charming sound portraits as “Pink Elephant Magic,” “Ghost Butter,” “Filene’s,” “Beethoven Meets the Millennium in Spain” and “Cram ’n Exam” (a note–heavy ...
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