Jazz Articles about Manuel Valera

About Manuel Valera

Album Review

Steve Smith and Vital Information: Time Flies

Read "Time Flies" reviewed by Scott Gudell

by Scott Gudell
June 11, 2023

As with so many prolific drummers, this guy is lean, energized, crisp and knows when to add the snap. Drummer/percussionist Steve Smith's early professional musical explorations were often in the world of jazz as he teamed up with fusion violinist Jean Luc Ponty and the progressive jazz/rock Dutch band Focus for about a year in the late 1970s. He took a call in 1978 from a soon-to-be arena rock band out of San Francisco that went by the name of ...

Album Review

Manuel Valera New Cuban Express Big Band: Distancia

Read "Distancia" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
March 22, 2023

L'evoluzione espressiva del cosiddetto latin jazz è ormai palpabile, sia nelle opere dei solisti che dei bandleader. La schiera dei musicisti centro e sud-americani che abbracciano la complessità del jazz contemporaneo senza dimenticare la ricchezza ritmica e timbrica delle musiche latine, è consistente in strumentisti come Fabian Almazan, Alfredo Rodriguez, Vitor Goncalves, Edward Simon, Dayramir Gonzalez che in arrangiatori come Guillermo Klein, Dafnis Prieto e , appunto, Manuel Valera. Da non confondere con l'omonimo sassofonista cubano (di ...

Radio & Podcasts

Big Ears for Big Sounds

by David Brown
September 13, 2022

This week, I've had big ears for some big sounds. And now you can too. Playlist Thelonious Monk “Esistrophy (Theme)" from Live at the It Club-Complete (Columbia) 00:30 Stan Kenton “Prollouge" from Kenton's West Side Story (Capital Records) 02:00 Don Ellis Orchestra “Turkish Bath" from Electric Bath (Columbia) 06:05 Chick Web and his Orchestra “Heebie Jeebies" from Jammin' for the Jackpot: Big Bands and Territory Bands of the 30s (New World Records) 16:33 Yu Nishiyama “Honorary Whites" from ...

Radio & Podcasts

Releases From Manuel Valera, Lisa Hilton, Tord Gustavsen And Joel Frahm Plus More

by Bob Osborne
April 28, 2022

On this week's show newly recorded releases from Manuel Valera, Lisa Hilton, Tord Gustavsen and Joel Frahm. As well as those archive recordings, just released for the first time, from Barry Deister and Ian Carr, music from Enrico Rava (2005) and some classic live Soft Machine (1970), which has just been repackaged and rereleased. Playlist Show Intro 00:00 Manuel Valera New Cuban Express Big Band “Gemini" from Distancia (Greenleaf) 00:51 Lisa Hilton “Ernie's Blues" from Life is Beautiful ...

Album Review

Berta Moreno Afro-Jazz Soul Project: Tumaini

by Troy Dostert
June 11, 2021

Tenor saxophonist Berta Moreno released her promising debut, Little Steps, in 2017. It signaled her debt to forbears such as Wayne Shorter and Joe Henderson, and displayed an impressive command of bop language. Tumaini, her engaging follow-up, moves in a rather different direction. Time well-spent in Kenya gave Moreno a wider focus for her compositions, as she adroitly melds jazz, R&B and Afro-Latin idioms into an enjoyable musical synthesis. “Tumaini" is a Swahili word for “hope," and there ...

Radio & Podcasts

New Big Band Music and Experimental Sounds

by Bob Osborne
October 1, 2020

On this show big ensembles dominate with the new albums on Greenleaf from Manuel Valera and Mike Fahie. There's also the experimental side of jazz with fresh sounds from Vintage Astronaut and Zing!. This is all balanced out with some fascinating improvised music from Cooper-Moore and Stephen Gauci and Kaze & Ikue Mori. Playlist Manuel Valera New Cuban Express Big Band “El Enemigo Brutal" from Jose Marti En Nueva York (Greenleaf) 00:00 Mike Fahie Jazz Orchestra “La fille ...

Album Review

Manuel Valera New Cuban Express Big Band: José Martí En Nueva York

Read "José Martí En Nueva York" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
September 10, 2020

Chi segue i protagonisti contemporanei del cosiddetto latin jazz conosce bene Manuel Valera. Nel 1995 il pianista ha lasciato la natia Havana per trasferirsi negli Stati Uniti, prima a Miami e poi a New York dove ha studiato alla New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. Dal 2004 s'è progressivamente imposto come una figura artistica di rilievo: leader di propri gruppi (alcuni album con varie formazioni, uno dei quali nominato al Grammy come miglior disco di jazz latino), compositore anche ...