Jazz Articles about Rafael Enciso

About Rafael Enciso

Interview

Rafael Enciso: Bassist Intends To Search, Remember And Evolve

by Dean Nardi
June 16, 2026

Turn your ears on jazz heads, and you'll hear Rafael Enciso and his quartet playing around New York City's five boroughs. And somewhere nearby, someone will surely be listening to his cooling and coiling debut record Crossfades (2025) on Dayna Stephens' Contagious Music label. It slithers down bowling alley lanes and soda pop convenience store aisles and crawls up the back of the neck. The bass notes are sopping with Northeast nightshade. And trailing them are Nicola Caminiti's alto saxophone, ...

Album Review

Rafael Enciso: Crossfade

Read "Crossfade" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
January 2, 2026

On Crossfade, his debut recording as leader, bassist Rafael Enciso wrests as much rhythmic and harmonic mileage as possible from what is basically a quartet date, using tenor saxphonist Dayna Stephens to add color and depth to one of his ten original compositions, organist Jahari Stampley to amplify two others. Elsewhere, Enciso and his companions paint with broad musical strokes, breathing life into his impressions of a “Waterfall," “Solstice," “Skipping Stones" and “Whirlpool," the last showcasing Enciso's resonant ...