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Ben Carrasquillo
The Afro-Caribbean Jazz Collective: Cortadito
by Jack Bowers
The Afro-Caribbean Collective is a high-energy nonet led by Puerto Rican-born guitarist Jose Guzman. On Cortadito, the ensemble's fourth album, the accent as always is on the lively rhythms and charming melodies of Guzman's home country and nearby equatorial locales. There is one immediate problem, as Guzman writes that his composition “Orchard Downs" is the opening number, whereas the album's jacket places his “Holande Pa Uste" in the lead-off spot and lists “Orchard Downs" as the finale. From ...
Continue ReadingThe Justin Haynes Jazz Collective: In a Funk
by Jack Bowers
In a Funk is the second recording as leader by Illinois-bred composer / arranger Justin Haynes, the first by his eighteen-member Jazz Collective. As was true of his debut album, Shoeless in Georgetown (2015), the most impressive cards are Haynes' splendid charts, ably performed by an ensemble of accomplished and purposeful musicians from the Chicago area. Haynes wrote five of the session's enticing themes and arranged all of them, raising the curtain in a hard-swinging groove with ...
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