Jazz Articles about Hilton Ruiz

Hilton Ruiz: Enchantment

by Russ Musto
November 23, 2003

The term Latin jazz is too confining a label to describe the multifaceted music created by Hilton Ruiz on this just released recording from November of 2000. The New Yorker towers over most other musicians of his generation in both talent and tuition, with an imposing two handed pianistic technique and impressive knowledge of music history, garnered in no small part through his early studies with jazz matriarch Mary Lou Williams. As a member of Rahsaan Roland Kirk's Vibration Society, ...

Hilton Ruiz: Enchantment

by AAJ Staff
August 25, 2003

If there's one thing associated with Caribbean music, it's rhythm. After all, the islands (and the continental areas surrounding them) were among the first New World colonies to adopt the styles of Africa. Pianist Hilton Ruiz may have grown up in Manhattan, but the 49-year old keeps a stockpile of island rhythms at his fingertips.

Having a Panamanian percussionist (Renato Thoms) and a Venezuelan drummer (Marlon Simon) on Enchantment certainly doesn't hurt when it comes to keeping time. ...