Jazz Articles about Bobby Matos

Bobby Matos Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble: Bobby Matos: Ritmo & Blues

by Chuck Koton
November 28, 2015

Fate blessed Bobby Matos. For a kid who dreamed of growing up to be a Latin jazz musician, he could not have been born in a more fortuitous time and place. In the years after World War Two, Nueva York's Hispanic population exploded. Between the years 1940 and 1960, the number of Puerto Ricans increased from a mere 60,000 to over 600,000. The Cuban presence also increased exponentially but considerably less in absolute terms. But while Puerto ...

The Bobby Matos Latin Jazz Ensemble at the Saville Theater

by Robert Bush
July 9, 2010

Bobby Matos Latin Jazz EnsembleSaville Theater, San Diego City CollegeSan Diego, CAJune 29, 2010

Tuesday's concert was another excellent installment in the “Jazz Live" series, promoted and co-sponsored by San Diego City College and one of the few true jazz radio station's left in our country, KSDS Jazz 88. Once a month during the regular school year, (and twice a month in the summer), concerts are held in the acoustically pristine Saville Theater. Visiting artists and concert ...

Latin Jazz: A Legitimate American Music

by AAJ Staff
January 20, 2010

By Bobby Matos Well-informed historians and critics have stated that they believe jazz is America's only art form or its most important art form. Obviously, to music scholars and experts, most pop music derives from jazz, including R&B, rock, hiphop and other subgenres. One of jazz music's most important styles, however, is often ignored or not acknowledged to be a part of jazz. Latin jazz, originally called AfroCuban jazz, is often perceived as being a ...

Bobby Matos And The Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble: Acknowledgement

by Edward Blanco
October 8, 2006

A veteran percussionist and pioneer of the Latin jazz genre since the early sixties, Bobby Matos has created an excellent fusion of Latin and Afro-jazz music on Acknowledgement. Matos records ten original hot and heavy, hip-moving compositions with his Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble and pays tribute to the legendary John Coltrane with Afro-Latin arrangements of three Coltrane standards. They include the four-note classic “A Love Supreme - Acknowledgement, supported by some masterful playing from bassist John B. Williams, and “Tunji ...

Bobby Matos and His Latin Jazz Ensemble: Acknowledgement

by Ernest Barteldes
September 26, 2005

It's too bad that the audience actually watching the show at Queens' Jamaica Jams Festival on August 6th wasn't as large as expected--most people there seemed to be more interested in shopping and eating than enjoying the music. Their loss, for those who did stop to listen to the short set presented by Bobby Matos and the Latin Jazz All-Stars had an opportunity to see a legend at work.The set, despite its shortness (the previous act overextended its ...

Bobby Matos: Made by Hand

by Russ Musto
October 20, 2004

Transplanted New York timbalero Bobby Matos brings his hot New York style salsa to his adopted home state of California on Made By Hand , a live '03 Pasadena concert recording by his Afro Latin Jazz All Stars, a group of fine players who are relatively unknown to listeners here in New York. Matos, who is strongly influenced as an ensemble leader by Mongo Santamaria and Tito Puente, pays homage to both of the somewhat recently departed masters with arrangements ...

Bobby Matos & John Santos: Mambo Jazz

by Jim Santella
May 1, 2001

By allowing their bands to jam together for this project, Bobby Matos and John Santos have created a loose-knit, easy to like affair. Both percussionist bandleaders emphasize Afro-Latin jazz in their respective ensembles. Beside a colorful lineup of tuned drums and cowbells of different sizes, their combined orchestra has room for traditional Afro-Cuban vocals and fiery horn solos. Two dramatic readings make an emotional impression. One appears as a reverent homage to bassist Israel “Cachao" Lopez, 82, who is widely ...