Jazz Articles
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Héctor Lavoe: La Voz
by Rob Garratt
Craft Recordings have been on a roll of late, following 2021's excellently presented Ornette Coleman boxset, Genesis of Genius, with 2023's Contemporary Records Acoustic Sounds series and imminent Sonny Rollins set Go West!: The Contemporary Records Albums. So it is only natural that jazz-inclined audiophiles will start turning their attention to what other treasures the LA-based reissue specialists are digging out of the vaults. And so we arrive at Craft's new “special reissue" of salsa star ...
read moreJoe Cuba: A Man & His Music--El Alcalde del Barrio
by Chris M. Slawecki
Exhaustive and exhausting (because you won't be able to stop dancing), A Man & His Music--El Alcalde del Barrio presents the first major retrospective of the 240 albums recorded by Joe Cuba, the Father of Latin boogaloo, and was released in February 2010 to commemorate the one year anniversary of his passing.Gilberto Navarro was born in early 1930s Spanish Harlem. Inspired by the storied Latin percussionist Sabu, he taught himself to jam on congas and eventually wound up ...
read moreRay Barretto: Jazz
by Graham L. Flanagan
Although both of his parents were full-blooded Puerto Ricans, Ray Barretto was as American as they come. Born in Brooklyn, by the age of seven he had already resided in that borough, as well as Spanish Harlem and the Bronx. His biological lineage, combined with the place he was born and raised, gives new meaning to the concept of Latin jazz. Fania honors his legacy with a compilation featuring ten of the strongest works he recorded for the ...
read moreWillie Colon: The Player: A Man and his Music
by Norman Weinstein
This two-disc overview of the work of the trombonist, vocalist, and composer Willie Colón presents a musically convincing case that Colón was to the history of Latin music what Don Drummond was to Jamaican ska and J.J. Johnson was to jazz. If the preceding suggests a holy trinity, note that all three had a fervor frequently associated with the spiritually possessed. While many jazz fans have immersed themselves in J.J. Johnson's legacy, few know Drummond and Colón as well as ...
read moreCharlie Palmieri: El Gigante Del Teclado
by Norman Weinstein
The ongoing achievements of the great Latin jazz pianist/composer Eddie Palmieri may hopefully lead listeners new to Latin music to explore the recordings of his equally talented brother Charlie. Charlie Palmieri, a dynamic keyboardist and bandleader, passed away in 1988, and his albums have been difficult to obtain compared to those of his younger brother. “El Gigante Del Teclado," which translates into English as the immodest but accurate “The Giant of the Keyboard," is one of an outstanding batch of ...
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