Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez & Robby Ameen: Robby & Negro At The Third World War (La Timba No es Como Ayer)

The different strands go to make a compact body which the players get into and bring alive, with the arrangements adding to the potency. On "The Moon Shows Red (Tzuki...) Jerry Gonzalez sits in on trumpet and Ameen and Hernandez are joined by the Hioyuki Koike quartet, comprised of two violins, a cello and a viola. The strings, arranged by composer Takami Watanabe, are celestial before pirouetting, a swirling assemblage with the drummers adding tonality in pastel shadings. Using the mute, Gonzalez takes another direction, extrapolating into jazz and getting the strings to work in a more passionate ambit. The tune nails it right on!

Ruben Blades brings in a new dimension to "Sympathy for the Devil/El Cielo. He knows how to twist a lyric with his enunciation, which makes the first tune a treat to listen to—and when the melody bursts open and undulates for the second tune, the beat is irresistible and absolutely captivating.

Politics have a say, but who's complaining when something like "All Jazz Era (al-jazeera) comes along? Jazz rears resplendently on the edgy tenor saxophone of Bobby Franceschini. He swings, but he is a chameleon, changing tone and shape and unleashing a scream mid-sentence while the rhythm section dips into some straight-ahead accompaniment. Pedro Martinez sings on "La Timba No Es Como Ayer, an off-kilter rumba, with a voice that is gripped in an emotional coil, becoming all the more startling against the minimal drumming.

It is pure delight listening to this record.