Danger High Voltage is significant in two respects: It is the first release from the Two and Four Recording Company, and it marks the reformation of the George Coleman Octet, which hadn't recorded since its debut in 1977. The horn section consists of Coleman and special guest Ned Otter on tenor saxes, Jim Rotondi on trumpet, Adam Brenner on alto, and Gary Smulyan on baritone.

This album pairs one of the greatest flamenco singers of today, cantaor Diego El Cigala, with one of Cuba’s finest Afro-Cuban pianists, Bebo Valdes. With Valdes (father of the great Chucho Valdes) born in 1918, there’s a 40-year age difference between the pianist and the singer, but they do a fine job crossing generations and oceans to discover the commonalities between Caribbean and the Iberian music, coming up with a romantic marriage of the two cultures using rumbas, guajira, sons and boleros. All the songs are classics out of the Latin music tradition, using just a handful of players in support. Valdes’s fingers are delicate and prone to dramatic flourishes; Cigala’s voice is pure flamenco in its hoarse intonation, cadence and emotional outpourings. The two masters make the union work by focusing on the drama of the love songs–”Veinte Años,” “Inolvidable” and the title track are just three amazing examples–as fuel for some of the most exquisitely passionate music to come out in ages.

–Tad Hendrickson - Amazon.com