This is a rather different Chano from the one who first enthralled me with Hecho a Mano (Hand-made), his blazing flamenco/jazz mix recorded in Madrid in 1996 and released on Sunnyside a few years ago. On Con Alma he's replaced the handclaps and multilayered percussion with a traditional jazz trio, bringing on world-class band mates George Mraz and Jeff Ballard. But his roots are still very much in evidence from the first track, a dynamic take on a traditional song—my dictionary tells me "La Tatara" means "sound of a trumpet as a signal for action."

Birds of Fire is Mahavishnu Orchestra’s second studio album. It was released in 1973. It is the last one performed by the original Mahavishnu Orchestra line-up, before Jean-Luc Ponty replaced Jerry Goodman on violin and Narada Michael Walden replaced Billy Cobham on drums.

With this special edition for the English-speaking countries (2 CDs & 100 pages booklet, in two different editions: Spanish or English), Cantus tries to fill an important gap. Given that our most important aim is the diffusion of early music through recordings of the highest musical quality, presented with booklets containing the best possible essays (informative, accessible, readable, updated), we felt that preparing this dictionary (or guide) on the most important instruments used during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance could be useful and important.

Every once in a while, a Cuban Jazz album emerges that is so beautiful and profound that I feel that nothing I can write could possibly do justice to the music. Cu-Bop is one of those recordings. It is mostly in the genre responsible for the title and may possibly be the best recording of that style ever made, including the classic recordings by the original creators. Cesar Lopez accomplishes what Bird was striving for but never fully achieved; Rolando Luna's piano takes the melody lines far beyond what you normally hear, Jorge Reyes is sublime on bass, Alejandro Gonzalez contributes some stunningly beautiful cello work in slower pieces like La Tarde, and the vocals and percussion are wonderful. But Cesar and Rolando are the two elements that place this recording so far above so many others.