Importante debutto discografico di Barbara Casini per Via Veneto Jazz, che si misura in questa produzione con il repertorio della leggendaria cantante Elis Regina, in un disco che “vuole essere un gesto d’amore e gratitudine per chi ha così tanto nutrito la mia anima canterina”. L’album è realizzato con il contributo di numerosi e importanti musicisti di formazione jazz ma estremamente versati nelle sonorità sudamericane, e gli arrangiamenti di Paolo Silvestri vestono con stile ed eleganza i brani, dando il giusto equilibrio e risalto a una delle voci più cristalline che il nostro Paese possa attualmente vantare. Un excursus attraverso brani immortali della musica brasiliana, ricchi di energia, sensualità, allegria e con il giusto pizzico di saudade. Una prova importante, come tutti gli omaggi ai grandi interpreti del passato, che Barbara Casini riesce a superare brillantemente.

Jazzpana II assembles an equally stellar ensemble, with a heavier emphasis on the flamenco contingent. This is led by performer/composers Gerardo Nunez (flamenco guitar) and Chano Dominguez (Grotrian Steinweg piano), and filled out with Esperanza Fernandez (vocals on one track), Jorge Pardo (soprano sax), Carles Benavent (electric bass), Renauld Garcia-Fons (five-string acoustic upright bass), Tino Di Geraldo (drums) and Cepillo (cajon). The Jazz counterpart is headlined by Michael Brecker (tenor sax) and Fareed Haque (electric guitar) and rounded out with Perico Sambeat (alto sax).

Irakere (faux-Yoruba for 'forest') is a Cuban band founded by pianist Chucho Valdés (son of Bebo Valdés) in 1973. They won the Grammy Award for Best Latin Recording in 1980 with their album Irakere. Irakere was a seminal musical laboratory, where historic innovations in both Afro-Cuban jazz and Cuban popular dance music were created. The group used a wide array of percussion instruments like batá, abakuá and arará drums, chequerés, erikundis, maracas, claves, cencerros, bongó, tumbadoras (congas), and güiro.

Esperanza Spalding's debut drives jazz's modern mainstream with a hip-sounding classic piano trio. Her emotional, wordless vocals and conversational bass playing offer a delightful celebration of music as folk art. Spalding's bass playing gets noticed while she interprets traditional jazz favorites as well as fresh new originals.

Irakere (faux-Yoruba for 'forest') is a Cuban band founded by pianist Chucho Valdés (son of Bebo Valdés) in 1973. They won the Grammy Award for Best Latin Recording in 1980 with their album Irakere. Irakere was a seminal musical laboratory, where historic innovations in both Afro-Cuban jazz and Cuban popular dance music were created. The group used a wide array of percussion instruments like batá, abakuá and arará drums, chequerés, erikundis, maracas, claves, cencerros, bongó, tumbadoras (congas), and güiro.

Though based in multiple musical realms, pianist Alain Mallet's ambitious Mutt Slang projects coalesce into a world that exudes 'exotic' yet ultimately feels familiar, the roots of its various components meeting somewhere deep within. Sharing the musical landscape with young musicians from Palestine, Brazil, Italy, Israel, Japan, Bulgaria, Panama, Ireland, Puerto Rico and the US, the complexity of their backgrounds - musically, ethnically, and otherwise, permeates the session, suffusing Mallet's compositions with an undeniable energy and life. "Mutt Slang is very much the result of this convergence of all the musics I love, of digging to get to their shared soul and rebuild something fresh, in order to discover where I belong and give others a chance to do the same." - Alain Mallet

In 1997, it came as a quite a surprise when Fantasy reissued Opa's albums Golden Wings (1976) and Magic Time (1977) on a single 74-minute CD – surprising because the fusion trio had only a very small following; its albums were far from big sellers, and the original LP versions were in print for only a few years. If one notices some similarity between the melodic blend of jazz, rock, funk, pop, and Brazilian music heard on this disc and Airto Moreira's CTI dates of the 1970s, it's no coincidence – Moreira produced both Golden Wings and Magic Time and plays percussion on both of them. Opa members Hugh Fattoruso (keyboards, vocals), George Fattoruso (drums, vocals, percussion), and Ringo Thielmann (bass, vocals) often worked with the percussionist and his wife, Flora Purim, in the 1970s, and his influence clearly rubbed off. It's regrettable that Opa were never as commercially successful as either Moreira or Purim, although this CD points to the fact that it wasn't due to a lack of rewarding material.

This double CD contains 29 live Compay Segundo performances. The first CD contains a conversation with Compay about his childhood and what he feels about his music. This is the original Spanish. The CD split into "club" concerts and "theatre" concerts.

This CD is musicianship at its best. There is something for everyone here from the dark evocative sounds of Misa Negra, the hard swing of the Ellington tribute, and the infectious beat of the son montunos. And all this with some of the most exciting solo performances you could ever hope to hear.

Irakere (faux-Yoruba for 'forest') is a Cuban band founded by pianist Chucho Valdés (son of Bebo Valdés) in 1973. They won the Grammy Award for Best Latin Recording in 1980 with their album Irakere. Irakere was a seminal musical laboratory, where historic innovations in both Afro-Cuban jazz and Cuban popular dance music were created. The group used a wide array of percussion instruments like batá, abakuá and arará drums, chequerés, erikundis, maracas, claves, cencerros, bongó, tumbadoras (congas), and güiro.

Dreamer is the fourth and final album by the Jazz fusion group Caldera. For Caldera, the term "Latin music" meant a variety of things – everything from Spanish flamenco and Afro-Cuban salsa to Brazilian samba and Andean music – and on this LP, all of those things successfully interact with jazz, funk, and rock. Like Caldera's three previous Capitol albums, Dreamer went out of print after the band's breakup and now is released on CD only in Japan

This 2000 big band date re-imagines many of Salvador’s most famous compositions through the pen of arranger Juan Manuel Ceruto and the performances of several Cuban jazz icons. Ceruto brings Salvador’s compositions into a contemporary setting, maintaining their initial integrity while adding slick arrangements and modern performance concepts. In some ways the arrangements lean more towards the refined aesthetics of modern Cuban timba than the rougher exploratory nature of 1970s Cuban jazz, but if offers an opportunity to see the songs through different eyes. Numerous major names in the current Cuban jazz scene jumped at the opportunity to recognize Salvador’s influence on the music; saxophonist German Velazco, trombonist Juan Pablo Torres, vocalist Issac Delgado, bassist Roberto Riberon, drummer Raul Pineda, and conguero Tata Guines all participate in this heavy session.