Sensacion
Artist: Tito Puente

Tito Puente's Latin ensemble always seems to play sensational music. Puente's Afro-Cuban jazz octet in 1985 featured pianist Sonny Bravo, trumpeter Ray Gonzalez and saxophonist Mario Rivera as the main soloists, along with the leaders' timbales and vibes. For this outing, vibraphonist Terry Gibbs sits in on "Jordu" and plays second vibes to... Read More

A View From Manhattan
Artist: Hendrik Meurkens

Hendrik Meurkens secures his position as the second-best jazz harmonica player (behind Toots Thielemans) with this fine release. Unlike his two earlier Concord recordings, Meurkens sticks to straight-ahead jazz (rather than Brazilian music) on this set, tackling a variety of challenging material (four of the 11 pieces are his originals) with... Read More

The Wildman Returns
Artist: Bobby Enriquez

Bobby Enriquez earned his nickname of the "Wildman" due to his remarkable technique on the piano, his hyper style, and his tendency to toss in lots of crazy song quotes. For this later effort, Enriquez is teamed with bassist Ray Brown and drummer Al Foster for a set of mostly standards including such oddball items as "Blue Hawaii" and the "Pink... Read More

Live at the Village Gate
Artist: Tito Puente

Tito Puente's Golden Jazz All-Stars, featured on Live at the Village Gate, was an all-star nonet filled with loads of talent: Puente, trumpeter Claudio Roditi, altoist Paquito D'Rivera, flutist Dave Valentin, pianist Hilton Ruiz, bassist Andy Gonzalez, drummer Ignacio Berroa, and Giovanni Hidalgo and Mongo Santamaria on percussion. The music is... Read More

Cuando Suenan Los Tambores
Artist: Tito Puente

Treasure from the New York mambo era. Cuando... goes back to Puente's very earliest days as a bandleader in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s, with recordings by his original conjunto and his first big band. This was the birth of New York mambo and one of the greatest of all New York in some rare early triumphs. ~ John Storm Roberts, Original Music,... Read More

Danilo Perez
Artist: Danílo Perez
I Remember Clifford
Artist: Arturo Sandoval

Due to the straight-ahead nature of the music on this CD, plus trumpeter Arturo Sandoval's self-restraint, the release has thus far been most jazz purists' favorite among the trumpeter's releases. Sandoval, who is joined by pianist Kenny Kirkland, bassist Charnett Moffett, drummer Kenny Washington and either Ernie Watts, David Sanchez or Ed... Read More

Images
Artist: Gonzalo Rubalcaba

The high-powered yet sensitive Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba teams up with the brilliant, strangely underrated bassist John Patitucci (who sticks to acoustic bass) and drummer Jack DeJohnette on this superior live set from the 1991 Mt. Fuji Jazz Festival. The repertoire is wide-ranging, with originals from each of the musicians, John Lennon's... Read More

Mambo of the Times
Artist: Tito Puente

Through his consistently infectious series of recordings for Concord Picante, Tito Puente reinforced his position as one of the most important leaders of Latin jazz. On this CD (which is exciting, danceable and quite surprising within the boundaries of the genre), Puente and his 11-piece unit (which includes trumpeter Charlie Sepulveda and... Read More

Live at the Royal Festival Hall
Artist: Dizzy Gillespie & the United Nation Orchestra

Dizzy Gillespie, who was nearing 72 years old at the time of this concert, headed one of his finest big bands during his later years, The United Nation Orchestra. With such stellar sidemen as trumpeters Arturo Sandoval and Claudio Roditi, trombonists Slide Hampton and Steve Turre, altoist Paquito D'Rivera, James Moody on tenor and alto, pianist... Read More

Live at Jazz Alley
Artist: Mongo Santamaria

This is as close to Latin purist Mongo as we have heard in recent years, an eight-piece salsa band -- including several members of the 1997 Tito Puente ensemble, like trumpeter Ray Vega, altoist Bobby Porcelli and tenorman Mitch Frohman -- playing a brace of Mongo classics and Latin jazz pieces live before a hushed crowd in Seattle's Jazz Alley.... Read More

The Mambo King: His 100th Album
Artist: Tito Puente

Puente's 100th album is a celebration of that fact, with a procession of vocalists, most of whom -- like Celia Cruz -- were professionally associated with him at one time or another. That doesn't make for a very tight concept, but recordings by musicians of his generation didn't have concepts, they had music. So does this one, including a minor... Read More

Rapsodia
Artist: Gonzalo Rubalcaba

Pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba has such impressive technique that he has the potential of completely overwhelming any song he plays but Rubalcaba shows admirable restraint throughout much of this quartet date. Influenced to a degree by Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock, Rubalcaba still shows a fresh personality when he utilizes an electric keyboard on a... Read More