Shakti With John McLaughlin
Artist: Shakti
Community Score: 10.00

For his next act, the decibel champion of electric jazz shocked the world by unplugging and returning to South Indian music before an excitable audience at South Hampton College. Yet the alert John McLaughlin follower will note that beyond the reliance upon South Indian instruments and scales, there are unbroken links to records like My Goal's... Read More

Central Avenue
Artist: Danílo Perez

Danilo Perez has invited us to step onto Central Avenue to re-examine his musical heritage. His fourth album, named for the main boulevard in his native Panama City, Panama, serves up a mix of blues, folk singing and nostalgia. Perez's fresh, liberating piano reinterprets such jazz standards as Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life" and John Coltrane's... Read More

The Infinite Desire
Artist: Al di Meola
Community Score: 7.00

With the help of new generations of guitar synthesizers and samplers, The Infinite Desire finds a mature, lyrical, more expressive Al di Meola casting his lot with Telarc, which until the late '90s had concentrated its attentions upon aging acoustic jazzers. Indeed, he makes marvelously musical use of the new devices, creating sensuous, exotic... Read More

Behind the Bridge
Artist: Andy Narell

Combining jazz and world music was nothing new in the 1990s; Jelly Roll Morton had done exactly that in the 1920s with what he termed "the Spanish tinge." Nonetheless, world music was something that still had great creative possibilities for jazzmen, and one innovator demonstrating such possibilities was Andy Narell. Having recorded two... Read More

World Tour
Artist: Joe Zawinul

This version of the Zawinul Syndicate could swing harder than any Zawinul-led unit since the heyday of Weather Report, as this two-CD set -- taken from three concerts in Berlin and Trier, Germany -- triumphantly illustrates. Small wonder, for the lineup of the Syndicate looks almost like a Weather Report alumni gathering, with Zawinul, the... Read More

Bele Bele en La Habana
Artist: Chucho Valdés

Issued just after his landmark two-week June 1998 gig at the Village Vanguard and subsequent U.S./Canada tour, Chucho Valdés' first album for Blue Note bears out a lot of the hype surrounding this hugely gifted Cuban pianist. Unlike many of today's younger Cuban keyboard hotshots, Valdés not only has great technical chops and musical erudition,... Read More

Live [CD
Artist: Chucho Valdés

Cuban music legend, Jesus "Chucho" Valdes is fiery hot and still impacting the jazz world with his diverse musical elements. Riding the new wave in Latin jazz fostered by the pianist's critically acclaimed 3/4le Bele en la Habana on Blue Note in 1998, Valdes reserved enough energy to excite his fans with an exquisite blend of technique and soul... Read More

Groovin' High
Artist: Pucho & His Latin Soul Brothers

If anyone has successfully bridged the gap between Latin jazz and soul-jazz, it's Pucho, whose very accessible blend of hard bop, R&B and Afro-Cuban music took its share of knocks from jazz critics but was consistently swinging and could always liven up a party. The New York percussionist was 59 when Groovin' High came out on the small... Read More

Solo Two/Happy Together
Artist: Pete Escovedo

After the breakup of his large Latin band Azteca, percussionist Pete Escovedo, with the assistance of Billy Cobham, recorded two albums for Fantasy that costarred his teenage daughter Sheila E. on conga and timbales. All of the music from the 1976 and 1978 sessions is on this single CD, except for one song left out due to lack of space.... Read More

Amazonas
Artist: Manfredo Fest

This is a very likable effort from Brazilian pianist Manfredo Fest. Fest performs with a quartet that includes guitarist Phil Fest, bassist David Finck, and drummer Vanderlei Pereira, with guest spots for altoist Steve Sacks, and particularly for the talented harmonica player, Hendrik Meurkens (who doubles on vibes). The dozen selections are... Read More