LJC Community Conversation: What’s The Best Latin Jazz Album That Noone’s Ever Heard?
LJC Community Conversations are designed to explore major ideas in the Latin Jazz world together as a community and inspire conversation through comments. My main motivator here is my belief that LJC readers hold a great deal of knowledge and passion around Latin Jazz, and I think that we can learn something from everyone. Whether you’re a seasoned Latin Jazz performer or a newcomer to the music, leave a comment and let your voice be heard!
A good deal of high quality Latin Jazz has been forgotten by history leaving listeners unaware of many important works. Latin Jazz musicians perform around the world, but unless they are promoted heavily, they escape our attention. These musicians often create top-notch work, but it remains a valued secret inside their local communities. Artists at the beginning of their careers have limited resources to promote their work. Without the support of a label or management team, young artists can accomplish a finite amount of work as they stretch their time and finances thin. Established artists have a large back catalog of albums that sometimes reach across decades. As time passes, their most-loved albums demand the majority of the public’s focus, while their lesser-known but equally high quality albums go through time overlooked. Many of these underserved artists and albums are victims of circumstance, just waiting for someone to discover them.
From a listener’s perspective, it can be difficult to keep track of unknown artists or albums. We have limited time, and we can only hear so much music. We have our favorite artists that get the lion’s share of our attention; we have classics that we enjoy revisiting; and we find the latest artists that capture the world’s imagination. Discovering new music also takes time; unknown albums stay hidden for a reason - they’re hard to find! Even with internet searches, it can be a struggle to actually obtain obscure music. We also have financial constraints, which complicate the matter further. We may want to hear every Latin Jazz album, but risking our limited dollars on unfamiliar artists often deters us. The cards are stacked against unknown artists and albums, so we need to help work together and find them!
We’ve all got hidden gems in our music collection, and now it’s time to put those valuable music secrets out into the open. We can all save each other time and money by recommending rare or overlooked albums. The LJC community holds years of Latin Jazz knowledge; I know that my fingers hit the “buy” button much more quickly if I’ve gotten a thumbs-up from you guys. A large part of LJC’s mission is the exposure of new, little known, or overlooked Latin Jazz artists and albums, so let’s put our resources together and create some unique listening suggestions - I’m looking forward to this one!
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So what’s the best Latin Jazz album that you think no one has ever heard? Well . . . maybe not an album that “no one” has ever heard - here’s some ideas for selections:
* A rare Latin Jazz album that has escaped the popular consciousness
* A Latin Jazz album from a new or unknown artist
* A Latin Jazz artist from your community that hasn’t recorded yet, but deserves recognition
* A Latin Jazz album that we’ve spotlighted here on LJC, but you’d like to emphasize its worth
LEAVE A COMMENT Let the recommendations roll in! I can’t wait to find some new music! Once you’ve left your thoughts here, don’t forget to visit our past community conversations.
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Do you have an idea for a future Community Conversation? As much as I enjoy exploring my own interests with this regular post, I’d prefer to have this forum address the overall interests of the entire community. Do you have an issue that effects Latin Jazz? Do you have an idea for a fun topic? Let me know so that we can throw it out to the whole community - Leave a Comment or e-mail me.
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Wazzup All!
I’ll go with the 1st that sprung to mind, Ralph Irizarry & Timbalaye’s 1st self-titled record. It’s amazing arrangements plus virtuoso musicianship have always impressed me. Interestingly enough, along the lines of this topic, is that his 2nd record was called ‘Best Kept Secret’, he called it that due to the fact that that’s what he considered his Latin Jazz unit. This was the 1st record to turn me on to Roberto Quintero. I’ve been watchin’ ‘em ever since (he’s managed to keep VERY busy, perhaps moreso than Irizarry!). He, along with his cousin Luisito, have become extremely busy lately, fact is, they’ve become 1st-call A-listers!! Especially on the Salsa scene.
Another one that I picked up and never heard on radio or read about was ‘Oaktown Irawo - Funky Cubonics’. A west coast Latin Jazz Project featuring, amongst others, Omar Sosa, Greg Landau, Jesus Diaz, Yosvany Terry, Paul Hanson, John Calloway, and the reason I picked it up; David Garibaldi on drums. A very hip, funky, authentic Latin Jazz project!
I’m hopin’ this topic generates some stuff I haven’t heard yet!!;)
Here’s a bunch more (it’s o.k. that nobody’s posting, when one writes about Latin Jazz, one gets used to talking to oneself, right CB?;).
Memo Acevedo - Building Bridges
Bobby Sanabria & Ascension - N.Y.C. Ache!
Bobby Shew - Salsa Caliente
Hilario Duran Big Band - From The Heart
Tolu - Rumbero’s Poetry
J. P. Torres - Together Again
Bebo Valdes - Bebo de Cuba
John Santos & Machete - Tribute To The Masters
Rebeca Mauleon - Descarga En California
Humberto Ramirez - Paradise
Paquito D’Rivera - Live At The Blue Note
Michael Phillip Mossman - The Orisha Suite
Jerry Gonzalez & Fort Apache - Obatala
Chano Dominguez - Hecho A Mano
Michel Camilo - One More Once
Orlando ‘Cachaito’ Lopez
Caribbean Jazz Project - 1st
Francisco Aguabella - H2O
Wayne Wallace - Three In One
Tito Puente All-Stars - In Session
DAMN!!! What a list!!!;) Puts a smile on my face just lookin’ at it! And the simple truth (as we ALL know) is that there’s SO much more!! Should I start to go through my albums? I’ll be here all day….Ray Baretto - The Other Road, Jose Mangual - Buyu…spring to mind instantly. Such a beautiful, magical, historic, music. I feel it’s my buena fortuna to be so blessed!….did I mention that there’s SO much more!!!;)
Here’s a great one - Snowboy & The Latin Section Play Afro Cuban Jazz (Cubop).
A few others - The Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Stars (Shanachie), Don Grolnick’s ‘Medianoche’ (WB) - a ‘must have’, and Spanish musician (Flamenco) Jorge Pardo’s ‘In a Minute’ (Milestone).
I thought we were talking about great music that never made it to being classics of latin jazz. I got a couple of names that I would like to throw… :
1- TOLU a group out of Colombia (some years ago) , an old issue but , anytime you guys can, take a listen. You’ll see what I mean.
2.- Carlos Averhoff, I think this cd deserved more attention, that it apparently got.
3.- Last on my list, last on my mind, now, I colud probably go on and on, the Dutch of Nueva Manteca and Cubop City BIg Band. Great Latin-Jazz.
Again. like it was said, this list is certainly non exhaustive. So many great never really made it to the big leagues, and this is a shame.
Reginald
Hey guys, sorry I’ve been out of this conversation for the week - I’ve been out of town. I wrote the week’s articles ahead of time and then scheduled them to post. It’s nice to see so many responses here, I’m quite inspired to do some listening! I’ll be back in a minute here to go through the lists . . .
Chazro - wow, you’ve got quite a few great recordings here! Where to start . . .
I wish that Ralph Irizarry would move his focus back to Latin Jazz soon - Timbalaye was such an incredible group. The only problem is that his salsa band is just as good! He brought Timbalaye out to the Bay Area once, it was an incredible show; just as good if not better than the albums. Of course, they played to an almost empty club, it was a real drag. Those albums are must-haves, for sure. The Oaktown Irawo is quite a hidden jewel as well; I think that a lot of people missed that one. Various versions of that group used to play in San Francisco a couple times a month at The Elbo Room - I believe it was dubbed as something like Latin Jazz Without Borders. Seeing those guys live, it was like . . . wow. The personel was a little different each time, but the results were always fantastic.
I like your longer list as well, you’ve included some albums by big names that kind of slipped through the cracks. The J.P. Torres album had Paquito D’Rivera and Arturo Sandoval (as well as Chucho Valdes I think), that’s a burnin’ album. I love the John Santos album; there’s some very creative arranging of several standards. I love the Rebeca Mauleon album too. The Orisha Suite is a bit of a different album, but as always, Mossman has some beautiful compositions. That Cachaito album is funny, it takes some getting used to. I think that it didn’t really sell well - not what people expected after the Buena Vista Social Club. It was quite creative though. The Tito Punte album is very good - I do like the album that they did live at The Playboy Jazz Festival a little better. I don’t have the Bobby Shew album, I’m going to have to check that one out - he sounds great on Gabriel Alegria’s new album, Nuevo Mundo. That one is really worth checking out!
Thanks for the long list . . . I know all too well what it’s like to talk to yourself about Latin Jazz, sorry I wasn’t here for some earlier interaction!
Michael -
I like the Snowboy album, they bring together some interesting ideas. I think they’ve got organ on several tracks, which puts a totally different slant on things.
I’m going to track down the Jorge Pardo album. I have a couple of albums by Chano Dominguez, but beyond that, I honestly haven’t gotten into Flamenco Jazz enough. I’d like to know more about that style of Latin Jazz - I may have to do some research and put together an ‘exploring’ featuring on it. Thanks for the inspiration!
Some of you guys might not have heard Michael’s album, Latin Journey - change that! He’s got some good things happening; he’s a good bass player too. I’ll be covering it here at LJC soon, but don’t wait - check it out!
Reginald -
I like this list - I haven’t heard most of the albums! What is the Tolu album? I have the album Rumbero’s Party that Chazro mentioned above, but that was produced in LA with Alex Acuna & Justo Almario. Are we talking about the same thing? If not, give us an album name, please! I don’t have the Carlos Averhoff album - I’m completely disappointed that I missed that one! I love his work out of Cuba, he’s quite a saxophoinst. I’m going to have to look that CD up. I have heard Nueva Manteca - that’s quite a band. I’m not familiar with the Cubop City Big Band - where are they from and what are their albums? I’d love to know.
Way to go Reginald, you’ve given me some work to do - I’ve got to find these albums! I love hearing new stuff . . .