Steven Brezet
Diferenciado
Circle 9 Records
Embedded within its own style of musical capoeira, the acrobatic quality of Diferenciado’s musicality remains grounded by Brezet’s commitment to the culture and communities he now belongs to in Brazil. As Brezet has come to appreciate, “an album like this creates its own place in my life and so the spirit of the music has become part of me.” In the process Diferenciado becomes a passageway, your passport to the spaces and spirit found within the vivacious communities celebrating the rejuvenative nature of samba.
Download Full Liner NotesAlí Bello
The Charanga Syndicate
Circle 9 Records
Charanga is by nature a collaborative effort but continues to mint champions, clear-sighted artists whose respect for tradition, elite musicianship and precise orchestration, allow for particular idioms to be reimagined for the next generation of audiences. Alí Bello & The Charanga Syndicate accomplishes this by taking charanga to a brilliant new level, playfully leveraging historical narratives into fascinating opportunities to learn about Cuban musical heritage while you dance the night away.
Download Full Liner NotesJoe Syrian
Secret Message
Circle 9 Records
Give your radio dial a gentle spin and see where it leads. Chances are it lands on some style of popular music, and if you’re lucky, an artist or band whose muse goes beyond the manicured riffs, melodic hooks or sub-bass ear candy jammed into today’s airways. While the pull of popularity has always been enticing, some composers follow a higher calling by using their ingenuity and passion to create timeless music that’s eventually enshrined into our collective cultural consciousness.
Download Full Liner NotesJoy Lapps & Larnell Lewis
Caribbean Christmas Mixtape Vol 1
Self Released
With its playful approach, accessible nature and diverse blend of Caribbean influences, the album flows effortlessly from one musical adventure to the next. Warmly invited, listeners will experience Larnell Lewis and Joy Lapp-Lewis’s community with all its flare, sincerity and humor. Stuffed with innovation, ornate with glistening musicality, The Caribbean Christmas Mixtape Vol. 1 is a feast for the mind, release for the body, and a balm for the soul.
Download Full Liner NotesGino Amato
Latin Crossroads
Ovation Records
Gino Amato’s creative genius here is oddly simple: always position whimsy, and the jovial nature of celebrating innovation, alongside any structural risks you entertain. While his musical imagination breathes new life into this stellar cast of songs, structurally Amato will have your head spinning with the ease in which he applies Latin artistry to the variety of musical styles the album entertains. No longer a proof-of-concept, Latin Crossroads fully demonstrates just how influential Latin artistry is to contemporary music.
Read Full Liner NotesJonathan Powell
Mambo Jazz Party
Circle 9 Records
Inspiration is boundless. Traditions throughout the world are inspired by the dynamic cultures and spirits that shape them. Take Maa Saraswati for example, the Hindu goddess of creativity and music.
Or Èṣù, the Yoruba deity who personifies nuance and mischief. Both conspire to cultivate magic, intrigue, depth, passion and celebration within the arts they influence. And that’s exactly what you’ll hear from the remarkable ingenuity of trumpeter Jonathan Powell and the rambunctious imagination you’ll experience throughout his new
album Mambo Jazz Party.
Read Full Liner NotesKiki Valera
Vacilón Santiaguero
Circle 9 Records
Pristine, timeless, culled from a lifetime of cultivating a unique level of mastery, Kiki Valera’s virtuosity is intimately intertwined with the ethos of the Cuban cuatro guitar, and its central role within the legendary history of La Familia Valera Miranda, the pioneers of Eastern Cuba's son music. Embedded inside this dynamic tradition are influential components that have informed mambo, salsa, cha-cha-cha and Latin Jazz, all of which can be heard on Valera’s latest masterwork Vacilón Santiaguero.
Read Press StatementWilly Rodríguez
Seeing Sounds
Willy Rodríguez
Listening deeply allows for the gentle displacement of artifice, ego and traditional expectations. It creates the space required to appreciate music for what it is, as opposed to anything we might want, or need it to be. Seeing Sounds is a deep listening bonanza, a special album using the inquisitive nature of free improvisation as an artful form of musical inquiry. Surrounded by close friends doubling as agile musical agents, Seeing Sounds finds Rodríguez introducing his impressive range of talents while challenging us to listen deeply, with heightened awareness, to this remarkably impressive achievement.
Read Full Liner NotesLaura Beatriz
Momentos
Laura Beatriz
As a snapshot for her burgeoning career, Momentos is Beatriz’s way of measuring the present state of her musicality; an aperitivo of sonic treasures that captivates the imagination, while pleasing the palette such that you immediately long for more. If traditions are who we are, then Momentos says everything you need to know about Laura Beatriz - an artist who’s barely scratched the surface of her own talents, the musical heritage she holds most dear, and the remarkable array of ideas she seems destined to explore next.
Read Full Liner NotesCressman & Faquini
Guinga
GroundUP Records
Traveling through the lush paradise of Brazilian music, there are few more scenic byways than música popular brasileira - the enduring alchemy of fusing genres like samba and baião within the larger frameworks of Jazz, rock, classical and popular music. Even without a map, exploring this unique terrain with its rich harmonic complexity, elaborate lyrics, and remarkable emotive metaphors, leads musicians towards an inescapable reality: all roads lead to Guinga - the master guitarist, composer arranger and Brazilian pop music legend.
Read Press ReleaseRecabarren Trio
Familia
Greenleaf Music
If it takes a village to support and sustain a Jazz trio, then what better way to acknowledge that cherished sense of community than with a marvelous piece of art. In the case of drummer Rodrigo Recabarren, pianist Yago Vazquez and bassist Pablo Menares, that takes the form of their new trio album Famila. Having played together for more than a decade, refining a chemistry and musical telepathy that defines their signature sound, Famila is the consummate expression of this talented trio, as well as the kinship they feel for each other, their collective families and the larger community supporting their music.
Read Press ReleaseRodriguez Brothers
Reunited: Live at Dizzy’s Club
Rodbros Music
Celebrating the 20th anniversary of their first recording Introducing the Rodriguez Brothers, Rob and Mike Rodriguez present Reunited, a spirited new album captured live at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club in New York City. Produced by RodBros Music, Reunited highlights seven original compositions that define the Rodriguez Brothers dynamic approach towards fusing Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, and Latin folkloric traditions with contemporary jazz. Reunited perfectly captures the effervescent nature of a band defined by ingenuity, perseverance and brotherly love.
Read Press ReleaseDoug Beavers
Luna
Circle 9 Records
Few objects inspire artists as enduringly as the moon. 4.5 billion years young, the moon fuels our passion while remaining the mysterious cyclical force that routinely sparks our creativity. Even wolves understand this. Brilliantly lit, clouded into crescents, eclipsed, and gorgeously present when full, the moon’s gravity charms everything from bays and oceans to dance, literature, visual art, and of course music. Luna (Moon), is trombonist Doug Beavers’ latest chapter in an intriguing career of making music that artfully bends rules instead of haphazardly breaking them.
Read Full Liner NotesAnthony Branker
What Place Can Be For Us?
Origin Records
Profound answers to important questions require music that distills rigor, purpose and story into a renewed sense of place. Anthony Branker’s place in Jazz has been consistently building unique architectures that speak to the cultural reparation of allowing this art form to thrive as protest music. What Place Can Be For Us? - A Suite in Ten-Movements is much more than just another stunningly good album from a vastly under-recognized artist; it’s music that seeps into the pores of your consciousness, music that rightfully hurts before its beauty and rectitude fortifies a new agenda for your heart.
Read Full Liner NotesJoe Locke
Makram
Circle 9 Records
After decades as one of the most impactful vibraphonists in Jazz, with countless awards, critically acclaimed albums, and a remarkably diverse array of musical associations to his credit, Joe Locke brings us Makram; a recording glistening with the spirit, ingenuity, musicianship and inquisitiveness of an artist joyously embracing kinship as the foundation for making music entirely on his own terms. Locke’s quartet, (Jim Ridl, Lorin Cohen, and Samvel Sarkisyan) is a unique musical fraternity, a group perfectly suited to the quality of compositions that make this recording so special.
Read Full Liner NotesJoe McCarthy
Pan American Nut Cracker Suite
Angelface Records
The Pan American Nutcracker Suite's distinct beauty comes from the ingenuity that McCarthy, conductor and co-arranger Vince Norman, and the New York Afro Bop Alliance Big Band bring to the nuance of arranging that incorporates so many musical styles. Utilizing the adaptability of the clave, the effervescence of Afro-Latin artistry and the measured brilliance of a band of seasoned, like-minded musicians, Joe McCarthy and the New York Afro Bop Alliance Big Band's The Pan American Nutcracker Suite is a brilliant reinvention of a timeless classic for generations to come.
Read Full Liner NotesSteven Brezet
World Traveler
Circle 9 Records
World Traveler deserves repeat spins on your turntable not just because it swings so hard that you might have to bolt your speakers to the floor, but because Brezet has encrypted this music with subtle innovations that speak to more great things to come. Believing "music needs innovation and to be refreshed but with respect for the tradition," is why you'll find World Traveler so meticulously designed, sprinkled with djembe and timbau solos, and Brezet working with veteran Venezuelan musician Oscar "Chucky" Cordero to charge maximum wattage into every composition.
Read Full Liner NotesJosean Jocobo
Herencia Criolla
Josean Jocobo
Balancing the musical heritage of Merengue de Palo Echao, Bachata, and Gagá with contemporary Jazz and the work of legendary Latin composers, Herencia Criolla deepens the musical dialectic on the enduring ingenuity of Dominican music. Cinematic, anthropological, a chronicle of the heritage that sustains him, Herencia Criolla flows from field recordings to vivid compositions featuring Jocobo's trio, drummer Otoniel Nicolas and bassist Daroll Méndez, with guest appearances by alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón, bassist Ramón Vázquez and percussionists Magic Mejia and Félix Garcia.
Read Full Liner NotesJohn Santos
Art of the Descarga
Smithsonian Folkways Records
At its core, Santos’s journey with descarga has always focused on the gal- vanizing force behind the political philosophies of how Afro-Caribbean people create music. Born into this culture, Santos has never asserted a proprietary claim: “This music really belongs to everybody. It’s music! It emanates from the heart of the Americas, which is not Nebraska or Oklahoma: it’s Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Caribbean. All of the Americas have a common history that unites us, and it’s a violent history, of colonialism, slavery, and the genocide of indigenous people.”
Read Full Liner NotesDoug Beavers
Sol
Circle 9 Records
Sol is more than just the manifestation of meaningful influences gathered throughout a career. Here are songs that express the refreshed identity of an artist willing to experiment by molding cherished genres into a hybrid form of popular music. Honoring soul and R&B from the 70's and 80's, Sol revisits the science of making hits from addictive bass riffs, and the endurance of African rhythms that continue to permeate every aspect of American music. "I'm not trying to prove a point," Beavers says, "I'm just writing music with strong structures, and being clear about what I'm trying to say."
Read Full Liner Note