ENGLISH: El Septeto Santiaguero is back with another collaboration with José Alberto "El Canario" and an impressive roster of both Cuban and foreign guest artists. Traditional and innovative simultaneously.
ESPAÑOL: El Septeto Santiaguero regresa con nueva colaboración con José Alberto "El Canario" y una lista impresionante de artistas invitados cubanos y extranjeros. Tradicional y innovador simultaneamente.

ENGLISH: Bassist Gastón Joya's first commercially-released solo album, a trio project with some special guests, is the winner of the Jazz Soloist category in Cubadisco 2018
ESPAÑOL: El primer álbum de bajista Gastón Joya lanzado en el mercardo, un proyecto en trio con invitados especiales, es ganador de la categoríá Jazz Solista en Cubadisco 2018.

ENGLISH: Legado, the latest by Formell y Los Van Van, is an exciting combination of material from the early days of the band with current compositions. It won a Special Prize in Cubadisco 2018 and as of this writing is also a nominee for Best Tropical Latin Album in this year's GRAMMY awards.
ESPAÑOL: Legado, el nuevo de Formell y Los Van Van, es una combinación emocionante de material desde los primeros años del grupo con composiciones actuales. Ganó un Premio Especial en Cubadisco 2018 y en este momento es nominado a la categoríá Mejor Álbum Latino Tropical en los premios GRAMMY

ENGLISH: The Arango Family has been a giant force in Rumba, Cuban Jazz, Afrocuban Folklore and Timba for decades. Bendita Guanabacoa by Hermanos Arango, nominated for a Cubadisco in 2019, brings it all together In a wonderful new recording that contains genuine surprises even for well-educated ears.
ESPAÑOL: La familia Arango ha sido una fuerza gigante en Rumba, Jazz cubano, Folclore afrocubano y Timba hace décadas. Bendita Guanabacoa por Hermanos Arango, nominado para un Cubadisco en 2019, lo reúne todo en una nueva grabación maravillosa que contiene sorpresas genuinas incluso para oídos bien formados.

ENGLISH: Tradition and Beyond, the new release by clarinet virtuoso and composer Ernesto Vega with some of Cuba's best young Jazz stars, is a heartfelt Jazz tribute with original compositions to some of the musicians to which Ernesto listened in his youth
ESPAÑOL: Tradition and Beyond, el nuevo lanzamiento del virtuoso de clarinete y compositor Ernesto Vega con unos de las mejores jovenes estrellas de Jazz en Cuba, es un tributo jazzistico sencillo con composiciones originales a algunos de los músicos a que Ernesto escuchaba en su infancia y juventud.

ENGLISH: VIVENCIAS EN CLAVE CUBANA is the exciting debut solo album of Kiki Valera, cuatrista of one of Cuba's most distinguished families of soneros, the Familia Valera Miranda. The album also features Coco Freeman whose resume includes lead vocalist for NG La Banda and Adalberto Álvarez y su Son."

ESPAÑOL: VIVENCIAS EN CLAVE CUBANA es el emocionante álbum debut en solitario de Kiki Valera, cuatrista de una de las familias de soneros más distinguidas de Cuba, la Familia Valera Miranda. El álbum también presenta a Coco Freeman, cuyo currículum incluye voz líder con NG La Banda y Adalberto Álvarez y su Son.

ENGLISH: El Viaje is Zule Guerra's first in-studio album, her previous releases being recordings of live performances. All of the compositions are hers, and with a stellar lineup of JoJazz winners plus Ernán López-Nussa's deft touch as producer, this is a thing of beauty.
ESPAÑOL: El Viaje es el primer álbum de estudio de Zule Guerra, sus lanzamientos anteriores son grabaciones de actuaciones en vivo. Todas las composiciones son suyas, y con una alineación estelar de ganadores de JoJazz más el toque hábil de Ernán López-Nussa como productor, esto es algo bello.

ENGLISH: The Jazz Young Spirit collection, released on Colibrí beginning in 2005, is among the crown jewels of Cuban jazz releases featuring young artists early in their careers. These are often their debut recordings.
ESPAÑOL: La colección Jazz Young Spirit, lanzada en Colibrí a partir de 2005, se encuentra entre las joyas de la corona de los lanzamientos de jazz cubanos con artistas jóvenes al principio de sus carreras. Son a menudo sus grabaciones de debut.

ENGLISH: La Equina del Jazz is an audio memorial by the winners of the first improvisational jazz contest organized by the iconic radio program of the same name. An interesting collaboration of contest winners and established professionals, noteworthy also for its significant amount of North American style jazz standards.
ESPAÑOL: La Equina del Jazz es un audio memorial de los ganadores del primer concurso de improvisación de jazz organizado por el icónico programa de radio del mismo nombre. Una interesante colaboración de ganadores del concurso y profesionales establecidos, destacable también por su gran cantidad de estándares de jazz de estilo norteamericano.

ENGLISH: In Te Lo Dije, Harold López-Nussa presents a bold jazz tribute to several genres of popular music, mostly but not exclusively Cuban, including a surprising jazz treatment of reggaeton in one track.

ESPAÑOL: En Te Lo Dije, Harold López-Nussa presenta un audaz homenaje jazzistico a varios géneros de la música popular, en su mayoría pero no exclusivamente cubana, que incluye un sorprendente tratamiento jazzístico del reguetón en un track.

ENGLISH: In a guest review by Mildred Gloria Aguilar Díaz written for Radio Cadena Habana and republished here, a look at a style called Changüi con flow by Zona Franka. A tasty mixture of traditional and urban Cuban music.
ESPAÑOL: En una reseña escrita por Mildred Gloria Aguilar Díaz para Radio Cadena Habana y republicada aquí, una mirada a un estilo llamado Changüi con flow de Zona Franka. Una sabrosa mezcla de música cubana tradicional y urbana.

English: The last full studio album by El Gran Fellove (Francisco Fellove Valdés), recorded with Joey Altruda in Mexico City in 1999, has finally emerged from the vaulton the 100th anniversary of his birth. Unlike some projects in other genres released more for the sake of completeness than true musical merit, this one stands on its own merits.
Español: El último álbum completo en esudio de El Gran Fellove (Francisco Fellove Valdés), grabado con Joey Altruda en la Ciudad de México en 1999, finalmente ha salido de la bóveda en el centenario de su nacimiento. A diferencia de algunos proyectos de otros géneros lanzados más por ser completos que por un verdadero mérito musical, este se sostiene por sus propios méritos.

English: Vacilón Santiaguero is Kiki Valera's second release in the United States. Still 100% authentic son cubano with an impressive guest list of some of Kiki's favorite trumpeters.
Español: Vacilón Santiaguero es el segundo lanzamiento de Kiki Valera en Estados Unidos. Sigue siendo son cubano 100% autentico con una lista impresionante de algunos de los trompestistas favoritos de Kiki como invitados

Manolin does a little bit of everything here, and different tracks may appeal to different listeners.

This Cuban Jazz recording by Maraca and a cast of supporting all stars received critical acclaim internationally including a glowing review by Downbeat in the United States.

This beautiful trio recording has Ernán at the grand piano and incorporates elements from much of the history of Cuban and US popular music and Jazz as well as his classical training. For those who only know of Ernán from his work with Afro-Cuban groups, this shows a different side of his talents.

This distinctive CD/DVD set includes both live and studio recordings of the Septeto, an interview with musicologist Helio Orovio and liner notes that make this both an excellent musical production and a valuable historical document. Nominated in both the Latin GRAMMY awards and Cubadisco 2013.

Winner of the Grand Prize in Cubadisco 2012, this unique project features the music of Ernán López-Nussa in a way that also showcases the talent of some of Cuba's young generation of new pianists. The product also includes sheet music, a documentary, videos and a photo gallery with more than 3 hours of active content.

This excellent folkloric fusion project won multiple Cubadisco awards in 2012 and is one of the best projects of its kind.

Winner of 5 Cubadisco Awards (including the Grand Prize) in 2014, Sacrilegio is an extraordinary project by Ernán López-Nussa that may very well be the most ambitious blending of Jazz, Cuban and Classical music ever recorded by any artist to date.

You have probably already seen a piece of this due to the Havana D'Primera video clip that is all over the web, but that clip is part of a far larger, more ambitious project with a multitude of artists to be released to the general public in the months to come. This is a sneak preview of that project, which was awarded a Special Prize at Cubadisco 2014.

One of the very best Jazz combos in Cuba today in a CD/DVD combination package of a live concert in Havana in 2012. The music, audio and video are all superb. This was nominated for a Cubadisco in the Jazz Cubano category in 2014 and received a Cubadisco for best Live Recording.

This extraordinary Jazz recording would be remarkable in any country and represents the best of the youth movement in today's Cuban Jazz. It was nominated for multiple Cubadisco 2014 awards - Jazz, Audiovisual Concert, CD/DVD, Video Clip, Making of, and Liner Notes. It won the Audiovisual Concert category.

Identidad was awarded a Cubadisco in the Documentary category in 2014. The CD portion of this CD/DVD combination includes reissues of two fascinating recordings (homenajes and Travesía) by Sergio Vitier, who was one of the key members of GES (Grupo de Experimentacion Sonora del ICAIC) before it disbanded. Indeed, these recordings, while all his own compositions, are reminiscent of some of the best work of that group.

This Cubadisco 2015 winner (Jazz and Making of) fits perfectly in the part of the musical spectrum occupied by bands like the Yellowjackets, Weather Report, the Chick Corea Electric Band and some of Herbie Hancock's work. Very electric in more ways than one.

Cuba Now Danzon updates the Danzon with some modern touches, innovative arrangements (especially with brass) and a first-tier cast of musicians. It won Cubadisco 2015 awards for Instrumental Music and Recording (a technical category)

WInner of the Cubadisco 2015 in Fusion and a nominee in the Making Of category, A Full is not at all awful - pleasant, laid back, with some light R & B stylings courtesy Sexto Sentido's angelic voices. I would much rather hear this on the guagua than what many of the drivers are blasting.

Better late than never dept: This came out long before we had a reviews section, but this Cubadisco 2010 winner for Jazz and Recording (and part of Colibrí's The Jazz Young Spirit Collection) is Mr. Manzano's first recording as sole leader and quite simply one of the best recordings of Jazz in Cuba ever made, so it would be a sin not to write about it here.

This is like finding buried treasure - the best of an extraordinary Jazz/Fusion concert from the 1990s comes back to life. If you live outside of Cuba, you may not know about Estado de ánimo, but its members - Ruy López-Nussa, Roberto Carcassés, Elmer Ferrer and Descemer Bueno - made some of the best Cuban music of the decade together. Nominated for Cubadisco 2015 awards in Jazz and Musical Documentary.

This is the VERY impressive debut release by Zule Guerra & Blues de Habana, a relatively new presence in the Nu Jazz scene that is beginning to flower in Cuba. Yasek Manzano and Bobby Carcassés add additional firepower to an already formidable group. This hasn't really hit the US yet, but when it does it may make some waves.

This 2015 Cubadisco nominee (Música Popular Bailable, Novedades) has not been officially released yet, but it is musically quite good.

ENGLISH: Mirando al futuro from Havana Jazz is an eloquent musical defense both of the quality of Cuban jazz generally and its rightful place of honor Cuba's musical culture specifically. If a picture is worth a thousand words, the right album is worth ten thousand where music is concerned. This is one of those albums.
ESPAÑOL: Mirando al futuro from Havana jazz es una elocuente defensa musical tanto de la calidad del jazz cubano en general como de su legítimo lugar de honor en la cultura musical cubana específicamente. Si una imagen vale más de mil palabras, el álbum correcto vale diez mil respecta a la música. Este álbum uno de ellos.

The third edition of Chicago's new Cuban cultural festival shows continued progress and improvement, and there are opportunities for even more.

Mezcla's tours in the U.S. have been limited to a few cities, it would be
nice if the rest of the country had a chance to see them as well.

Back after a six month hiatus, Calle Real performed two hot sets for dedicated fans who braved the autumn rain in Stockholm and were rewarded with two new songs.

So many high-caliber bands are putting on good concerts these days that it is worth noting when one of them goes the extra mile and puts on a real Show (if you don't get the difference, that means you've never seen the latter). PMO did that in Gary, Indiana to help kick off their national tour.

Orquesta Aragón returned to Chicago after an absence of more than a decade for two shows at the Mayne Stage in Chicago. The venue was full and enthusiastic for their swinging performances.

This is a great band, and it should have been a great show, but the apparent indifference to production values on the part of the presenter led to an epic battle between the band and a hostile acoustic setting and sound system. The band fought bravely to the very end, but only moments of clear music emerged from the muddled audio, and were it not for the fact that the audience was composed almost completely of hard core fans who were happy to even see their faces, the evening could easily have been a disaster.

An excellent collaboration between the Chicago Jazz Philharmonic and ISA. Hopefully this will evolve into an expanded, continuous exchange between the musical communities of Chicago and Havana.

The band played impeccably reminding me what an awe-inspiring experience it is to see one of Cuba's greatest bands live.