Jorge Ben

In patching together a program of Hugh Masekela's MGM recordings onto a single overstuffed CD, Verve took the original The Americanization of Ooga Booga album, leapfrogged over its successor, Next Album, and coupled it with the third MGM LP, The Lasting Impressions of Hugh Masekela. That made good sense since the two albums originate from the same live date at the Village Gate, recorded when the trumpeter was still in the process of making an impression in the U.S. Masekela is full of wild, sputtering, high-rolling exuberance, developing some of his familiar signature trumpet riffs, freely exploring South African rhythms, harmonic sequences, and chants, and mixing them with soul-jazz at a time when hardly anyone else would bother (the mixture of township jive and jazz works especially well on "U-Dwi").

Volume 3 of the Chill Brazil series is compiled by the legendary Brazilian singer/songwriter Gilberto Gil, 'Chill Brazil 3' blends classic Soul Bossas culled from the Warner archives with the freshest voices in contemporary & electronic Brazilian music today. Classic artists such as Tom Jobim, Joao Gilberto, Gilberto Gil, Elis Regina, Chico Buarque, to name a few, combined with contemporary "Bossaists" Bebel Gilberto, Maria Rita (Elis Regina's daughter), Marcelinho Da Lua gives the perfect blend of the harmonic & rhythmic richness of these Brazilian Soul Bossas past, present & future.

Looking at the art work on Dom Um Romão's Lake of Perseverance, one immediately thinks of CTI's famous LP covers of the '70s. Back then, CTI's album covers had an instantly recognizable style, and a very CTI-minded look graces the front and back covers of Lake of Perseverance. But this diverse CD is not a CTI album from the '70s. Lake of Perseverance, an Italian release, wasn't recorded until 2000, and it was not produced by CTI founder Creed Taylor – the producer is Brazilian percussionist/arranger Arnaldo DeSouteiro. Lake of Perseverance does not fit neatly into one particular category. Some of the material is post-bop jazz.