Rio Rio 65 Trio

La Habana: Rio Conexion is saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera's attempt to bring the gospel of historical bolero to American listeners. These 12 cuts are steeped in the grand Cuban tradition and reinsert its cultural and historical center into a music that has been watered down to the point of being nondescript. But, of course, this is also a jazz recording, and D'Rivera is a jazz musician. The rhythmic and harmonic extrapolations are minimal, however, and focus on the integral form of the music whether it be the album's opening danza, Ernesto Lecuona's "La Comparsa," or the chorinho that closes the proceedings, Pixinguinha's "Segura Ele."

Pianist Uri Caine holds a unique distinction, known the world over as a stellar jazz pianist, but a critics' darling for his genre-blind reworkings of classical music. His takes on the work of Gustav Mahler, Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Richard Wagner have become modern classics which straddle several musical worlds, but Caine's is no one-trick pony. When he isn't busy turning classical music history on its head, his restless artistic curiosity has taken him to a variety of other realms. The pianist tipped his hat to Thelonious Monk and Herbie Hancock, with album-length salutes to each, took a stroll down Tin Pan Alley (Winter & Winter, 1999), visited Brazilian music via Rio (Winter & Winter, 2001), explored the possibilities within the solo piano context on Solitaire (Winter & Winter, 2001), and tackled fusion in his own personal way with his Bedrock band.

A great surprise to discover the work of this Mexican musician, who somehow managed to invite for this album some of the best musicians of the genre, from representative and even legendary bands. The music is difficult to categorize in a few words, as it is full of changes not only in time but also in style, genre or mood. We can find Zeuhl, Math, RIO, Jazz, Symphonic or Rock riffs. Influences from names like Zappa, Present, Magma, etc. To stop to analyze each track would be a crazy task, because the ideas come and go in a frenetic way, leaving barely space to breathe to the listener. One of those albums that we are thankful for because they never stop trying to surprise us at every second. And for glorious moments it really succeeds.

Corima is a new Zeuhl/R.I.O. band based out of Texas very influenced by Magma, Koenjihyakkei, and Present at times. Formed in the year 2005, they started out with 4 musicians: Sergio Sanchez on drums, Juan Tarin on bass, Jaime Silva on guitar and Erik Martinez on guitar as well. They started out playing music very influenced by King Crimson and ELP. About a year later Francisco Casanova joined the band in keyboards. They remained together for about a year and a half and after that Erik Martinez was forced to leave the band for personal reasons and soon after Jaime Silva left the band as well. It was during this period that Corima found out about the Zeuhl and R.I.O. genre and fell completely in love with it.

Bossa Nova translated as the "new beat" or "the new style", grew out of Rio De Janeiro in 1958. The instigators were a handful of artists with a desire to break from tradition, developing the samba rhythms with the influence of cool American jazz to find a music with such a warm soul and natural rhythm that no-one can help but tap and sway to its beat. Bossa Nova is palm trees swaying, it is like melting sugar in hot coffee, it is the setting sun and warm sand underfoot. It is the sound and beat of Brazil, it is one of the world's coolest musical styles and it remains to this day one of the world's great musical treasures.

Warner's 2013 box set The Complete Studio Albums 1970-1990 rounds up the ten albums ZZ Top recorded for Warner Bros over the course of 20 years: 1971's ZZ Top's First Album, 1972's Rio Grande Mud, 1973's Tres Hombres, 1975's Fandango!, 1976's Tejas, 1979's Deguello, 1981's El Loco, 1983's Eliminator, 1985's Afterburner, and 1990's Recycler…