The New Method For Afro Cuban Drumming by Jimmy Branly

This is the Galliard Ensemble's 5th recording for Deux- Elles. To celebrate their 30th anniversary, they are joined by pianist Sam Haywood in an epic programme bookended by two pillars of the repertoire, Mozart's Quintet for Piano and Winds and Poulenc's Trio for Oboe, Bassoon and Piano. Featured prominently in the middle is the marvellously expansive and much less recorded Sextet for Piano and Winds by Ludwig Thuille, a close colleague of Richard Strauss. This album is a melting pot of colours, textures and timbres, beautifully captured and balanced by sound engineer Matthew Wadsworth.

Featuring prime Latin jazz cuts from the heyday of the mambo, Afro Cuban Jazz: 1947-1960 is really a better than average showcase for one of the music's best: Machito. In fact, this disc contains 13 sides by Machito & His Orchestra, including two bebop gems featuring Charlie Parker ("Mango Mangue," "No Noise, Pts. 1-2"). That's not to overlook the presence of one of the supreme champions of Latin jazz, Dizzy Gillespie ("Manteca"), Stan Kenton and his mathematically frenetic bongo jams, and J.J. Johnson and Kai Winding teaming up for a couple of classics. Truthfully, however, the real meat here is heard on such Machito dancefloor fillers as "Oyeme" and "Minor Rama." So, when you've got a jones for jazz in a mambo mood, this disc will provide the needed salve.

After not having led a recording session under his own name in 29 years, O'Farrill came from seemingly out of nowhere to lead a terrific Afro-Cuban big band date on this CD. O'Farrill claims that he turned down offers to lead standard seven or eight-piece salsa bands on records over the years, preferring to wait until a big band opportunity came along - and clearly, he was bursting with accumulated charts dating from the 1960s through the 1990s. Not too much has changed since O'Farrill's exciting string of albums for Clef in the 1950s; if anything, his arranging hand has become surer, more sophisticated, thoroughly in touch as ever with a wide variety of influences…

Time is Now is like a delightful summer breeze, a refreshing album that recreates with absolute freedom some of the most excel and refined Latin American and classic repertoire. Mario Bauzá made it possible with that characteristic sound, filled of Latin flavour and vigorous radiance that will captivate you from the first track. You won't believe the mesmerizing adaptation of "Mack the Knife", for instance. Don't let this album pass in front of you. Go for it and enjoy it forever.

During his final two years, Mario Bauzá and his newly formed Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra recorded three albums, of which 944 Columbus (made just two months before his death) was the last. Three of the ten selections on the CD are dominated by vocals, but jazz is a very strong element throughout these sessions with a variety of fine solos, particularly from trumpeter Michael Mossman. The percussion section blends in well with the horns in this 19-piece orchestra and the final statement from the father of Afro-Cuban jazz is a memorable one.