Tumbao

The eleven pieces on this CD of piano music by Pulitzer Prize winner Tania León were composed across a span of almost fifty years, from student works (Rondó a la Criolla, Homenaje a Prokofiew, Preludes 1 and 2) written in the mid-1960s when León was doing post-graduate work at the Amadeo Roldán Conservatory in the municipio of Marianao, La Habana, to going…gone, the brilliant reworking of Sondheim’s “Good Things Going” she crafted in 2012.

One of the things that hardcore jazz collectors love to do is fantasize about all of the live recordings by major artists that have gone unreleased but may surface eventually - performances that were taped and ended up in the private collection of an artist, promoter, club owner, manager, or soundboard person. Collectors are always hoping that a previously unreleased soundboard recording of a John Coltrane, Bud Powell, or Thelonious Monk gig will turn up somewhere, and in some cases, recordings that have gone unreleased for decades will see the light of day at some point. Take Concerts in the Sun, for example. This 2002 disc contains previously unreleased Cal Tjader performances from 1960 - live recordings that stayed in the can for 42 years…

With her powerful pipes, stunning showmanship, and superhuman sense of timing, Celia Cruz defined her chosen genre like few other performers in the history of popular music. EXITOS ETERNOS is a collection of tracks the "Queen of Salsa" recorded during the last decade of her life that, despite the vocalist's advanced age, clearly show Cruz's talents never wavered. Known for her uncompromising attitude and refusal to sing in English, Cruz valued aesthetic purity, but never became a museum piece. A driving pulse and rhythmic toasting that recall dancehall reggae propel her 2001 hit "La Negra Tiene Tumbao," and other tracks feature subtle synthesizer textures. Unlike lesser artists, however, Cruz is able to incorporate these disparate sonic colors seamlessly, making them sound as traditional as a conga drum or guiro. Of course, the unrelenting force behind each recording is Cruz's astounding voice, the sheer energy of which makes even these later recordings sound both classic and utterly contemporary.

Buena Vista Social Club bassist Orlando Cachaito Lopez busts out of the senior activity center with an out-there release worthy of a youngster that draws on five decades of professional cool. Instead of trying to compress the history of Cuban dance music, Cachaito elongates it into a shape-shifting amoeba that can swallow and absorb almost any influence. On "Redencion," reggae-inflected electric organ jabs throw open the door to dub effects. Massed charanga violins stutter and echo as the bottom drops in and out of the mix. The project gets a jolt from figures not usually associated with Cuban music, like Jamaican organist Bigga Morrison, French DJ Dee Nasty, South African flugelhornist Hugh Masekela, and saxophonist Pee Wee Ellis of James Brown Revue fame.