Afro Cuban Rhythm

With every recording Omar Sosa releases, his horizons continue to broaden within the context of world ethnic fusion, but with Across the Divide, he's bettered himself yet again. This collection of jazz-influenced, Latin-tinged music crosses the disparate genres of country folk and tribal sounds, recognizing the migration of the banjo from Africa to the Eastern seaboard of America, and percussion from the griot village to the rural Mid-Atlantic. In collaboration with vocalist and story teller Tim Eriksen, Sosa merges rhythm and ancestry via inspiration from Langston Hughes, John Coltrane, King Sunny Ade, Pete Seger, and contemporary bluesman Otis Taylor as popular reference points.

Strut continue their essential work with the “Godfather Of Ethio Jazz”, Mulatu Astatke, with the first official reissues of his early classics ‘Afro Latin Soul’ Volumes 1 and 2 from 1966, recorded as The Ethiopian Quintet.

In apparent response to the sampling of old Latin jazz records by hip-hop artists, Verve raided its Cal Tjader archive to come up with this fiercely grooving collection drawn from nine of his Verve albums. For all of producer Creed Taylor's '60s penchant for fashioning two- to four-minute cuts aimed at airplay, he allowed Tjader's groups considerable room to stretch out on several of the tracks included here, particularly on the live "Los Bandidos" and the hypnotic collaboration with pianist Eddie Palmieri, "Picadillo." More importantly, Tjader's records with Taylor were more varied in texture than his earlier discs, venturing now and then from his solid Afro-Cuban base into Brazilian rhythms, soul, big-band backings, and '60s pop touches…

Music is one of the most magical of all the arts. It can, by its mere sound, excite the body to such an extent that it leaps up and dances - in most cases instinctively; with eyes closed it can suggest a palette of a myriad colours; and by its sheer mystical nature music can heal the body and the mind of many ailments. Bobby Matos’ music does all of this and some more. It helps pay homage to the soul and the spirit. This is once again evident in the music of Mambo Jazz Dance. There is an inherent energy that converts musical notes here that drives the mind into a state of trance where it seems to become a kind of crucible into which the mambos and the boleros of Mr. Matos pour themselves, stirring the mind into an interminable dance. The exciting aspect of this musical unguent is that it is invisible and soon fills all parts of the body, awakening it and pushing it into an ebullient mambo, no less…