Jorge Gonzalez

At the beginning of the Twentieth Century, all roads led to Paris. The Exposition Universelle drew great crowds, Hemingway and Kandinsky settled there, Proust wrote À la Recherche… and Cocteau La Machine infernale, Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes revolutionised dance, and Debussy, Satie and Stravinsky caused scandal. Recording together in duo for the first time, violinist Manon Galy and pianist Jorge González Buajasán capture the flavour of that time of renewal. With this eloquent interpretation of sonatas and other pieces by Debussy, Ravel, Poulenc and Milhaud, they offer a glimpse of the audacity and modernity that characterised French music during those years.

The French oboist Gabriel Pidoux, voted ‘Instrumental Soloist of the Year’ at the Victoires de la Musique Classique in 2020, has made a name for himself in both early and modern repertories. He now records his first solo album, accompanied by the pianist Jorge González Buajasan. It presents the works of two female and three male composers, beginning with Robert Schumann’s Three Romances, a masterpiece of chamber music with oboe, which Gabriel Pidoux has decided to juxtapose with the Three Pieces of Leopold Wallner (1847-1913), magnificent works which have never been recorded. Also on the programme is a transcription of Clara Schumann’s Three Romances . ‘These are pieces from the heart, which set the Romantic tone’, writes Gabriel Pidoux.

Jerry Gonzalez, equally proficient at trumpet and congas, leads his Fort Apache Band through a live set concentrating on Latinized versions of bop standards and pieces directly from the Afro-Cuban santeria tradition. The bop pieces, Dizzy Gillespie's "Bebop" and Bud Powell's "Parisian Thoroughfare," are given rough and tumble treatments, bobbing along on extensive percussion and tight arrangements. They feature some fine soloing from pianist Jorge Dalto and altoist Wilfredo Velez especially, the latter stretching things a bit beyond the changes. But the real highlights are the songs by vocalist Frankie Rodrigues, including the title track (though it's listed in Spanish as "Rio Esta Hondo")…