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THE VERY BEST OF LATIN JAZZ Rhythm of the Night Columbia/Legacy 508697-2

 

1. Watermelon Man-Mongo Santamaria
2. La Cuna-Ray Barretto
3. Street Scenes-David Sanchez
4. Pontelo-Astrid Gilberto
5. Corazon-Hank Crawford
6. Senor Blues-Herbie Mann
7. Sweet Glenda-Gato Barbieri
8. Stone Flower-Antonio Carlos Jobim
9. Stella By Starlight-Arturo Sandoval
10. Samba De Sausalito-Santana
11. Vera Cruz-Stanley Turrentine
12. A Gozar Con Mi Combo-Cachao
13. Ritmo De La Noche-Al Di Meola
14. Autumn-Ed Calle
15. Eu Vim Da Bahia-Stan Getz
16. Manteca-Paquito D’Rivera

 

The beauty of this kind of compilation album is that they introduce you to artists and to songs you didn’t know before. In the case of this album the sleeve notes list the albums from which these particular tracks are taken. I have always been a great Stanley Turrentine fan, but I did not know of the existence of the album Gilbero with Turrentine, which was released in 1971. I am familiar with the tenor playing of Gato Barbiera and his playing on the Sweet Glenda track does not disappoint. I knew that Arturo Sandoval played piano as well as trumpet, but I didn’t know how well he played it till I heard Stella By Starlight.

The term Latin Jazz covers a very broad church and many different rhythms are covered in this album. This makes it much easier to listen to than some other Latin Jazz, where the same rhythms are used throughout and the constant banging and crashing starts to be annoying after a while.

A lot of Latin Jazz has slipped into the kind of music played by most so called ‘jazz’ radio stations, thankfully not too much of that is present and most of this is the real thing!

The highlight for me was the last track where Paquito D’Riviera plays Dizzy’s ‘Manteca’, it comes from a 1984 album Why Not, I must look around for that one!

Don Mather

 

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