Customer Reviews

Rumba Buhaina - the Music of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers

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I am a jazz fan since 1979 with a quite large CD and LP collection. I am a great Art Blakey fan and also a great fan of Jerry Gonzalez and the Fort Apache Band (who are among my favorite alltime musicians). Also, I deeply love Cuban and Afro-Cuban music very deeply. I can say without qualification that Rumba Buhaina is every bit as good as Rumba Para Monk (which says alot). I am astounded every time I put either disc on the player or in my car. I think its one of the best latin jazz CDs ever made

Ah, the Fort Apache Band is back on record, after roughly a decade (during which Jerry G. wandered to Spain, wrestled with some personal demons, apparently, and recorded a jazz/flamenco cross-over nearly rivaling Miles' "Sketches of Spain").

The six-legged, thirty-fingered monster that is the

A. Gonzalez/J. Gonzalez/Berrios rhythm collaboration is still cooking at an intensity that most bands need five or six players to manage. Here, they apply their skills to some material from the 1950's-1970's Blakey/Messengers book (more Wayne Shorter's compositions than anything else; NOT mostly the Blakey/Golson "standards").

The result isn't quite the astonishing revelation of Afro-Cuban rhythmic complexity that "Rumba Para Monk" was, (lo, those years ago) nor is it quite as polished. The exploration of the material doesn't seem quite as startling, in part because lots of people have been exploring Shorter's compositions in new ways in the last decade. Jerry's trumpet work still carries echoes of Miles, but his voice is becoming still more distinctive, as he refines it.

Nevertheless, as a band with greater longevity than most alive and working in jazz today, it's great to hear these guys again.

Get this, and see'em live if they come to your town.