Hi,
a review for this fantastic CD on air in the next few days on
RADIOVINILEMANIA in Italy

http://www.vinilemania.net/vREDRECORDS.htm

Ciao ciao P

courtesy: http://www.allaboutjazz.com



The Latin Jazz Side
Various Artists | Red Records (2004)
By C. Michael Bailey


The Italian jazz record label founded by one Sergio Veschi, Red
Records , turned 25 years old this past year. For the better part of
that time, the label has avoided doing what many larger labels have
made a science of?flooding the market with compilations from recent
releases. That is until now. The label has mined its beautifully
heterogeneous catalog for the best in Latin jazz?and there is quite
a bit of very fine music here.


When record imprints market compilation discs, their intentions are
two-fold: one, these compilations can serve as samplers providing
the listener a taste of what that label has to offer and two,
compilations serve as a new revenue stream possessing little or no
technical or artistic overhead. These sampler discs are risky
affairs. On one hand they make perfect sense - they effectively
market the catalog for a given label. Secondly, they look a lot like
the popular series like Now that's What I Call Music mimicking, in
turn, what Top 40 radio once resembled. On the other hand, they can
be boring, poorly assembled, and a poor risk for one?s entertainment
dollar.


Most gratefully, The Latin Jazz Side suffers from none of these
shortcomings. Of note on this release is Salvatore Bonafede?s "Il
Matrimonio," which bases itself on a simple Latin vamp and features
the complete '60s and ?70s trumpet and tenor saxophone performance
philosophy. Bobby Watson, on his most recent Red Records recording,
Quiet as it's Kept , proved the Latin jones revealed on his earlier
recordings ( The Next Step ) was the real thing.


Rhythmically unique and immediately identifiable, Latin jazz
provides a potent vacation from the standard 4/4 for all jazz
musicians, Latin or not. Luis Agudo is the only artist to have two
selections on this recording. I quite liked Afrosamba Afrorera (from
which "Afrosamba" was derived), though I found it at once acutely
weird and wonderful. The same is true for Agudo?s "Menino" from In
the Shadows. It is music like this that never ceases to surprise and
delight.


For more information, please see Red Records and American
distributor NorthCountry Distributors .



Track listing: Il Matrimonio - Salvatore Bonafede; Karim - Hector
Bisignani; De Buenos Aires A Rio?Norberto Minichillo; Back Home
Again With You - Bobby Watson; Retirada - Pablo Bobrowicky; Dark
Powers - Ray Mantilla; Afrosamba - Luis Agudo; Samber - Chuck
Zeuren; Voyage - Piero Bassini; Besame Mucho - Dave Liebman; Menino -
Luis Agudo.

Style: Latin/World