Artist: Ralfi Pagan
      Album: The Legend
      Label: Aries Music Entertainment Inc.
      Year: 2004
      Format, bitrate: Mp3, 256 Kbps
      Size: 92.43 MB


      Ralfi Pagan passed without making a significant mark in the music industry, but not because he didn't try. Raised on the Lower East Side of New York City, he was part of the city's bubbling salsa scene in the '60s and late '70s. His main body of work -- four albums -- was waxed for Johnny Pacheco and Gerald Masucci's Fania Records. Though a major player in the studio, he didn't achieve the notoriety of some other Fania artists, known as the Fania All Stars and which included Mongo Santamaria, Johnny Colon, Willie Bobo, Joe … Read more

     Artist: Patricia Talem
     Album: Patricia Talem
     Label: Nu Groove / Points South
     Year: 2009
     Quality: APE (image+.cue)
     Total Time: 52:20
     Total Size: 308 mb

     Patricia Talem was produced by Marco da Costa (2004 Latin Grammy Winning Producer) and Sandro Albert with Patricia Talem as Executive Producer. For her debut self-title release Patricia she selected tracks that as she stated "portrayed this moment of my current life and the state of my soul." The release displays her love of music as she crosses genres, generations, styles, and languages selecting songs from Brazilian legends such as Chico Buarque, Rita Lee, and Renato Motha, from more current Brazilian writers such as Elder Costa, Sandro Albert, and Keco Brandão, as well as Canadian Ron Sexsmith.
     Being introduced to new and exciting music, many times covers a serendipitous route as I heard about Patricia Talem from Jimmy Haslip of the Yellowjackets whom I caught up with at the Blue Note in New York. Jimmy and Russell Ferrante, also of the Yellowjackets, both love Latin music and contributed their talents on the release. So, based off their recommendation I gave Patricia Talem a listen, and then another listen, as Patricia has that type of voice that is enchanting and haunting; she has that ability to capture the body and the mind. Along with Jimmy Haslip and Russell Ferrante of the Yellowjackets, Patricia is accompanied by an all-star cast of Brazilian musicians who lend their creative energy to make this a memorable release and stellar debut.
     I have a fairly extensive selection of Brazilian music and what I like the most about all the different genres and styles that I have is the feel of the music. On Patricia's release, I could feel each song as she has that ability to convey and project meaning through her timing and how she accents certain words and phrases, as well as through her tone and pace. ~ EzineArticles.com

     Artist: Rosemary Clooney & Perez Prado
     Album: A Touch of Tabasco
     Label: RCA
     Year: 1959
     Genre: vocal jazz, latin jazz
     Format, bitrate: mp3, 320 kbps
     Time: 27:07
     Size: 64,5 MB
     AMG rating

     On paper, this unlikely pairing of American popular vocalist Rosemary Clooney (who nearly defined the 1950s as a stylist) and Cuban percussionist and bandleader Pérez Prado seemed to be a disaster in the making. The end result is quite the opposite. Recorded during two sessions in July and August of 1959, this is simply one of the loveliest albums in either artist's catalog. The music is lively and colorful but retains Clooney's smooth and mellow character, and Prado's trademark arrangements and experiments with percussion, texture, and harmony. Apparently, Clooney had some trouble with pronunciation initially, but was coached by her husband, Puerto Rican actor Jose Ferrer (who wrote the original album's liner notes) and became a quick study. This merging of Latin and American standards is a tour de force that features some of the hottest session players in the biz including drummers Leo Acosta and Earl Palmer, as well as horn players Paul Horn and Ollie Mitchell. Highlights of the set include "Mack the Knife," "Sway," a pair of Cole Porter tunes -- "Bali Hai," and "You Do Something to Me" -- as well as highly original readings of "Corazon de Melon," "Cu-Cu-Rru-Cu-Cu Paloma," and "Adios."

      Artist: Trio Madeira Brasil
      Album: Trio Madeira Brasil
      Label: TMB
      Year: 1998 (2011 relaunch)
      Format, bitrate: Mp3 @ 320Kbps
      Size: 97,4MB

      Artist: Ray Brown & Laurindo Almeida
      Album: Moonlight Serenade
      Label: Jeton
      Year: 1981
      Format: Flac (eac-flac, cue, log)
      Time: Jeton
      Size: 252 MB (artwork)
      AMG rating:


     Великолепного басиста Рея Брауна представлять, надеюсь, не нужно. Да и с прекрасным бразильским гитаристом, композитором и аранжировщиком Лауриндо Альмейда внимательные посетители Клуба тоже знакомы по этой публикации.
     Но то, что они вытворяют дуэтом - просто невероятный по красоте сплав классической музыки, би-бопа и латиноамериканских мелодий.
     Рекомендуется слушать часа в три-четыре ночи, на максимальной громкости, отрешившись от всех мирских забот...

     Artist: Dizzy Gillespie
     Album: Montreux '77
     Label: Pablo
     Year: 1977
     Format, bitrate: mp3; 320 kb/s
     Time: 58:45
     Size: 101 MB



     It took until the mid-'70s for a trumpeter to emerge who could not only emulate Dizzy Gillespie, but display a larger range: Jon Faddis. Unfortunately, Gillespie and his protйgй barely recorded together, and this 1977 encounter at the Montreux Jazz Festival is quite disappointing. The trumpeters (plus vibraphonist Milt Jackson, pianist Monty Alexander, bassist Ray Brown and drummer Jimmie Smith) play well enough on "Girl of My Dreams," "Get Happy," "The Champ," and a ballad medley, but there are, amazingly enough, no tradeoffs between Faddis and Gillespie (the younger trumpeter is much too respectful throughout this session), and few fireworks occur in what should have been an explosive encounter.

     Artist: Santana
     Album: Amigos
     Label: Columbia
     Year: 1976
     Format, bitrate: Mp3, 320 Kbps
     Time: 41:14
     Size: 102 MB
     AMG rating:

     Это уже более блюзовый альбом, который вернул группе былые позиции. Но как по мне, тут не везде проявляется духовный феномен Сантаны и переживаемом нами диске, более проявляюся течения ужасного денежного поглотителя.

     By the release of Amigos, the Santana band's seventh album, only Carlos Santana and David Brown remained from the band that conquered Woodstock, and only Carlos had been in the band continuously since. Meanwhile, the group had made some effort to arrest its commercial slide, hiring an outside producer, David Rubinson, and taking a tighter, more up-tempo, and more vocal approach to its music. The overt jazz influences were replaced by strains of R&B/funk and Mexican folk music. The result was an album more dynamic than any since Santana III in 1971. "Let It Shine" (number 77), an R&B-tinged tune, became the group's first chart single in four years, and the album returned Santana to Top Ten status.

     Artist: Chucho Valdés
     Album: Invitacion
     Label: Egrem
     Year: 1997
     Format : Flac
     Time: 35:00
     Size: 155 MB

     Artist: Gonzalo Rubalcaba
     Album: Antiguo
     Label: Blue Note
     Years: 1995-1996; release: 1997
     Genre: Latin, Fusion
     Format, bitrate: mp3@320kbps
     Time: 73:29min
     Size: 191 mb

     Antiguo is different than most Gonzalo Rubalcaba records. The pianist spends a lot of time exploring synthesizers. Some of the music (particularly “Eshun Agwe”) is memorable but at other times the results are merely haunting mood music. Rubalcaba and his longtime quartet (trumpeter Reynaldo Melian, bassist Felipe Cabrera, and drummer Julio Barreto) are joined in spots by the voices of Maridalia Hernandez and Lazaro Ros, percussionist Giovanni Hidalgo, and violinist Dagoberto Gonzalez. The influence of Chick Corea is strong in some of the selections as it is in the sound of Rubalcaba’s synthesizers. Not essential but worth a few listens.

~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide

     Artists: Ry Cooder & Manuel Galban
     Album: Mambo Sinuendo
     Year: 2003
     Label: Nonesuch
     Quality: Lossless (FLAC, cue, log)
     Size: 320 MB (with scans)

     Этот диск – попытка передать старый стиль, популяризованный Мануэлем Галбаном в Кубе и к которому почему-то никто после него не обращался. Это гитарная музыка, близкая к поп/кроссовер джазу 50-60-х, замешанная на характерной "плывущей" игре слайд-гитариста Кудера и кубинских ритмах Галбана.

     Mambo Sinuendo is a collaboration between Ry Cooder and Buena Vista alum (and formerly of many other groups as well) Manuel Galbán. The album attempts to catch an old style popularized in Cuba by Galbán, and was, surprisingly, never followed up on by anybody after Galbán. It's a guitar-based romp closely based in the pop/jazz crossovers of the 1950s-1960s (Henry Mancini, Nelson Riddle, etc). There's a touch of exoticism here and there, and a larger touch of a relatively Hawaiian feel throughout the whole via the guitar techniques employed by the pair. It's all somewhere in a form between lounge, mambo, and Esquivel's old space-age-bachelor-pad music. In rare instances, there's even a little bit of a house drum loop added in by the percussionists. Aside from the stray spacey chorus in the title track, it's an entirely instrumental affair, which suits the musicians quite well, giving them a chance to show off their full virtuosity along the way. The musicality these guitarists hold, and the interplay between them, is really the treat of the album. For a nice look at the musical genre that never was, but probably should have been, this makes a good show. Newcomers to Cooder should perhaps dig into some older releases to get a feel before coming to this album, but all others should embrace it quickly.

     Artists: Tito Puente & India With Special Guest Count Basie Orchestra
     Album: Jazzin'
     Label: RMM
     Year: 1996
     Quality: MP3@320 kbps
     Size: 81 mb
     Total time: 42:12

     Although the great Latin bandleader Tito Puente gets first billing and the Count Basie Orchestra "guests" on three of the ten selections, the obvious star of this set is singer India. Her emotional delivery borders sometimes on going over the top, but India is quite skilled as an interpreter of lyrics (both in English and in Spanish), as a scat and Latin jazz singer. She alternates standards with newer tunes and is assisted by such soloist as Puente (on vibes, marimbas and timbales), pianist Hilton Ruiz, altoist Bobby Porcelli, Mario Rivera on tenor and flutist Dave Valentin. This CD is a fine effort with plenty of spirit and exciting moments.

     Artists: Latin Around the Keys
     Album: Piano con clave
     Label: Lucho
     Year: 1993
     Format, bitrate: EAC Flac
     Time: 59:00
     Size: 305 Mb


     "The grand piano ressembles a giant wing, two grand piano's form an airplane, and apart from playing in a two winged formation, Nico vand der Linden's second passion in life is recording sounds of historical propeller-driven aircraft: All over the world he hunts for the 'grand old ladies of the past' and whenever he discovers one he won't leave without a perfect digital recording. In tribute to this beautiful period in aviation history the CD ends with the impressive sounds of the DC6's four Pratt & Whitney engines flyng overhead". ~ From the sleeve notes

     Artist: Quinteto Onze e Meia
     Album: Quinteto Onde e Meia (Live)
     Label: CID Discos
     Year: 1992
     Format, bitrate: Mp3, 256 kbps
     Time: 46:51
     Size: 92 MB

     The group was formed by the direction of the program "Jo Soares Onze e Meia" that plays on a national and open tv channel from Brasil in 1988. They were a quartet (Bira, Milton and Maestro Edmundo - the last was replaced in 1991 by Maestro Osmar Barutti). In 1990, after Jo's - the show host - own request, the quartet became a quintet e Derico was invited to be the saxophonist and flutist.

     In 1992, the Quinteto Onze e Meia started a daring project - record a live cd with a repertoire of polular brazilian musics played in jazz and blues. They did a tour into the country and the CD called Quinteto Onze e Meia had been released.

     Today, the quintet became a sextet, with the entry of Francisco "Chiquinho" Oliveira, trompetist. And with the death of Rubens, the guitarist Carlos "Tomate" Nascimento replaced him with nice level and hability. ~ Derico, Saxophonist of the group. (text copied from his blog with some modifications)

     Artist: Santana
     Album: Caravanserai
     Label: Columbia
     Year: 1972
     Format, bitrate: Mp3, 320 Kbps
     Time: 51:21
     Size: 181M
     AMG Rating:

     Drawing on rock, salsa, and jazz, Santana recorded one imaginative, unpredictable gem after another during the 1970s. But Caravanserai is daring even by Santana's high standards. Carlos Santana was obviously very hip to jazz fusion -- something the innovative guitarist provides a generous dose of on the largely instrumental Caravanserai. Whether its approach is jazz-rock or simply rock, this album is consistently inspired and quite adventurous. Full of heartfelt, introspective guitar solos, it lacks the immediacy of Santana or Abraxas. Like the type of jazz that influenced it, this pearl (which marked the beginning of keyboardist/composer Tom Coster's highly beneficial membership in the band) requires a number of listenings in order to be absorbed and fully appreciated. But make no mistake: this is one of Santana's finest accomplishments.

     Artist: Chucho Valdes
     Album: Live
     Label: Rmm Records
     Year: 1996; release: 1998
     Format: FLAC
     Time: 44:11
     Size: 300 Mb

     Cuban music legend, Jesus "Chucho" Valdes is fiery hot and still impacting the jazz world with his diverse musical elements. Riding the new wave in Latin jazz fostered by the pianist's critically acclaimed 3/4le Bele en la Habana on Blue Note in 1998, Valdes reserved enough energy to excite his fans with an exquisite blend of technique and soul on Live. The CD, an infectious, collection of cubop grooves and rhythms, further develops the Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz collective Chucho has been pulsating for the past 25 years as musical director of Irakere, the award-winning band he co-founded to play both music styles. "Tumbao," and "Blues a Puerto Rico," feature a variety of moods, melodies, syncopation and the signature solos of Chucho's formidable piano. Along with the extra fire of his rhythm section, Live broadens Valdes' Afro-Cuban perspective and the influences brimming in Carribean and Latin American life. ~ Paula Edelstein, All Music Guide

     Artist: Chucho Valdes
     Album: Featuring Cachaito
     Label: Yemaya Records
     Years: 1970-1976; release : 2004
     Format, bitrate: mp3, 320.0 kbit.
     Time: 01:01
     Size: 157 Mb

     Chucho Valdés is easily the living king of Cuban jazz piano. This anthology, issued by the premier Bele Bele Jazz Club label from Spain, is an overview of the roots of the pianist's development as both an interpreter of classic Cuban material and as an improviser. The first 12 tracks on the set, recorded in 1970, borrow heavily from the "feelings" movement of Cuban dancehall music from the late '40s and early '50s, with numerous compositions by Jose Mendez and César Portillo de la Luz. There are also trademark Valdés originals such as his own "Preludio No. 1," based on Debussy's. Other tracks here, from 1982, borrow from the later dancehall traditions and lineages such as the "Evocations" series written by Jesus Valdez -- including one for Josh White! The first 12 cuts features Valdés with a stellar rhythm section that included bassist Orlando Lopez (Cachaito) and drummer Enrique Pla, and the last eight are solo. Through the album one can hear the far-reaching development of Valdés' rhythmic and harmonic sensibilities as they subvert and reinvent conventions, always keeping his deft, even ingenious melodic sensibility at the forefront of any interpretation or excursion. This is a wonderful introduction to Valdés' work outside of Irakere. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide

     Artist: Delia Fischer
     Album: Antonio
     Label: Carmo/ ECM
     Year: 1999
     Format, bitrate: MP3@320kbps
     Time: 52:50
     Size: 109 Mb

      Artist: Alex Cuba
      Album: Alex Cuba
      Label: Caracol Records
      Year: 2010
      Format, bitrate: Mp3, VBR
      Time: 43:33
      Size: 39 mb

     Artist: Cesária Évora
     Album: Miss Perfumado
     Year: 1992, release: 1996
     Label: Windham Hill
     Format, bitrate: mp3, 192kbps
     Time:62:40
     Size: 86,02 MB
     AMG Rating



Ravishing is the word that springs to the lips: one of those tiresome British understatements, but it'll have to do. Evora has the most glorious voice, the melodies are heartrendingly Portuguese, the guitar-runs have escaped from a fado recording. The classic piano and string group of Miss Perfumada help explain its near-bestselling status, the near-Brazilian rhythms add the zip that tops the whole thing off. ~ John Storm Roberts, Original Music

     Artist: Roberto Carlos & Caetano Veloso
     Album: E a música de Tom Jobim
     Label: Sony BMG
     Year: 2008
     Format, bitrate: flac
     Time: 59:04
     Size: 321.3 MB

     Two celebrated icons of Brazilian popular music come together to pay homage to the work and legacy of one the country's most influential songwriters, Antonio Carlos Jobim. In August 2008, Roberto Carlos and Caetano Veloso played two sold-outs shows in São Paulo, commemorating the 50th anniversary of bossa nova. All specific dates aside, the collaboration was itself monumental in its symbolism -- an intersection of three of Brazil's most important popular musical movements: jovem guarda, the squeaky-clean pop/rock movement personified by "the king" Roberto Carlos; tropicalismo, the experimental, genre-bending Brazilian psychedelia of the late '60s, of which Veloso was one of the most exemplary purveyors; and bossa nova, the breezy amalgam of cool jazz and samba that became synonymous with Brazilian music around the world and against which both jovem guarda and tropicalismo represented stylistic rebellions. Recorded live on August 25 and 26, 2008, at São Paulo's Auditório Ibirapuera, E a Música de Tom Jobim witnesses these once-fiery youngsters honoring the master of bossa nova and the musical genre he helped create, interpreting 16 beloved compositions. Turning to trusted conductors on their solo performances (Eduardo Lages for Carlos, Jaques Morelenbaum for Veloso) and with lush orchestral arrangements behind them, the two legends go back and forth on four duets -- "A Garota de Ipanema," "Wave," "Chega de Saudade," and the lovely "Teresa da Praia," in which Veloso and Carlos elegantly reenact the rapport between Dick Farney and Lúcio Alves on the original recording -- and welcome Jobim's grandson Daniel for a touching rendition of "Águas de Março." Still, it's not too much of a stretch to say that when placed side by side, Caetano, with his seemingly effortless lilt, blows Roberto, the inveterate crooner, out of the water. ~ Matt Rinaldi, All Music Guide