g-clef

Review

I was not ready for how great this album is. I consider myself quite a prolific jazz listener, but I found myself getting limited in my location, mostly US releases, with the occasional South American and African records here and there. Now, for the first time I've treaded in between, Cuba. What I found is a record of love, grooves, and mellow comforts. The sound this record makes is one of collaboration. Ry Cooder (yes, the same Ry Cooder to work on Jamming With The Edward) plays guitar on this album, and practically was the reason it exists. Every groove and riff he puts down adds to the vibe of the album with a quick and polished feel, but he is absolutely not the forefront of this album. The main show is all the incredible Cubana instrumentation and music. This whole album exudes happiness, and comfort in a way that other albums haven't before. The sound on all these songs is very rich, and lavish, not in the sense they are wealthy, but in the sense they can build out a sound that's so full of sounds all working towards the same goal of creating something great. You can hear the experience on this album, you can feel the full life these musicians have lived through their music. None of the songs are the same on this album, they all bring something new to the table, they all bring a new style, and feeling you've never felt, but they all bring that same sense of discovery, and of experience. That's the real paradigm of this album, experience. I didn't know what to expect, but I suppose I was expecting more on the jazz side, but that is absolutely not what you get here, you get an album of the Cuban musical experience, classic folk songs, along with jazz elements sure, but overall, you're getting exactly what they set out to give you, a showing of love for Cuban music, and to make you fall in love with it too. I can say unequivocally that they've succeeded in that, and they will succeed in that for decades to come.