Short of going to a club or concert hall, the best way to sample the international sound of jazz is via CD. Following are a few of the best:
Danilo Perez:
Motherland
(Verve). The ingenuity of the ensemble writing and the complexity of Perez's pianism bring his Panamanian jazz experiment to a new high point, with glorious vocals from Claudia Acuna and Luciana Souza.
David Sanchez:
Travesia
(Columbia). A kind of follow-up to Sanchez's previous recording,
Melaza,
the new release takes Sanchez's sextet even deeper into Puerto Rican folklore.
Goran Ivanovic & Fareed Haque:
Macedonian Blues
(Proteus). Haque's roots are South Asian, Ivanovic's Yugoslavian. But when their two guitars play, cultural barriers melt away.
Omar Sosa:
Bembon
(Ota Records). Soaring vocals, intricate percussion, shimmering horns, glittering pianism, urban sound effects -- Sosa layers all of this, and more, in a stylistically free-ranging opus.
Simon Shaheen & Qantara:
Blue Flame
(Ark21). Middle Eastern music swings buoyantly, with Shaheen proving virtuosic on both the oud and the violin.
Printer-Friendly Version
