An amazingly smoking set from trumpeter Arturo Sandoval – issued on a tiny label from Chicago, but easily one of his best records ever! The set captures Sandoval live in the Windy City, working with a tight combo that includes piano, guitar, and plenty of percussion – all stretched out on some extended tracks that give all members of the group plenty of space to groove around. Tracks are mostly upbeat and lively – save for one odd blues number – and the album's filled with hard Latin jazz groovers in a descarga mode! Titles include "Estoy Para'o", "On Green Dolphin Street", "Regando Flores", "En Nosotros", and "Regando Flores". LP, Vinyl record album

An incredible collection from Honest Jons – and like some of the rest of their best, music we never would have heard otherwise! The focus here is on calypso music, but recorded in West Africa – not the usual Caribbean setting – a very unusual strain of styles that cropped up in the fading colonial years of the British Empire – as rhythms were routed southward to Africa, via Caribbean migration to the London scene – making for some really fresh sounds in the end! The work is often much heavier on percussion than its more familiar variant – and other instrumentation includes some great horn parts, and bits of guitar – alongside vocals on most numbers. As usual, the notes are historically helpful and very well done – and titles include "Scrubbs Na Marvellous Boy" and "Poor Freetown Boy" by Famous Scrubbs, "Olubunmi" by Roy Chicago, "Ariwo" by Chris Ajilo & His Cubanos, "Taxi Driver" and "Gentlemen Bobby" by Bobby Benson & His Combo, "Mami" by The Rhythm Aces, "Arria Baby" and "Fire Fire Fire" by Ebenezer Calender & His Maringer Band, "Tree & The Monkey" by ET Mensah, and "Yabomisa Sawale" by Victor Olaiya. CD