An excellent Machito album – with a hard straight ahead sound that's way better than a lot of his other albums from the time! There's loads of great percussion on the record, and plenty of strong Afro-Cuban grooves, recorded in spare arrangements with a bit of echo on the mix to give the set a nice spacious sound. Titles include "Bongo Fiesta", "Mambo A La Savoy", "Ay Que Mate", "Carambola", "Sambia", and "Adios". LP, Vinyl record album

Groundbreaking Latin Jazz – and an essential 2LP set! The album brings together classic work for Norman Granz' Verve and Clef labels in the cubop mode – including Dizzy Gillespie's Manteca Suite, Machito's Afro-Cuban Suite, titles by Chico O'Farrill, and others recorded in 1949 and arranged by Rene Hernandez. Players include Machito, Charlie Parker, Diz, Mario Bauza, Eddie Bert, Flip Phillips, Chano Pozo, and Jos Mangual – and the quality of the work unifies the sessions wonderfully, even though they were recorded separately over a 5 year period. LP, Vinyl record album

Miguelito Valdes is reunited with his old boss, Machito, in an LP of tightly orchestrated "Afro-boleros", as the liner notes call them. All of the material is vocal, in the style that Machito was doing with his larger group of the late 50s. Titles include "Africanerias", "Black Coffee", "Sabor", "Mi Tumbao", and the groovy "Blen Blen Blen". LP, Vinyl record album

70s work from Machito – still very much in the mode of his classics from earlier years, but with an undeniable punch on a few numbers, thanks to the smoking salsa groove of the Coco Records label! The album's got one really standout track entitled "Macho" – a 13 minute descarga number that spins out with lots of different changes, and which features some nice electric jazzy touches! Harvey Averne produced the entire session, with a nice undercurrent of Latin soul – and the album also features Charlie Palmieri on both organ and piano. Other tracks include "Mi Ritmo Llego", "Soy Salsero", "No Seras Para Mi", and "Desilusion". LP, Vinyl record album

A great Dizzy Gillespie Latin session recorded during the mid 70s – proof that he could still hold onto the cubop spirit of the old days! The session features a larger group arranged and conducted by Chico O'Farril – who manages to keep a solidly Cuban groove at the base, but really let Dizzy open up with some broader horn flourishes at the top. Given the quality of actual Cuban jazz at the time, this set may well beat most of what was going on in Havana – thanks to solid solos from Dizzy, and backings from a group led by Machito, and featuring players who include Mario Bauza, Jorge Dalto, Manny Duran, Mauricio Smith, and Victor Paz. Side one features the extended "Oro, Incienso y Mirra", and side two is a 3-part suite, "Three Afro-Cuban Jazz Moods". CD

A great document of the crossover between the New York Latin scene and the Catskills – the upstate resort community that was as important to the Latin groups as the uptown clubs! Like many groups of the period, Machito's found a heck of a lot of work in the Catskills during the 50s – most notably at the Concord Resort, paid tribute to by this set – which includes photos of famous Concord staffers that include swimming instructor Buster Crabbe and golf pro Jimmy Demarest! But apart from that gimmicky approach, the album's actually a strong one for Machito – showing the kind of grooves that helped his 50s group cross over big – a mix of mambo and early cha cha tracks that include "Patricia", "Guaglione", "Torero", "Cha Cha Cha Loco", "Cotillon Mambo", and "Mambo La Concord". LP, Vinyl record album

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One of Machito's best Latin sides, and a nice batch of Cha Cha tracks recorded for Tico in the late 50's, and issued on the budget Forum label at a slightly later date. The groove is nice and hard, with fairly raw production, and a good sound that's different from most of his other LPs from the 50's. Titles include "Asia Minor", "Besame La Bembita", "El Campesino", "Choclate Cha Cha Cha", and "Tibiri Tabara". LP, Vinyl record album

Titles include "Asia Minor", "Liorra Timbero", "Desert Dance", "Jungle Drums", and "Gone City". LP, Vinyl record album

Excellent 2LP set that brings together a whole bunch of great Machito sides from the late 40s. This is classic stuff that defined the Latin jazz idiom, and stood as an inspiration to players for years. The group includes Mario Bauza on trumpet, Jose Madera on tenor, Frank Davila on trumpet, Jose Mangual on bongos, and Machito and Graciela on vocals. The set includes 24 tracks, with the titles "Asia Minor", "Jungle Drums", "Donkey Serenade", "Mambo Jambo", "Babalu", and "Gone City". Great stuff, and very hard to find otherwise. LP, Vinyl record album

Sure, Monchito's name makes you think that he might be Machito – but the groove here is quite different, a snapping hard take on the cha cha that made Fiesta one of the greatest labels at the genre! Percussion is nice and hard, horns are plenty tight, and there's lots of interesting instrumental twists that keep things interesting. Titles include "Pao Pao", "La Ultima Noche", "Tapate", "Pancho", "No Tequila", "Santa Marta", and "Una A La Vez". LP, Vinyl record album

A fantastic package – a must-have for any fan of older jazz! This CD set reissues material originally packaged in the rare Jazz Scene box set issued by Verve at the end of the 40s – a limited package of 78rpm singles that documented the styles and sounds of modern jazz at the time, filled with great drawings and photos, and one of those super-rare collectibles that you never ever see! This set does a fantastic job of re-presenting the material – filling one CD with tracks in the original box set, and a whole other CD with bonus material that was never issued at the time! Plus, it comes with great notes, reproductions of the original art, photos, and a whole lot more. It's a rare treasure both visually and musically – as the edgey recordings are in the best late 40s modern mode, blending bop, swing, and influences from other fields – really incredible work that deserves to be heard again and again! Titles include "Introspection" by Ralph Burns, "Sono" by Duke Ellington, "Swingin For Julie & Brownie" by Flip Phillips, "Spring In Naples" by Ralph Burns, "Tailspin" by Billy Strayhorn, "Tea For Two" by Willie Smith, and "Tanga" by Machito. CD

Music from Lester Young, Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Machito, Johnny Hodges, Benny Carter, Flip Phillips, Anita O'Day, Ella Fitzgerald, Blossom Dearie, Mel Torme, Jimmy Giuffre, Lee Konitz, and more. CD

A jazz treasure chest – an extraordinary bounty of Bird on Verve! You get absolutely everything here, master takes, alternate takes, loads of previously unissued material, rehearsals, incomplete takes, you get it all! Sidemen include Benny Carter, Kenny Clarke, Miles Davis, Roy Eldridge, Gil Evans, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Coleman Hawkins, Johnny Hodges, John Lewis, Machito, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Buddy Rich, Max Roach, Ben Webster and Lester Young. There's 177 (!!) tracks in all, so we can't list all the titles here, but some of them include "Blues For Norman", "The Bird", "Repetition", "No Noise", "Okiedoke", "The Opener", "Lester Leaps In", "Flyin' Home", "Perdido", "Everything Happens To Me", "April In Paris", "Summertime", "I Didn't Know What Time It Was", "Bloomdido", "Mohawk", "My Melancholy Baby", "Leapfrog", "East Of The Sun", "I'll Remember April", "Au Privave", "KC Blues", "Swedish Schnapps", "Estrellita", "Funky Blues", "Jam Blues", "I Get A Kick Out Of You", and "Love For Sale". CD

A great set of tracks – even if it is a discographer's nightmare! 12 tracks on the album are from a session originally done under the name of Machito – and features Herbie as the main soloist, over a set of wonderfully lush Latin jazz backings! The feel is nicely exotic – right up there with Herbie's best work of this nature, and done with a heavy groove, thanks to Machito's touch – sounding very similar to his legendary Kenya album. The remaining 8 tracks on the set are pulled from a late 50s session for the tiny Mode label – a tasty bit of west coast jazz that has a very different feel than the Machito material, but which is equally nice! Herbie plays piccolo and tenor in addition to flute – working with a small group that includes Jimmy Rowles, Mel Lewis, and Buddy Colette. Titles on the CD include "Answer Me", "Give A Little Whistle", "Bacao", "Perdido", "Afternoon Death", "Brazilian Soft Shoe", "African Flute", "The Davis Cup", and "Carabunta". CD

A very cool record from Noro – one with a heck of a lot of weird influences! Some tracks on the set are straight Latin – done in a style that recalls some of Machito's work from the early 60s – but there's a few others that have an electric guitar in the mix, some slightly pyrotechnic scoring, and almost a 60s twist/mod kind of sound. Titles include "Rock A Bong", "Papa Boco", "Windows Of Paris", "Clap, Chaipaneca Clpa", "Colonia", and "Mexican Hop". LP, Vinyl record album

Seminal session that was virtually one of the only west coast attempts to replicate the famous "cubop" mix of bebop and Latin that had been evolving over the years in the New York scene. Machito percussionists like Jose Mangual and Ubaldo Nieto join a west coast group that includes alto player Frank Morgan, trumpeter Conte Candoli, pianist Carl Perkins, and other LA boppers. The back of the record proclaims that with the death of Charlie Parker, someone must step in as the new bop genius – and Morgan does a capable job on tracks like "Wippet", "Chooch", "The Champ", and "Bernie's Tune" – and on the record's non-Latin numbers, included here to expand the release to a 12" format. LP, Vinyl record album

An early 80s look at Latin jazz from David Amram – with a who's who of Latin jazz players and stellar jazz musicians of other realms – including Paquito D'Riveria, Candido, Machito & Machito Jr, Brazilian percussion guru Duduca Fonseca, David Fathead Newman, Jimmy Knepper, Pepper Adams and others others! What could have come out as clinical or academic comes through with passion and affection, partly because Amram could get such incredible players on the record, but mostly because the multi-instrumentalist ring leader is genuinely celebrating the music rather than simply replicating it. Includes "En Memoria De Chano Pozo, "New York Charanga", "Brazilian Memories", "Celebration", "Song Of The Rainforest" and more. CD

A classic album from one of the hippest groups on the UK scene of the 50s – Kenny Graham's excellent Afro-Cubists ensemble – an outfit with a sound as great as its name! There's a fair bit of percussion in the approach here – a sound that's definitely informed by the Cubop experiments of Dizzy Gillespie, Machito, and others on the US scene at the end of the 40s – and the music also features some slightly more exotic touches too, served up with an especially well-arranged approach to the horns. In addition to Graham's strong work on tenor, other players on the date include Stan Tracey on piano and vibes, Joe Hunter on trumpet, and Phil Seamen on drums – on titles that include "I'll Get By", "Olwen's Dream", "Swallowin The Blues", "Cuban Fantasy", "Rockin In Rhythm", and "Bongo Chant". CD features 4 bonus tracks – 2 from the album Tenorama, "Teddy Boy" and "Poinciana" – and 2 more from All The Winners, "Mood Indigo" and "Top Score" – played by the Melody Maker All Stars. CD

A brilliant meeting of modes from the mighty Arturo O'Farrill – a set that combines a rich tapestry of Cuban styles with American jazz elements from the cubop years and beyond – all into a spacious double-length set of performances that brings together musicians from around the globe, all recording in Havana under Arturo's direction! The tracks are often ambitious, but never overly-complicated – and instead almost take us back to the clarity of vision that we first loved in the older Afro-Cuban experiments of Machito with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie – and the ability of those records to throw out many ideas at once, yet keep things very fluid and forward-moving at all times. Most tunes were written especially for the project – and titles include "Vaca Frita", "Second Line Soca", "El Bombon", "Just One Moment", "The Triumphant Journey", "Afro Latin Jazz Suite", "Guajira Simple", "Alabanza", "Blues Guaguanco", and "There's A Statue Of Jose Marti In Central Park". CD

The legendary Norman Granz Jazz Scene collection – a limited package of that documented the styles and sounds of modern jazz at the time, one of those super-rare collectibles that you never ever see! A rare treasure both visually and musically – as the edgey recordings are in the best late 40s modern mode, blending bop, swing, and influences from other fields – really incredible work that deserves to be heard again and again! Features work by Charlie Parker, Willie Smith, Bud Powell, Machito, Duke Ellington, Ralph Burns, Lester Young, Neal Hefti, and Coleman Hawkins! LP, Vinyl record album

First volume in Verve's LP collection of Parker's work recorded by Norman Granz, with a mix of tracks that includes some quartet and small group material, some recorded with strings and a couple recorded with Machito & His Orchestra. 15 tracks in all, including "April In Paris", "What Is This Thing called Love", "Lover Man", "Back Home blues", "Passport", "My Little Suede Shoes", "Mango Mangue", "In The Still Of The Night" and "Old Folks". LP, Vinyl record album

A great record – or half-great, as the case may be! One part of this album features Billy with his standard trio of Earl May and Percy Brice, playing mellow piano trio versions of tracks that include "Tune For Tex", "Goodbye", "Biddy's Beat", and "Eddie's Theme". Those cuts are fine, but the real strength of the album lies on the last 4 cuts – all killer Latin jazz numbers cut with a rhythm section that includes Machito, Jose Mangual, Charlie Smith, and Uba Nieto. The added conga, bongos, and timbales really make the tracks groove – and you'll find yourself coming back to "I Love To Mambo", "Mambo Azul", "Early Morning Mambo", and "Candido" more than you will the rest of the record. CD

Music from Augie Colon, Miguelito Valdes & His Orchestra With Machito & His Cubans, Xavier Cugat featuring Lina Romay, Yma Sumac, Hugo Montenegro, Perez Prado, the John Buzon Trio, Lenny Dee, Orizaba & His Orchestra, Richard Hayman, Sir Julian, Belmonte & His Afro-American Music, and Duke Ellington. CD