Search - Lalo Schifrin :: Latin Jazz Suite

Featuring the Cologne-based WDR Big Band with guests trumpeter Jon Faddis, saxophonist David Sanchez, and three superb percussionists--Alex Acuna, Alphonso Garrido, and Marcio Doctor--Schifrin's Latin Jazz Suite makes notable use of motifs, structures, and resonances from his previous compositions. Do not infer an exercise in shabby cannibalism, however. This is a nobly ambitious work. The geographical sweep is formidable. In addition to commemorating jazz's African roots, Schifrin takes us from Cuba and the Caribbean to Brazil and his native Argentina. All six movements have much to savor, but in the end, the Latin Jazz Suite is greater than the considerable sum of its parts; it is the varied sonorousness of the charts and the composer's matchless rhythmic feel that one most thrills to and remembers. Any enthusiast of orchestral jazz or world music ought to find Schifrin's latest triumph irresistible. --Richard Palmer