Ray Mantilla: The Connection
Label: Savant Catalog: SCD 2133 Format: CD Ray MantillaOne would be hard-pressed to name a working jazz musician who has played with a longer list of great artists than Ray Mantilla. From the beginning of his career in the 1950s with Latin music greats Xavier Cugat and Monguito Conjunto, Mantilla has played with such wildly diverse personalities as Eartha Kitt, Freddie Hubbard and Michael Urbaniak. Together with Max Roach, he was a founding member of the popular percussion ensemble M'Boom. On his new album The Connection, Mantilla has taken his decades of experience in music and synthesized it into a language which encompasses the best of all genres while never quite leaving his Latin roots and heritage. With a band made up of long-time colleagues, Mantilla rips through an imaginative program of originals and standards where the Latin beats are tinged with echoes of Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Spain and his own Nuyorican roots. Price: $24.98 |