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Hilario Durán and His Latin Jazz
Big Band

From the Heart

Alma Records ACD66062

Admirers of Cuban jazz will be familiar with pianist Hilario Dur›n courtesy of his work with trumpeter Arturo Sandoval; he, Chucho Valdés and Gonzálo Rubalcaba are the island's most celebrated piano virtuosi.

He is now resident in Toronto, Canada, and fronts a 20-piece band that combines solid, punchy brass and reed ensemble work with tumultuous percussion to great effect on this infectiously enjoyable album.

Whether they're addressing the opening Valdés-composed mambo (explored with characteristic passion and grace by guest soloist Paquito D'Rivera on alto), sweeping through the pleasingly grandiloquent 'Habanera in Spain', crooning the cha cha cha or providing the chatteringly percussive backing for 'Rumba for Chano' (a tribute to the percussionist Chano Pozo), the Latin Jazz Big Band is at once exuberant and controlled, its dense occasionally shouting arrangements infused with an elegance deeply rooted in the extraordinary rhythmic variety that characterises Cuban music.

It is Durán himself, however, who shines throughout this album, both in his varied, multi-textured compositions and his fiery, playfully rumbustious yet poised piano playing; his forthcoming trio gigs (he's coming to London in March) should be rather special.