Putumayo – Jazz Cafe CD

Extraordinary musicians from the U.S., Cuba, Brazil, Finland, Senegal and beyond will transport you to jazz cafés around the world.

Jazz has come a long way since its birth in New Orleans at the end of the 19th century. Today, you can find jazz in every corner of the world. It truly has a global audience.

Jazz Café is a collection of extraordinary musicians from the U.S., Cuba, Brazil, Finland, Senegal and beyond that will transport people to jazz cafés and clubs around the world.

Jazz has come a long way since its birth in New Orleans at the end of the 19th century. Today, you can find jazz in every corner of the world. It truly has a global audience

Jazz Café opens with is a self-titled track by Delicatessen, a Brazilian group devoted to performing jazz standards with a bossa nova flavor. It is followed by a rendition of a classic song performed by Lisa Bassenge. The melody is reminiscent of “If I Were a Bell,” a song from the Broadway musical, Guys & Dolls, that was famously turned into a jazz standard by Miles Davis.

Singer, guitarist and bassist Alune Wade, from Senegal, and Harold López-Nussa, a pianist from Cuba, perform a jazzy, Cuban-flavored cover of a famous Algerian song written by Dahmane el Harrachi, “Yarahya.” Next, with her silky voice, Niuver sings a bittersweet bolero.

The audience is then introduced to a trio of musicians dedicated to finding the musical synchronicities between European Gypsy jazz and American swing. Pearl Django’s featured track would feel at home in a 1930s Parisian nightclub. New Orleans rhythm & blues legend, Lee Dorsey, follows with “Someday,” which was one of his more jazz-influenced recordings. Next, Irina Björklund and Peter Fox have created a beautiful, Swedish song together about dreaming of summer.

An instrumental version of a Hoagy Carmichael track as performed by Dick Sudhalter, who recorded an album to accompany his biography of the jazz legend, follows. The track then dips back into bossa nova with Rosa Passos’ rendition of the Brazilian classic, “Desafinado” (Out of Time), a track that has been recorded by Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, among other legends.

Amanda Martínez blends elements of Latin jazz with Spanish flamenco flourishes, Brazilian bossa nova rhythms and Cuban bolero before the album ends with a soulful track by Eden Brent.