1,001 Albums [I] Must Hear before [I] Die: 11

Kenya: Afro-Cuban Jazz - Machito

I pride myself on my ludicrously extensive knowledge of post-1940 Western music. I know an ungodly amount of musicians, records and songs, especially for a 26 year old.

Having said that, it's with some reluctance and sadness that I write this next statement for the first time in doing this project:

I have never even heard of - not only this record - but this artist either.

It seems more than a bit strange to me that this is the case. Afro-Cuban jazz is not entirely alien to me, and there are several musicians involved with this album that I know quite well. Cannonball Adderly is on alto-sax, and Charles Mingus, Dizzy Gillespie, and J. J. Johnson all have composition credits - these are all musicians I have a great amount of affection for. Yet, somehow this record/artist has never managed to cross my path.

So what do I think of this entirely new listening experience? Well, I'll start with a complaint: it's way too short a record. I felt like I had just started listening, looked at Rhapsody, and saw that I was two thirds of the way through. I almost said, "hey! I was listening to that!" out-loud when the record finished. I suppose that's probably the greatest complaint you can possibly make about a record - it's too short, I wanted more.

The musicianship is nothing short of brilliant, the percussion being particularly noteworthy. I caught myself spontaneously dancing a few times in the kind of way that only an amazing rhythm section can make you. As to be expected, the Mingus composition, "Conversation" was my favorite track (Charles Mingus is easily one of my favorite composers of all-time, and can do almost no wrong in my eyes).

Will I be listening to this album again in the future? You can bet on it

A quick aside: it's getting to the point in listening to these albums and reviewing them that I am developing a masochistic desire to finally find an album on this list that I hate. I keep finding myself either writing extremely positive reviews, or simply writing reviews that can be summed up with the single word, "meh". You, as a reader, are probably thinking to yourself, "this guy likes everything... when is he going to rip into an album?" Well, trust me, I don't like everything, and I promise there are some albums on this list I already know are going to get the fullest extent of my wrath - it's simply that, so far, everything has ranged from absolutely brilliant (i.e. this record) to simply mediocre. For now, enjoy my words of praise, and perhaps, maybe, the next album will be the first I loathe (I'm really not sure, I haven't looked at what's next yet).