Latin Jazz Music

Best Irakere record I've heard hands down! Just when I thought these guys couldn't sound any better,BAM! Blistering tempos, amazing descargas & sweet rythyms on display here. Go get this record today.

I saw the band this past winter in a little jazz club and this is the closest disc to the in person experience that I`ve found yet, out of the eleven I`ve purchased since the show. All of their albums I`ve picked up have been great, but this is the one that captures all the energy and excitement that I had at that show, the people with me at the show agree. I`d say the first couple songs are the ones that stand out but thats until I start listening to the rest.

Best Irakere record I've heard hands down! Just when I thought these guys couldn't sound any better,BAM! Blistering tempos, amazing descargas & sweet rythyms on display here. Go get this record today.

I saw the band this past winter in a little jazz club and this is the closest disc to the in person experience that I`ve found yet, out of the eleven I`ve purchased since the show. All of their albums I`ve picked up have been great, but this is the one that captures all the energy and excitement that I had at that show, the people with me at the show agree. I`d say the first couple songs are the ones that stand out but thats until I start listening to the rest.

Old classical songs put into Cuban music. The
percussionists sweep you along w/ their resourceful
rhythms. This has been done very creatively with
much originality. I loved the CD & can't stop moving
my feet.

I heard one cut from this album and wanted to buy the whole CD. I love classical music. I also enjoy Cuban and salsa music. Combining the two seems almost impossible but the Klazz Brothers do it, and do it exceptionally well. They have managed to meld the beauty of classical with the joy of Cuban rhythm. This is a FUN CD, and an exciting one. It's music you can listen to and enjoy repeatedly.

Esta agrupación ha logrado ensamblar magistralmente el son, la salsa, con la música clásica. Una vez que uno escucha a Bach, Beethoven, Mozart reinterpretados por estos alemanes (Klazz Brother) y cubanos (Cuba Percusssion), no podrá concebir de otro modo la obra de estos grandes compositores.

Like others, I was skeptical when I heard about the idea, but this collection easily won me over. What I find so interesting is that the arrangements are so good, so creative, it's as though these well-known classical pieces were *written* as Cuban music. You find yourself completely accepting this genre-bending experiment.

Extremely enjoyable -- as is their companion album, "Jazz Meets Cuba".

Crossover efforts are always risky ventures that dance precariously between creative and contrived. There is definitely some of the latter on this 2002 recording, but surprisingly, far more of the former as the fruitful teaming of three German classical-jazz musicians and a pair of Cuban percussionist/vocalists puts a hearty Latin-flavored spin on some very familiar classics. Two of the Klazz Brothers, pianist Tobias Forster and bassist Killian Forster, took a fortuitous trip to Cuba and concluded the popular classical pieces they usually played could easily be adapted to the Cuban- and Afro-Cuban Jazz styles.

The beat-heavy results bear them out, as they developed fresh, energetic and lyrical arrangements of standard works by Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Haydn, Chopin, Schubert and others, that still respect the original compositions. The jazzed-up titles aptly (if a bit too preciously) reflect the changes - Mozart's Symphony No. 40 transforms into "Mambozart", Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 becomes "Salsa No. V", and Bizet's Carmen Suite turns into "Carmen Cubana". With titles like those, some of the pieces, perhaps because of their familiarity, come across as a bit too trite, for example, "Afrolise", which sounds bit too cocktail loungey to be too revitalizing a take on Beethoven's "Für Elise", and "Guten Abend", which sounds a bit like a somnambulant Vince Guaraldi take on Brahms's original lullaby.

However, the high points are abundant, starting with the three movements of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 8 "Pathétique," exciting pieces that feel culturally transformed by the sultry romanticism of the Cuban beats crowned by Tobias Forster's virtuoso playing. Also wonderful are the mournful "Czardas" and the conga-accentuated "Flight of the Bumblebee", both dominated by brother Killian's dexterous bass playing. The three others in the quintet are all equally superb musicians - Tim Hahn, the third Klazz Bother on drums, and Alexis Herrera Estevez (timbales) and Elio Rodriguez (congas), both of Cuba Percussion. The vital mix of sounds in what could have been a hopeless misfire makes for a genuinely exhilarating listening experience.