Ovella Negra is at root a piano trio, but one with a difference. Pianist Joan Frontera Luna’s vision was to create a vibrant jazz program from the popular folk music of his native Balearic Islands (off Spain’s southern Mediterranean coast, including Mallorca) and unite the music with a visual program that showcases the island’s traditional dances as well.
Frontera Luna arranged all 14 of the musical pieces here and plays piano,joined by Pablo Di Salvo on bass and Teo Salvà (who teaches at Mallorca’s Conservatorio Superior where this started as Frontera Luna’s graduation project) on drums. Both of his parents have been involved in Mallorca’s Escola de Música i Danses since before his birth. His mother, Catalina Luna Barceló (Catín Luna), a choreographer and key figure in the world of traditional dance, created the dance arrangements to accompany Ovella Negra’s music.
When you hear the phrase “traditional folk dances turned into jazz music” you might think of something slightly kitschy or more folk than jazz. That’s definitely not the case here. Ovella Negra (Black Sheep) makes muscular modern jazz that you just happen to be able to dance to: jotas, boleros, mateixes and other forms of island folklore, popular melodies spiced with jazzy American harmony and rhythm.
I sat right up when I first heard “La Dama De Mallorca,” a jazz rock fusion that pits Di Salvo’s double bass in an engaging call and response with Frontera Luna’s electric Rhodes. More traditional sounding is the obvious folk dance tune here called “Mateixes,” which has an energtic tango like beat emphasized by finger percussion in the intro, which soon enough gives way to some hard bop style improv while retaining the folksy 6/8 beat. A similar tack is taken on “L’oferta dels homes i les dones,” a real showcase for Frontera Luna’s piano prowess. “Cercaviles de Muro” incorporates a deep swinging groove behind an arrangement that veers from avant garde to pure blues. The assertive “Bolero De Santa Maria” had me thinking of the Vince Guaraldi Trio for some reaon, and the delightful “Vou Veri Vou” swings and bounces along in five like Dave Brubeck in Latin mode.
Va De Mescles! stands on its own as superb international jazz; with the staged dance component, a world jazz tour de force.
The sunshine tinged with melancholy of Brazilian samba, choro and bossa 
nova fuses with the crystaline cool of Nordic jazz in the Rosàlia De Souza Quarteto 55˚ on their debut self-titled album. It’s a superb combination.
De Souza, a world renowned interpreter of samba, bossa nova, and Brazilian music traditions with more than a dozen albums to her name joins with Danish pianist Peter Rosendal, Canadian bassist Graig Earle, and Danish drummer Jonas Johansen on a program of mostly originals by quartet members in various combinations, with some Brazilian classics sprinkled in.
There’s not a less than great track out of 13, but some highlights include the jazzy choro “Choro Sambado” and the sultry bossa ballad “Dorme, Dorme Meu Menino” (both by Rosendal and De Souza), the upbeat opener “Samba Do Amor Que Nâo Existe” with sweet soprano saxopone from Hans Ulrik, and the propulsive classic samba “Agitado.” Flemming Agerskov contributes warm flugelhorn to the romantic bossa “Maria” and cool muted trumpet to “Sugar Reef,” which features another side of De Souza on spoken lyrics.
(Microscopi, 2025)
(Storyville, 2025)
