Latin flavored jazz goes with warm weather, right? Here are two superb new releases to keep you warm as the season turns.
So how come I’ve never heard of Roger Glenn until now? Possibly because, although he’s been playing with everybody who’s anybody, this is his first album as a leader in nearly 50 years. Glenn, who’s celebrating his 80th birthday with My Latin Heart, is such an amazing musician and human being, it’s hard to know where to start. So I’ll go with, this is the best album of Latin jazz I’ve heard in quite some time. The sunny tropical balm I didn’t realize I needed.
A force in jazz since the 1960s, Glenn first recorded with legendary pianist and composer Mary Lou Williams. He played in an Army band with Grover Washington Jr. and Billy Cobham, and over the years he has contributed to classic albums by Mongo Santamaria, Dizzy Gillespie, Donald Byrd, and Cal Tjader. In fact, he played flute with vibraphonist Tjader and vibes with flautist Herbie Mann. In the past few years he’s played all sorts of instruments with Taj Mahal, jazz singer Kurt Elling, the Count Basie Orchestra, and his organ trio opened for Steely Dan. An avid scuba diver and sailor, Glenn is also an accomplished pilot.
The cover shows Roger Glenn playing flute, and he does that. But on this album alone he also plays vibraphone, alto flute, alto sax, marimba, and contributes vocals. And he wrote all eight tracks and arranged or co-arranged all of them. Here he teams up with pianist David K. Mathews, bassist David Belove, guitarist/producer Ray Obiedo, conguero Derek Rolando, and the late drummer Paul van Wageningen, with John Santos and Michael Spiro on additional percussion and vocals.
And it’s just one incredible groove-filled tune after another, laid back, tropically warm and beaming with good vibes. The three opening tracks, “Zambo’s Mambo,” “Cal’s Guajira” (an homage to Tjader), and “Brother Marshall,” feature Glenn on flute, vibes and alto sax, respectively. All three are beautiful tunes and showcase Glenn’s signature flawless improvisations — and will probably show up on my year-end favorites playlist. They might have to make room for the bouncy closer “Samba De Carnaval,” featuring lots of interaction between Glenn and pianist Mathews and guitarist Obiedo. Then there’s “Congo Square,” in which Glenn highlights the way European classical music and Caribbean sounds and rhythms came together in New Orleans. And the sunny Cuban bop of “Energizer.” And Glenn’s sultry alto flute on the lush “A Night Of Love.”
Drop the needle anywhere on this one and prepare to be swayed and charmed. ¡Muy rico y suave! Feliz cumpleaños a Roger Glenn. Here’s to many more years of music!
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Alto saxophonist and composer Miguel Zenón’s Golden City ranked high in my year-end list of favorites for 2024, and he’s followed that with a very 
strong set featuring his longtime quartet. It’s the 20th anniversary of that quartet featuring pianist Luis Perdomo, bassist Hans Glawischnig, and drummer Henry Cole, so they’re celebrating with this first ever live release for Zenón as a leader.
Vanguardia Subterránea was recorded over two nights in September 2024 at New York’s iconic Village Vanguard, and was scheduled to be the focus of a string of album release shows at that club in mid-September 2025. (If you haven’t been there, the Village Vanguard is indeed subterranean, a compact space at the bottom of a steep stairway from the sidewalk entry on Seventh Avenue South in Greenwich Village.)
The tracklist is mostly originals and all new material, six compositions by Zenón, plus his arrangements of a couple of Latin jazz classics: Willie Colón and Héctor Lavoe’s “El Día de Mi Suerte” and Gilberto Santa Rosa’s “Perdóname.”
I’m just going to start right there because both of those tracks are superb. “El Día de Mi Suerte” comes in at track 2, leading off with a beguiling statement of melodic and rhythmic counterpoint on Zenón’s horn and Glawischnig’s bass. Zenón follows with a strong solo and Perdomo an even stronger one in my opinion, rendering a riveting and exciting piece of music. And the mid-tempo ballad “Perdóname” has the honor of closing the album with tons of verve.
The quartet pays homage to the room on the shape-shifting title track, soars on the majestic “Dale La Vuelta” (Turn it Around), swings a deep Latin influenced groove on “Vita” complete with an engrossing bass solo turn by Glawischnig, delves into sharp post-bop on “Coordenades,” comes out swinging on the opening track, the uptempo bop “Abre Cuto Güiri Mambo,” and takes a warm breather on “Benedición.” Throughout, drummer Cole is a driving force. Wish I could make it to one of those album release shows!
(Patois Records, 2025)
(Miel Music, 2025)
