January/February 2000

Lalo Schifrin
Latin Jazz Suite
Aleph Records

By Diane Gordon

Lalo Schifrin's Latin Jazz Suite is a musical walkabout through the Americas with the very best of company, such as trumpeter Jon Faddis and drummer Ignacio Berroa. A collective bravura ignites a series of musical portraits of the locales such as Cuba, Brazil, and Argentina. Schifrin pulls out all the stops in drawing from the many influences on this exciting style of big band music, from the Spanish gypsies to the Argentine gauchos. In lesser hands, the concept might have resorted to cliches, but not so here. In his Latin Jazz Suite, composer and conductor Lalo Schifrin's treatment of the Latin tradition is much like Aaron Copland's use of American folk music in Appalachian Spring. Written in five contrasting movements, this monumental work stretches the usual boundaries of Latin jazz like no other.