"Before you even hear the first note on Bámbula by the contrabassist Alex “Apolo” Ayala, you can almost feel the weight of the music that is to follow when you spin this disc. The bassist, proudly clothed in an African-inspired ceremonial garb, whose photograph is on the cover, comes with muted images of his mother and grandmother hovering behind him, honoured resident spirits that have informed his whole life, and now, this impeccably performed, recorded and presented album. It is a masterpiece of a recording by any bassist playing music today”. Raul Da Gama, Latin Jazz Network.
“Afro-Puerto Rican Jazz is a successful album, it’s a well-designed blueprint for cross-cultural jazz orchestration. Ayala builds traditions into stylistic ingredients; he treats them as co-authors in the music’s form, momentum, and syntax. In doing so, he offers a compelling model for how jazz can remain elastic, rooted, and compositionally rigorous all at once. For arrangers, educators, and improvisers seeking to integrate heritage-based rhythmic systems into jazz forms without diluting either.”
Nolan DeBuke, The Jazz Word.
“A Puerto Rican artist who, without a doubt, sets the tone for a new jazz movement in the region, bringing his intellectual touch to the genre. A composer and bassist, he masterfully blends tradition with contemporary jazz, demonstrating a singular intelligence. This is certainly not jazz for the masses, but those with a solid grasp of contemporary jazz will delight in an album of this caliber.”
Thierry de Clemensat, ParisMove.com
“Afro-Puerto Rican Jazz is a successful album, it’s a well-designed blueprint for cross-cultural jazz orchestration. Ayala builds traditions into stylistic ingredients; he treats them as co-authors in the music’s form, momentum, and syntax. In doing so, he offers a compelling model for how jazz can remain elastic, rooted, and compositionally rigorous all at once. For arrangers, educators, and improvisers seeking to integrate heritage-based rhythmic systems into jazz forms without diluting either.”
Nolan DeBuke, The Jazz Word.
“A Puerto Rican artist who, without a doubt, sets the tone for a new jazz movement in the region, bringing his intellectual touch to the genre. A composer and bassist, he masterfully blends tradition with contemporary jazz, demonstrating a singular intelligence. This is certainly not jazz for the masses, but those with a solid grasp of contemporary jazz will delight in an album of this caliber.”
Thierry de Clemensat, ParisMove.com
"Afro Puerto Rican Jazz" is now available on all platforms
Click HERE to purchase your SIGNED physical copy!
Click HERE to purchase your SIGNED physical copy!
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Purchase our Debut Album "BÁMBULA" trrstore.bandcamp.com/album/b-mbula