Jazz Latin Jazz: Ray Barretto and New World Spirit

I heard Ray Barretto and New World Spirit quite a few years ago at the Kennedy Center, who at that time included Joe Magnarelli and Myron Walden—not too shabby. On Contact!, The front line is Michael Philip Mossman on trumpet (and trombone on one track) and Adam Kolker on tenor and soprano. I wasn’t familiar with Kolker, and he’s excellent. As form Mossman, I really enjoyed his concert on the Latin side of Jelly Roll Morton at the Kennedy Center a few years ago, including Paquito de Rivera and a flamenco dancer—a fine trumpeter both in and out of Latin jazz.

As the liner notes say, this album is not “Latin jazz,” but rather jazz with Latin overtones. Barretto straddled both worlds, but I suspect he leaned a bit more toward the jazzier end of the spectrum.  More up-tempo tracks like Moss Code, Liberated Spirit, and Sister Sadie are really excellent, and the band is good enough to make me like their version of Michel Legrand’s The Summer Knows—and don't miss their arrangement of Caravan.Strong work from pianist John Di Martino, Jairo Moreno and Hans Glawishnig on bass, Vince Cherico on drums, Ray Vega on percussion, and, of course, Barretto on congas, makes this a go-to  recording in the vein of Conrad Herwig’s Latin takes on Miles, Coltrane, and others.

Here's Caravan and Point of Contact.