Product Review

Five legendary Cuban jam sessions originally released over a span of almost a decade (1956-1965) by Cuba’s first independent record label Panart. Reissued together as a set in their entirety and original format here for the first time, The Complete Cuban Jam Sessions albums encapsulate a stylistic and historic panorama of Cuban music, from big band son montuno to Afro-Cuban rumba, mambo, cha-cha-cha and country acoustic guajira music. At the same time, they attest to Cuba’s long relationship with popular American music and jazz. These sessions collectively feature an impressive line-up of renowned pioneers of descarga (improvised jam session), including pianist Julio Gutiérrez, tres player Niño Rivera, flautist José Fajardo and the legendary master bassist and mambo co-creator, Israel “Cachao” López.

 The 5-LP set includes 35 tracks on 180-gram audiophile vinyl in tip-on jackets. It offers a 28-page book featuring black-and-white archival images of the featured artists as well as extensive liner notes and musician bios, in English and Spanish, by award-winning Latin music writer, Cuban music specialist and box set co-producer, Judy Cantor-Navas.