Dizzy Gillespie proclaimed that the Cuban-born drummer Ignacio Berroa was, "[t]he only Latin drummer in the world, in the history of American music that intimately knows both worlds; his native Afro-Cuban music as well as Jazz." His stunning debut features an international group that includes his homeboy and longtime partner, keyboardist Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Puerto Rican saxophonist David Sanchez, percussionist Giovanni Hidalgo, Venezuelan pianist Ed Simon, and American bassist John Patitucci. Berroa turns Chick Corea's "Matrix" and Wayne Shorter's "Pinocchio" into complex, clave-coded Latin jazz labyrinths. Berroa's composition "Joao Su Merced" swings with Yoruba cadences and chants, and his Cubanized renditions of the Brazilian ensemble Azymuth's "Partido Alto" and Antonio Carlos Jobim's ballad "Inutil Paissagem (Useless Landscapes)" make this a pan-American affair. For those expecting Berroa to make his own syncopated statement as a leader, this stunning CD was well worth the wait. --Eugene Holley, Jr.
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