Cambucha

Milton Cardona is one of New York's most in-demand Latin-jazz and salsa percussionists, with credits ranging from Willie Colon to Michael Brecker to Steve Turre to David Byrne. He's also a master of the sacred West African bata rhythms and vocal chants that form the spiritual foundation of Afro-Cuban music. Cambucha demonstrates Cardona's visionary skill as both a conguero and a vocal arranger. The soul of this music is as ancient as an African village, as modern as a New York subway station. "Goddess of Sweet Waters" is a traditional call-and-response orisha chant, and "A Kiss" consists of overdubbed doo-wop harmonies. Brecker's tenor sax spars with Cardona's shekeres on "Freedom of Expression," while the jazzy title track features solos by trumpeter James Zollar, trombonist Papo Vasquez, and saxophonist Phillipe Vieux. This is how the saints come dancing in to the new millennium. --Rick Mitchell