Genre: World

Formed from long standing friendships and mutual musical interests, whose distinctive sound has been embraced internationally, the Hevreh Ensemble returns with MESEROLE STREET, a collection of works from composer and ensemble member Jeff Adler. With music inspired by friends and family, nostalgia, and several compositions influenced by the 2020 pandemic, the ensemble employs a variety of instruments both common and unique, namely the Native American flute and the shofar horn. From the cold feelings of isolation in Alone to the resounding emotions of hope in Freedom Day and more in between, the Hevreh Ensemble’s close-knit relationship and signature sound once again proves their notion: “good friendship makes for good music, and great stories.”

In November 2015, less than one year after these initial steps toward fully opening relations, PARMA Recordings produced the first of its recording projects in Havana. The resulting album, ABRAZO: THE HAVANA SESSIONS on the newly-minted Ansonica Records label, presents works for big band, small jazz combo, choir, and chamber ensembles by composers Bunny Beck, Roger Bourland, Don Bowyer, Margaret Brandman, John Carollo, Timothy Miller, Mel Mobley, and Michael Murray performed by current or former members of the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba, the Buena Vista Social Club, Irakere, and many more.

Ansonica Records’ new release CHÉVERE richly explores and demonstrates the myriad cultural intersections that have recently become available to American and Cuban musicians. The album came together at a recording session that took place in Havana, Cuba in the month of January in 2017. The release presents a variety of collaborations between American, or American-based, composers and Cuban instrumentalists, arrangers, singers, and composers. Some of these connections are relatively straightforward, while others are more nuanced and personal; yet, they all enrich the compositions on CHÉVERE with the energy unique to the interaction of two powerful musical traditions.

With TROVAS MODERNAS, the members of Bello Son have curated the latest edition of the Great Cuban Songbook. This group of free format musicians emerged in the summer of 2014, from an experimental project developed over six years by Professor Jesús Bello at the Samuel Feijóo Art School in Villa Clara Cuba.