CD REVIEW - SARAHBANDA
ALPHA 1099 [54:31]

While singing the praises in these pages of Sarah Willis for her wonderful three-album blend of the music of W A Mozart with Cuban rhythms, I said I would have liked a bit more of that country's music.

Well, here we are as she seems to agree with me and performs on her horn with her band of Yuniet Lombida (saxophone), Aylín Pino (violin), Jorge Aragón (piano), Carlos García (bass), Alejandro Aguiar and Adel González (percussion).

Together with some of Cuba's most famous musical works in splendid new arrangements, some by members of the group: Sandunguera, Chan Chan, Contigo en la Distanzia, Pare Cochero, La Comparsa, Mambo Influenciado and two original pieces: Lombida’s Guajira Sencilla and Pino/González’s Nostagias, we have two 'classical meets Cuban' tracks in Mozart's own Romanza and Bizet's Habanera.

The superb recording was made this February in the Traunton Studios in Berlin, where Willis is still a member of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. The quality of her playing is gorgeous and her Cuban colleagues also shine.

She says in her liner notes that "We danced, we sang, we laughed, we improvised and I don’t think I have ever enjoyed a recording more". I have enjoyed listening to it but would have liked another 20 minutes or so even more. Nevertheless … shall we dance?

© Peter Burt, September 2024