ALBUM REVIEWS

​

"This collaboration between Speyer and a Santiago rhythm section that is sadly unknown in Europe has enormous charm and musical intelligence. The percussive backdrops, dominated by gurgling bata drums and crisp, stinging timbales, are handled with real finesse but it is the combination of Rafael Cisneros Leskay's tremendously noble voice and the leader's concise, often sparse melodic lines that give the session a real edge, as if everybody understands that deeply rooted Latin folk traditions can be embellished by jazz harmony and a concise arrangement without compromising any communicative power."

- Kevin Le Gendre, Jazzwise ****

​

​

"In a producer-oriented era it sounds as simple as if you had made it yourself touring the town's bars with a recording machine… Yet there's a quiet audacity here. An Afro-Cuban dedication to a Yoruban deity of love segues elegantly into a big band classic, Rico Pilon. A hypnotic klezmer song acquires a rumba rhythm… The music grows on you, and the percussion feel is terrific."
- John Fordham, the Guardian ***
 

"The Festival del Caribe in Santiago de Cuba in July often gives rise to unexpected encounters. 2009 saw a unique one between British trumpeter and flugelhorn player Loz Speyer and a group of local musicians, who came together under the name Proyecto Evocación… The sound shifts deftly between the exuberant and celebratory and those Cuban melodies that bring out more complex feelings of nostalgia and deep loss… Speyer may be from the UK but he’s managed to achieve that burnished golden trumpet sound Cuba is so famous for. With improvisation very much to the fore, every song has another within it, and the musicians move in perpetual dialogue. This is a beautiful recording of one of those heady musical sessions one hot night where the rapport between everyone involved is tangible."
- Jan Fairley, Songlines ***