Search - Jason Marsalis, Bill Summers, Irvin Mayfield :: Los Hombres Calientes, Vol. 2

Loosely translated as "The Hot Men," this New Orleans-based trio of percussionist Bill Summers, trumpeter Irvin Mayfield, and drummer Jason Marsalis go way beyond their homeboy Jelly Morton's command to add tinges of Latin to jazz. Augmented by bass, guitar, piano vocal, and drums, they create a swinging and dancing musical dish prepared with equal ingredients from all over the African diaspora: from the parade pulsations of "Comparsa N.O." to Argentine amour of "Tangeaux-zon." Marsalis, the boy wonder of his famous family, assimilates an astonishing array of moods and grooves, whether he's swinging a Latin mix on Roberta Flack's hit "Feel Like Makin' Love," laying down a roots riddim on the Black Uhuru-sounding "Rasta Renegade," or Afro-Americanizing the Cuban beat on "Fongo Sunk." A young Miles Davis with a tropical tone best describes Mayfield's sound on the three-part, "Cuban Suite," which includes an impressionistic string quartet, a balmy bolero, and a moving montuno. Bill Summers, the star of this outfit, is perhaps the best American-born African drummer ever. His sacred rhythms on "Alabi Oyo E" and "Suite Obatala" echo his work on Quincy Jones's Roots soundtrack, and the booty-shaking remake of "Chameleon," which he made famous with Herbie Hancock and Parliament's "We Want the Funk," reminds everybody where the "one" is. --Eugene Holley Jr.