Rumba con Flores

This young, classically trained pianist, composer and arranger shares her time between London, Barcelona and Havana, and her creative energies between the three bands she currently leads. While one of them, Eli & La Evolución, is all about Latin dance music, for this particular project Eliane Correa focuses on Latin jazz.

Short on running time but big on scope, the album was three years in the making and features a cosmopolitan cadre of 31 musicians. Sung in both Spanish and English, its eight numbers are all firmly rooted in Afro-Cuban folk music. ‘Wemilere’ has some big horn arrangements and surprisingly belligerent vocals; ‘Flying Colours’ boasts a lovely arrangement with prominent flute and cello; ‘Veneno’ is built around a nice vamp with a strong tenor sax statement from Wayne Francis; and ‘Cascaras’ is a very restrained amalgam of tres guitar, voice and percussion. The combined effect occasionally even recalls that celebrated Cuban big-band Irakere. If it seems sometimes that Correa can’t yet quite pin down a melody and that some of her arrangements are a little tricksy, she clearly has ambition, talent to burn and a genuine touch of class.