Amazon.com
As an African American timbalero and bandleader, Henry “Pucho” Brown represents the flip side of Latin jazz. With his Latin Soul Brothers, Pucho was big in the 1960s, and his engaging, boogaloo-style dance music revived for 1990s London dance-club crowds. How’m I Doin’? shows that Pucho and his boys have not lost their groove. The title track, an Afro-Cuban son workout, features the in-the-pocket tones of famed James Brown trombonist Fred Wesley. “Son Cubano” is a hip-swaying charanga graced by Dave Valentin’s fancy flutework and Louis Kahn’s virtuoso violin. Tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander’s Joe Henderson-like solo tops Pucho’s invigorating percussion discussion on “Greene Street Jive.” The O’Jays’ 1970s staple, “For the Love of Money (Money, Money, Money),” is redone in a funky soul-sauce, turboed by bassist Harvie Swartz. Pucho as a timbalero was greatly influenced by the late Tito Puente, and two of the master’s compositions, “Willie and Ray Mambo” and “ESY,” show Pucho’s debt to the king. –Eugene Holley Jr.

How’m I Doin’?

Amazon.com
As an African American timbalero and bandleader, Henry “Pucho” Brown represents the flip side of Latin jazz. With his Latin Soul Brothers, Pucho was big in the 1960s, and his engaging, boogaloo-style dance music revived for 1990s London dance-club crowds. How’m I Doin’? shows that Pucho and his boys have not lost their groove. The title track, an Afro-Cuban son workout, features the in-the-pocket tones of famed James Brown trombonist Fred Wesley. “Son Cubano” is a hip-swaying charanga graced by Dave Valentin’s fancy flutework and Louis Kahn’s virtuoso violin. Tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander’s Joe Henderson-like solo tops Pucho’s invigorating percussion discussion on “Greene Street Jive.” The O’Jays’ 1970s staple, “For the Love of Money (Money, Money, Money),” is redone in a funky soul-sauce, turboed by bassist Harvie Swartz. Pucho as a timbalero was greatly influenced by the late Tito Puente, and two of the master’s compositions, “Willie and Ray Mambo” and “ESY,” show Pucho’s debt to the king. –Eugene Holley Jr.

How’m I Doin’?

Amazon.com
As an African American timbalero and bandleader, Henry “Pucho” Brown represents the flip side of Latin jazz. With his Latin Soul Brothers, Pucho was big in the 1960s, and his engaging, boogaloo-style dance music revived for 1990s London dance-club crowds. How’m I Doin’? shows that Pucho and his boys have not lost their groove. The title track, an Afro-Cuban son workout, features the in-the-pocket tones of famed James Brown trombonist Fred Wesley. “Son Cubano” is a hip-swaying charanga graced by Dave Valentin’s fancy flutework and Louis Kahn’s virtuoso violin. Tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander’s Joe Henderson-like solo tops Pucho’s invigorating percussion discussion on “Greene Street Jive.” The O’Jays’ 1970s staple, “For the Love of Money (Money, Money, Money),” is redone in a funky soul-sauce, turboed by bassist Harvie Swartz. Pucho as a timbalero was greatly influenced by the late Tito Puente, and two of the master’s compositions, “Willie and Ray Mambo” and “ESY,” show Pucho’s debt to the king. –Eugene Holley Jr.

How’m I Doin’?