Ruta Panoramica – Juan Álamo & Marimjazzia

Ruta Panoramica is a sonic realization of the Ruta, a realization in music wherein its rhythms, harmonies, and melodies move simultaneously in multi-layers and multi-directions.

Álamo has absorbed the music encountered throughout his extensive travels, most notably from his native Puerto Rico. Indeed, Ruta contains sonic materializations of the music of the Américas, rendered by Álamo with two and four mallets on a marimba and accompanied by his Latin jazz quintet Marimjazzia along with guest artists featured on an array of Puerto Rican and South American percussion instruments. Nestled within the musical structures of Puerto Rican aguinaldo, bomba, plena, and seis are lots of jazz, some samba and hints of música criolla peruana, as well as the sounds of the marimba that evoke Central America and the Pacific Coast of Colombia and Ecuador. The tracks weave beautifully sonic tales of beloved people, places, and ecologies with histories of struggle for freedom, redemption, and greatness.

Juan Álamo: marimba, timbales on One for Bobby, bongo on Lucia, barril de bomba (subidor/primo) on Albizu’s Dream. Guiro on Lucia, Nel’song & Ruta Panoramica, panderos (requinto, segundo, bajo) de plena on El Morro & Mi Puerto Rico Querido, samba whistle on Calle del Sol; Andrew Lázaro: congas, barril de bomba (subidor/primo) on El Magnífico & Albizu’s Dream, Cajon & wind chimes on Hummingbirds, rain tree on Albizu’s Dream, chequere on One for Bobby, pandeiro & agogo bells on Calle Del Sol; Steve Anderson: piano; Ramon Vázquez: electric & acoustic bass; Raul Maldonado: Drum set; Jesús M. Rivera Andino: cuatro on Mi Puerto Rico Querido; Christina Álamo: lead singer; Jorge Cortez: backup singer; Virgil Rivera: backup singer; Carmen G. Santos Rodríguez: back up singer on Mi Puerto Rico Querido; Luis Ángel Vázquez: barril de bomba (buleador) on El Magnífico

REVIEW:

If you are interested in purchasing an individual track from this cd, visit