Album review by John Arnett)
This is a timely and thoroughly justified re-release of an album that originally came out in 1997 under the title “The Way Home”. The music in question is spirited, uplifting and dance-inflected and will surely have broad appeal, within and beyond the boundaries of jazz. Guitarist
Juan Carlos Quintero was born in Colombia, but has lived most of his life in the USA, attending Berklee, where he met fellow guitarist Tommy Tedesco who was to become his mentor and collaborator. The diverse rhythms and stylings of his native Colombia – and Latin America more broadly – are very much in evidence here, with his own very melodic and distinctive nylon string fingerstyle guitar playing very much to the fore. In addition to the guitar, the instrumentation consists of piano, bass and no less than five credited percussionists, which is a reflection of the (always subtle) rhythmic drive of the music.