Julio Barreto - músico; grabación de sonido - TT: Julio Barreto - TA: musician; sound recording - Artículo Breve

Latin Beat Magazine, Nov, 1999

Iyabó

(Connector)

Long after jazz-fusion was officially buried in the good ol' U.S. of A., the hybrid idiom thrived in the Pearl of the Antilles, and even in those overseas locations where so many Cuban fusionistas sought refuge after the Berlin Wall came crumbling down.

One of Cuba's prominent fusion bands, Gonzalo Rubalcaba's Grupo Proyecto (Havana's response to Weather Report), was known to feature extraordinary trap drummers. There was Horacio "El Negro" Hernández, and there was El Negro's replacement- a native son of Guanabacoa named Julio César Penié. Eventually, the piano - playing leader decided to dedicate his musical efforts to the individual pursuit of fame and fortune in the rewarding path of mainstream jazz, but Barreto kept the Proyecto's spirit alive in Zurich, the financial epicenter of William Tell's homeland. That is where he organized the piano-less Cuban Quartet featured in this revivalist mission. The four Antillean expatriates are joined by a North American saxophonist of illustrious genealogy- Ravi Coltrane, natural offspring of John and Alice Coltrane.