On the Beat Path

New York area based Latin percussionist, Tomas Martin Lopez has played with the best musicians of the past and present. Growing up in New York City he was attracted to percussion at an early age and was exposed to musical genres like Afro-Cuban jazz, Salsa and Brazilian music. Just coming off a successful 2009 Grammy nominated run and world tour with the legandary New Swing Sextet, he decided that it was time to make his contribution to Latin jazz. He made his vision come true to produce this Latin jazz inspired CD. Tomas took eight original Brazilian compositions by multi instrumentalist/composer Matt Finley and injected an Afro-Cuban rhythm base giving it a new feel, yet preserving the Brazilian melodic jazzy sound. He recruited pianist/composer Bill O'Connell to add his unique feel and ideas to the charts and contributed three of his own original compositions. Other notable musicians who recorded on this date include Ruben Rodriguez, bassist, Ivan Renta, sax, Matt Finley, trumpet, Joel Rosenblatt, drums, Bill McBirnie, flute, Vito Speranza, trumpet and Jimmy Branly, drums. Solid production. Enjoy.