Elio Villafranca & The Jass Syncopators - Flower By The Dry River

Explosive, musically and sonically spectacular!

Double 33 1/3 RPM, 180-gram vinyl pressed at RTI! Direct-to-disc mastering by Peter Ledermann of Soundsmith!

Elio Villafranca is at the forefront of the latest generation of remarkable Cuban pianists, composers and bandleaders that for several years has been making major creative contributions to the international development of modern jazz.

"The classically-trained Cuban-born jazz pianist Elio Vilafranca and his group the Jass Syncopators recorded this album direct-to-disk last winter at the 'Least Significant Bit Studios,' which is actually a large room in the Sound-Smith.com production facility converted into a performance space/recording studio. The double LP set is but one of many DirectGrace D2D record produced by Sound-Smith's founder Peter Ledermann to benefit a charity dedicated to helping some 215 million exploited children around the world enduring child labor, or abandoned to the streets due to the AIDS epidemic and other public health catastrophes. All of the money collected as a result of the sale of this set pressed at RTI goes to charity.

"... This album ... is intended to move your emotions and set the mood. Musically it's 90 percent successful, which is saying a great deal for a direct to disc recording of a large jazz ensemble performing complex arrangements. ... If there were ruined lacquers along the way, that was DirectGrace's and Robin Wyatt's loss. Our gain is this sublime, often fiery music." — Music = 9/11; Sound = 7/11 - Michael Fremer, analogplanet.com, December 2012.

Side 1

The Unspeakable

Two to Tango

Side 2

Last Train to Paris

The Big Plus

Side 3

Flower by the Dry River

Side 4

Caribbean Tinge

Blues for Paula

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