You get truth in advertising here, as the Echo Park Project subtitles this release “Latin Jazz Octet”. The percussion’s the discussion here, as Carlo Lopez, Joey de Leon and Tomas Martin Lopez dig deep rivulets with congas, timbales, bongos and things that go bump in the night, while John Belzaguy/b and Jonathan Montes/p supply the melody and Frank Fontaine/wwinds and Ron Francis Blake/tp-fh ad the heated horns.
Belzaguy gives some sleek bass work around Fontaine’s tenor on “En Camino” and a hip solo for the salsa’d horns on “Monktuneando”. Montes is ful fisted on the pretty “Can’t Complain” and the team goes ballistic on “Si Si, C.L.!”. The title tune includes rich flute work and the ballad “Felicity’s Harvest gives some bel canto horn work. Picante percussion.