For the two albums in this box set, Ches Smith takes you on a tour of Latin America folk music, playing drums, percussion, kata and vocals in two different groups. On the first album, he’s teamed with a three-member percussion ensemble of tanbou players and vocalists, along with a post bop team of Nick Dunston/b, Matt Mitchell/p, vocalist Sirene Dantor Rene and allstar alto saxist Migue Zenon. These eith songs mix tribal percussion with free-ish jazz and chorus in support of Rene on pieces like the loose “Leaves Arrive” and passionate “Here’s The Light”. Zenon is in dramatic form as he rides over the volcanic activity on “The Vulgar Cycle” and Mitchell supports Monkish chords on the chant lead “Lord of Healing”.
The second album features Smith with Mitchell again and the percussion duo of Brevil and Schwartz playing rada, tanbou and adding vocals. The music here is a thick amalgam of traditional folk rhythms and bopping piano as on “An Opening”, some Herbie Nichols styled ivories for “Six A.M” and somber hand percussion for “Notions of Purita” and the dark “Reds”. A trip through rural villages of Central and South America with a dash of 52nd Street.