Rubim De Toledo - The Drip (2023)

The name "Rubim de Toledo" immediately betrays the Latin origin of its owner. Indeed, the roots of this musician are Brazilian, but Rubim grew up and works in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Already at the age of 17, as a bassist, he began to play professionally with the leading jazzmen of Alberta. Since then, de Toledo has grown into one of the leading jazz musicians in Western Canada, has repeatedly received and nominated Western Canadian Music Awards (2018 - Jazz Musician of the Year, 2021 - Instrumentalist of the Year), both personally and as part of the Montuno West ensembles he leads, Bomba and Maracujah playing Latin Jazz. As a bassist, Rubim has accompanied numerous American jazz stars such as Terrell Stafford, Wycliffe Gordon, Jason Marsalis and others. His own discography includes seven albums, the newest being The Drip.

The album is small, I would say compact. It included nine compositions by Rubim de Toledo. He himself plays bass, guitar and additional keyboards and percussion instruments here. In the ensemble that recorded the album, he invited the leading jazzmen of Western Canada: two horns, keyboards, drums, percussion. On three tracks, instrumental music is complemented by vocals: a local diva with African roots Karima (Ashanti Karima Marshall) is specially invited. The style is simply fiery: funk richly flavored with Latin rhythms and afrobeat. Powerful groove from the first to the last track: impressive. Brass players, trumpeter Bob Tildsley and trombonist Audrey Ochoa are doing great work, and the rhythm group led by de Toledo himself is also on top. As for vocals, Karima cannot be called a classical jazz singer; she works rather in a style close to soul music with African motives. But Karima fits into the aesthetic system of the album quite organically, especially her vocals in the composition Rhythm Chante would be noted. On the whole, it is a dynamic and spectacular project, a worthy addition to Rubim de Toledo's discography.