Cuba and New Orleans have been engaged in a cross-cultural dance for hundreds of years, and that legacy lives on in the sounds of the Crescent City today. Legendary New Orleans pianist and jazz pioneer Jelly Roll Morton called the Afro-Cuban rhythms embedded in New Orleans music “the Spanish tinge.” Morton went even further, claiming, “If you can’t manage to put tinges of Spanish in your tunes, you will never be able to get the right seasoning for jazz. Putumayo Presents New Orleans Mambo reveals that the Cuba to New Orleans connection is still going strong and this musical gumbo continues to spice up the sounds of the Big Easy.
