Nunca Tarde – a round-up of recent new albums (Alcides Neto, Tim Maia, Steve Hernandez, Zanna, Lucas Santtana, Eddie Palmieri, Roberto Fonseca & Vincent Segal and many more)
20 March, 2026I haven’t published one of these round-ups since the end of January, so I’m paying a price this month, with a whole stack of new releases and reissues to tell you about. Time waits for no one, so without further ado…
Alcides Neto: Amú (Music in Exile)
If I were to have an Album of the Month slot, which I don’t because regretfully there’s never time for a monthly catch-up, this would be a strong contender. Neto is an expatriate Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist based in Melbourne. It’s his debut album and it harks back to the land he has left behind and its multifarious musical traditions. It’s dedicated to his grandmother, Vó Maria, whose delicious gruff voice we hear on the opening “Melo, Marca, merda”, and in Neto’s words “it’s simple, honest and very special to me.” I could add that it blends the rhythmic pulse of an Airto Moreira, the compositional smarts of an Egberto Gismonti and the melodic instincts of a Lancellotti (Alvaro or Domenico). Backed by a jazz ensemble, Neto’s eight numbers do indeed “flow like a summer breeze”, as the publicity suggests. Andy Cumming likes it, too.
Tim Maia: Tim Maia (Vampisoul)
Our friends from Madrid were very busy last month, re-releasing a whole raft of compelling albums for our delectation. If I were to have a Reissue of the Month slot (which I don’t because…), this would be it. If, like me, you came late to Tim Maia or (Jumping Jehosophat!) you haven’t yet discovered the godfather of Brazilian soul, then this is the album for you. The fourth in a series of self-titled albums, this particular Tim Maia came out in 1973 and finds the heavyweight (in more senses than one) singer at the very height of his powers. The marriage of American soul and funk with Brazilian popular music is irresistible. I always believed that the best soul probably came out of Muscle Shoals. This feels like the Muscle Shoals studio and session musicians were transplanted to Rio de Janeiro. It’s not only great Brazilian soul music, it’s great soul music… period.
Gal Costa: Gal Costa (Vampisoul)
And while on the subject of self-titled Brazilian classics courtesy of Vampisoul, Gal Costa’s eponymous album came out in 1969. It’s somewhat more uneven than the Tim Maia release and, for that reason, not quite so essential, but hey… Gal Costa is Gal Costa, one of the stars of the Tropicalia movement and one of the most important female Brazilian artists of her time and any time. Like Tim Maia’s, her voice is the real star of the show, moving effortlessly from her cool, simple and heart-warming interpretation of Caetano Veloso’s classic “Baby” to the intense, full-on reading of Gilberto Gil’s “Divino Maravilhoso”. If some of the songs sound a little dated now, the album has to be heard in the context of the time, when the external influence of rock and psychedelia was transforming Brazil’s indigenous popular music.
Eddie Palmieri: Vámonos Pa’l Monte (Craft Latino)
Let’s stick with reissues for now, because this fitting memorial to the monumental talent of the recently departed pianist will be just out by the time this article goes to print. It’s one of the larger-than-life diminutive maestro’s true classics. Originally released post-La Perfecta combo in 1971, the six numbers feature among others brother Charlie on organ, long-time collaborator Ronnie Cuber on baritone sax and former La Perfecta vocalist, Ismael Quintana. As usual, Palmieri brings jazz and other genres like boogaloo and guaguancó into his unique and dynamic musical equation. The title track seems to my ears to be pushing for another gear, but only because I can never get the blistering live version from Sing Sing prison out of my being. This is top-notch stuff from the man described by the New York Times as “one of the great musical masterminds of the 20th century”.
Pupillo: Pupillo (Amor in Sound)
What is it with all these eponymous albums this time around? This one’s a new release and not a reissue, although “new” is a bit of a misnomer given the Brazilian producer’s c.v. As a drummer and percussionist, he worked with Chico Science in Naꞔão Zumbi way back when; he’s written several movie soundtracks; and as a producer and collaborator, he’s earned himself four Latin Grammy awards. So this particular self-titled original debut is not before time. Given his multi-coloured track record, you won’t be surprised to hear that variety is the spice of this album, with contributions from a whole host of guests, including Adrian Younge, Rodrigo Amarante, Cut Chemist, Carminho and former client, Céu. Sometimes such an array of guests can set off alarm bells, but here it’s simply symptomatic of an array of genres – jazz, hip-hop, musical influences from Brazil’s north-east – that Pupillo and team deftly negotiate. The dozen disparate numbers tie together in a gem of an album.
Roberto Fonseca & Vincent Ségal: Nuit Parisienne à La Havane (Artwork Records)
By contrast, this is a quiet, almost self-effacing meeting of two musical maestros: the ubiquitous Cuban pianist and the prolific French cellist. As the title suggests, it’s an intricate, intimate, after-hours dialogue between two instrumental giants, which was improvised and recorded over five days with little or no preparation. The result is what Fonseca describes as “several short films, each with its own story”. The stories run the gamut from Cuban and classical music to French chanson and jazz. It’s one to treasure, similar in some respects to other such entrancing musical conversations as Jan Lundgren and Yamandu Costa’s Inner Spirits or even Toumani Diabaté and Ali Farka Touré’s In The Heart of the Moon.
Edward Simon: Venezuela: Latin American Songbook Vol. 2 (Artist Share)
In a way, this is a kind of companion piece. The Venezuelan pianist has often woven Latin American musical traditions into a jazz framework throughout a career that stretches over three decades. Here, he turns his attention to his native land in the company of bassist Rueben Rogers and drummer Adam Cruz. They’re joined by the Venezuelan multi-instrumentalist Jackeline Rago on cuatro and maracas for a touch more authentic flavour on what is primarily a piano-trio jazz album. Simon himself “wanted to offer an immersive listening experience that honours the original songs while bringing them into the trio’s expressive language.” The trio handle the merengue rhythms of the opening “Presagio” and those of joropo on “El Vuelo de la Mosca” with consummate skill among the half dozen numbers of an elegant and classy album.
Zanna: Reflexo (Zanna Sound)
This one has been out for a few months now, so my apologies to the singer-songwriter from Rio de Janeiro. It’s her second album and made up of a dozen self-penned numbers that embrace contemporary MPB, samba-rock and acoustic pop, all co-produced by Zanna herself and Alexandre Kassin. Support from a 22-piece all-female orchestra lends the songs a classical depth. On the strong opener, “Celestes Animais”, she sounds a little like Bebel Gilberto, while there’s a touch of fellow Carioca Joyce Moreno on the gorgeous “Nilo” that follows. The jaunty up-tempo “Pé de Vento” shows what she’s capable of in a more poppy context. While some of the numbers leave me a tad apathetic, this is an album that warrants more than a casual listen.
Francesca Confortini & Ryan McKenzie: Mosaico (Tessera Records)
Talking of orchestral accompaniment, this contemporary take on Brazilian music is arranged by Ryan McKenzie, who has worked in a jazz and a classical context, and whose credits include the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. They are tasteful enough not to swamp the repertoire in saccharine and to give sufficient space for Francesca Confortini’s vocal interpretation of songs by the likes of Gilberto Gil, Tom Jobim and Pixinguinha. A Guildhall graduate, she is known on the London scene for her deep engagement with the music of Brazil. It’s not going to set the world on fire, but it will certainly soothe a troubled brow or two during times of global conflagration.
Steve Hernández y su Orquesta Latinoamericana: The Booga Mambo Beat (Rocafort Records)
Right, let’s inject a bit more oomph into the proceedings. Right from the opening five-minute “Steve’s Boogaloo”, you know that this little independent label from Barcelona has hit pay-dirt with this one. Who is Steve, who boogaloos so robustly and so infectiously? Well, it’s a long and convoluted tale told by Pablo Yglesias (DJ Bongohead) with his customary rigorous research and elegant prose in the liner notes. All you really need to know is this: it’s a lost classic from 1967 of mambo, boogaloo and proto-salsa that truly merits the label “classic”; the 11 numbers bristle with brass and energetic percussion courtesy of a crack band of Puerto Rican and New York session musicians; the masterful arrangements come courtesy of Ray Santos, with vocals by the semi-legendary Vitín Avilés; and it’s simply a joy. And as for Steve Hernández…? No, I don’t want to spoil it for you.
Otroshakers: A Los Shakers (Sometimes Music Entertainment)
Since I’ve already got a foot in Spain and while on the subject of intriguing liner notes, here’s a vinyl-only reissue of an album that came out in 1981. It’s a Fattoruso family affair, with keyboards artist and general go-to man, Hugo, his brother Osvaldo on drums and a guest appearance by another brother, Alexander “Ciruela”, on the album’s shortest track, “En tel caso”. Essentially a vocal quartet with added bass and percussion, Otroshakers evolved from Opa, who fused Afro-Uruguayan candombe music with jazz-rock on two albums that have also been quite recently reissued, Goldenwings and Magic Time. Recorded in Buenos Aires, it’s a strange, idiosyncratic affair with shades of Opa on one hand and quasi Beatles-style pop on the other (there’s even a track that translates as “What’s in the news today?”, oh boy!), a throwback to the earlier Fattoruso group, Los Shakers, formed and fashioned at a time when the Fab Four ruled the musical world. One could say, a record literally and stylistically of two sides by the fascinating Fattorusos.
Lucas Santtana: Brasiliano (No Format)
I’ve featured, I believe, a couple of singles already from the latest release by the eminent France-based Brazilian minstrel, Lucas Santtana. So I won’t go into too much detail other than to confirm that his 10th album, marking 25 years in the business, is a worthy follow-up to 2023’s very fine Paraíso. With guests as diverse as Cocanha, Gilberto Gil, rapper Oxmo Puccino and singer Tainara Takua, it won’t surprise you to hear that the album is as variegated and sometimes surprising as something his uncle Tom Zé might have recorded in his prime.
Ricardo Eddy Martinez: Expresso Ritmico (Mr. Bongo)
I’m batting back and forth between old and new like a game of table tennis. This reissue is the latest in Mr. Bongo’s excellent Cuban Classics series, a recording from 1978 on the Areito label. Written, directed and orchestrated by the keyboards player and drummer, Ricardo Eddy Martinez, who would go on to work in later years with the likes of Gloria Estefan, José Feliciano and Chick Corea, it is as the title suggests replete with Afro-Cuban rhythms, heavy percussion and voguish jazz-funk and disco influences. The rambunctious result at times sounds like the incidental music from a long-running Cuban cop show. Havana Vice perhaps?
BALTHVS: Transmutations (Cubensis Records)
After extensive tours in Europe, Latin America and the U.S., the Colombian psych-funk trio with the as-it’s-written unpronounceable name are back with what’s neither really a studio nor a live album. It was recorded in a studio during a few days off from touring in an attempt to capture the feel of the band’s live show. As they explain, “We ‘transmuted’ the live concert into a studio album, we had no restrictions with the material, we re-recorded multiple elements in order to ensure pristine studio quality while preserving the energy of the live experience.” It’s hot off the press or the streaming site, and I haven’t had a chance to listen yet, but BALTHVS are always great value for money and judging by this “Mood Swing” I’m confident that Transmutations will be right up there with their other releases.
Quinteplus: Quinteplus (Vampisoul)
Back to a bygone era for another (pleasantly surprising) reissue from Vampisoul’s abundant February harvest. Quinteplus was an Argentine jazz quintet born in Buenos Aires at the end of the ‘60s. United by a common love for “Cannonball” Adderley’s soul-jazz quintet, they shared the goal of developing a modern jazz language grounded in their native rhythms. They recorded their first and only studio album for EMI in 1971 very much in the spirit of the brothers Adderley, with electric keyboard and (in this case tenor rather than alto) sax and trumpet stating themes in tandem. The seven numbers culminate in a splendid version of the Bobbie Gentry classic, “Oda a Billie Joe”, that could go head to head with the great “Rahsaan” Roland Kirk’s interpretation. This first-time reissue is a tight, punchy, straight-ahead testament to an engaging band that deserved to be heard more than they were.
Ludom: Ludom (Toca Discos)
I bow my head in shame. This came out last November, so I would probably have quietly skipped it and no one would’ve known better if it hadn’t been so pretty darn good. Ludom is a Brazilian singer-songwriter, producer – and historian. (You don’t get too many of them to the square metre.) Formerly Luciane Dom, she adopted her new name as a symbol of artistic rebirth. Ludom is the reborn artist’s second studio album and its blend of MPB, R&B, hip-hop and other genres carries distant echoes of soulful singers like Jill Scott, Betty Wright and Angie Stone. The 11 self-penned or co-written numbers are well worth a listen. Never too late, as our column’s Spanish title suggests.
Leo Middea: Noticías de Puglia (Agogo Records)
Still in Brazil – actually Barcelona, where this singer-songwriting Carioca is now based – here’s the sixth studio album by a newish voice who numbers Caetano Veloso, Gal Costa, Jorge Ben, Gilberto Gil and, more contemporaneously, Rogê among his musical influences. That should give you a decent idea of the kind of fare he offers up for consumption here. Its easy-going melodic swing certainly does put me in mind of Rogê in particular and the popular music of Rio de Janeiro in general. While the title track, for example, transports you straight to the hustle and bustle of Carnival, many of the others could if necessary fill a gap in Bala Desejo’s repertoire. Catch him if you can during his forthcoming European tour.
Alex Ferreira: El Arte de Esperar (Self-released?)
Following Leo Middea, it’s maybe appropriate to finish with a bit of classy US/Dominican pop. With four previous albums under his belt and a few Latin Grammy nominations to boot, Alex Ferreira has the kind of “previous” that shows on his latest offering. It’s unchallenging stuff, perhaps, but certainly not without value or a message. The album’s ten songs celebrate “clarity, active patience, and the courage to feel even when it would be easier to distract oneself.” Well, I certainly know all about distractions and even if this is unlikely to divert my attention for long, it definitely merits consideration.
Whereupon, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I rest my case for another six weeks or so, secure in the knowledge that I’ve left you with plenty to digest in the interim. Toodle-pip!
(Cover photo of Leo Middea courtesy of Analicia Graça.)
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