The Rhythmagic Orchestra

The Rhythmagic Orchestra was founded by <a href="spotify:artist:3U5oimD8ITVHMJQoxypQPN">Nostalgia 77</a>'s Benedic Lamdin and Sofrito's Hugo Mendez as a collaborative project that involved the hottest young players on the U.K.'s jazz scene and Cuban percussionists. It draws its members from the <a href="spotify:artist:3U5oimD8ITVHMJQoxypQPN">Nostalgia 77 Octet</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:0725NxsCSgLO82lTfwECi6">the Plumstead Radical Club</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:6Gujb3D3UJuIBtTCCK2Hnv">the Heliocentrics</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:12unVxO3awN1oMOKNaGpro">the Alex Wilson Band</a>, Jazz Jamaica, and <a href="spotify:artist:6lmoqMxughzdlxvQTsUXjF">Ska Cubano</a>. The unit combines traditional arrangements -- using Cuban bata drums -- with a new approach to Latin jazz via the early 21st century sound of London's jazz, world, and dance music scenes. Their self-titled debut album was released on the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Impossible+Ark%22">Impossible Ark</a> imprint, and pays tribute to the pioneers of the Afro-Cuban jazz fusion that took place in the late 1940s in the collaborations of bebop maestros <a href="spotify:artist:5RzjqfPS0Bu4bUMkyNNDpn">Dizzy Gillespie</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:4Ww5mwS7BWYjoZTUIrMHfC">Charlie Parker</a>, and Cuban big-band leaders <a href="spotify:artist:6BW7FX1tlaJqg7CZXY09vt">Chano Pozo</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:3mdrgtEX1xhiauu3Pn06LL">Machito</a>, with fresh innovations and new routes to non-Western music. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi