Everybody's Got A Name

Chako’s personal favorites on this CD are the highly exciting and rhythmic Latin-Jazz title track “Everybody’s Got a Name,” the intensely beautiful, piano-guitar duet “All Roads Lead Home,” and the open and airy “Yamanashi Snow.” Like most of his work, this release features a variety of textures, colors and rich harmonies. “Apache Junction” is an up-tempo swinger that is derived from the classic standard “Cherokee.” On the Latin side Chako has created a romantic and sensuous rendition of “The Lamp is Low,” along with two other fabulously arranged bossa novas, George Benson’s “Mimosa,” where Chako lives up to every moment of every note with clear and alluring lines, and “Felicidade,” a rhythmically enticing and befitting tribute to Jobim.

A blues is the place where players truly show their soulful side, and Chako and crew step out with sass and class on the swingin’ “Blues for Redd.” Swinging hard in a heavy groove, Chako communicates effortlessly with his impressive vocabulary of the jazz language, which sets this gentleman head and shoulders above the crowded forest of jazz guitar led combos.

Chako employs, not just the ordinary classic combo sounds, but the use of modern harmony and complex driving rhythms. His masterful command of compositional canvases coupled with years in the trenches of playing and experimenting, has birthed a release destined to be a classic jazz recording for years to come. A CD not to be missed; each player is a master at their instrument, bringing soul-stirring performances to each cut, truly a release to be increasingly enjoyed over and over again. Chako and his ensemble shine like a beacon of light; like a cleansing breath of fresh air, renewing your belief that there is more to be said in the classic jazz vernacular.