Rachel Therrien – Mi Hogar II

The little girl from Bas du Fleuve persists in immersing herself in Latin jazz, and she swims and sails in it with great assurance. Let’s face it: if we didn’t know that this trumpet and flugelhorn player was from Quebec and French-speaking, we’d swear she was Latina. However, you can feel her personal touch, more and more assured as the years go by.

Mi Hogar II is, of course, the sequel to Mi Hogar, released in 2023. With the same cocktail of musicians, largely of Cuban origin, but not exclusively, living in New York, Montreal or Toronto, united and welded together by the magic of music. Some twenty in all.

Four pianists with different styles, including the formidable Danae Olano and the no less remarkable Manuel Valera, are present. A host of percussionists, led by ubiquitous drummer Michel Medranom Brindis, are also present. Two strong saxophonists, Ivan Renta and Oscar Rodriguez, also play.

And all this moves seriously and furiously at many moments, with grace. But this multi-faceted group also knows how to slow down and embrace the bolero and the ballad with tenderness and voluptuousness, not least on the piece Sueños de Cambios, where Elizabeth Rodriguez’s delightful violin comes into play in dialogue with Raphael’s trumpet. We are stranded on a deserted beach with a gentle breeze and, perhaps, a mojito to drink.

Rachel Therrien’s trumpet and flugelhorn playing continues to grow richer and deeper in subtlety. The same is true of her talents as a composer and arranger, who lives between New York and Montreal. Mi Hogar II is a largely instrumental album, although it ends with a playful song entitled Beauty Free, performed by New Yorker Mireya Ramos and Montrealer Andy Rubal.

In six words: this album is a class act! International in stature, no doubt about it. Sin duda.