Colombia breathes salsa. If you get a job there as a Dutch musician, then you have the right swing in your fingers. Trumpeter Maite Hontelé has that. She grew up in Utrecht, but the love for warm-blooded music (and a Colombian man) brought her to South America. In Colombia she formed a band with which she tackles a wide range of styles, also on this third album: son, plena, boogaloo and salsa. Even
… though Maite is the audible band leader, she puts herself in the service of her expertly swinging band. Well, if a living legend like Oscar D'Leon sings along on your album, then of course you also love to step aside. That beautiful song, Perdón, is a slow bolero in which D'Leon apologizes with a sob in his voice, no doubt to a deceived woman. In Colombia Hontelé is already a celebrity, it is high time that her native country also embraced the sympathetic trumpet player. (PdK)more
