CD Series Review: The Jazz Young Spirit Collection (Various Artists)
Colibrí 2005-?
Review by Bill Tilford, all rights reserved 

The Jazz Young Spirit collection is a series of  recordings inaugurated during the tenure of Gloria Ochoa as the Director of the Producciones Colibri label, whose primary mission has been to curate the "less commercial" output of Cuba's discographic industry including academic (classical and experimental) music and jazz with occasional forays into other genres.  This collection, released periodically beginning in 2005,  features the debut recordings of several winners of JoJazz. An effort was made to feature artists who play a diverse range of instruments and styles.    For many international  followers of Cuba's jazz scene including this writer, these recordings  were the  first musical introduction to many emerging artists in Cuba as well as a launching pad for their subsequent recordings on labels with wider commercial distribution.   

At the time of the original release of these recordings, Cuba did not have the degree of access to digital distribution that it now enjoys, and the production of physical copies of the CDs was also limited.  Nevertheless, the recordings found their way to knowledgeble followers of Cuban jazz in other countries and played an important role in drawing attention to much of Cuba's best emerging talent.   Now that digital distribution is easier, and it is also possible to include liner notes in album bundles in some of the digital platforms, there is a case to be made for revisiting the series' catalog and reissuing it for what would include many first time listeners to the material.   Even in the cases of artists who have attained international recognition such as Harold López-Nussa and Yasek Manzano (to name two examples)  who now have international recognition.  the digital reissue of this series would provide listeners with an opportunity to revisit their early recorded work. 

A list of recordings that were released as part of that series follows (a link is included to those which are reviewed in TIMBA.com).  There are some additional unreleased recordings  that do not appear on this list.