**** "...Even by Hanrahan's grandiose standards, the sound here is massive. ..The crisp, crashing snares, detonating kick drums and ringing cowbells yield a thickness to rival the sonic boom bap of contemporary electronica. But the man-made beats nevertheless accommodate some strange, beautiful melodies that shift between sensual fluency and provocative fragmentation, tumbling and twirling over chords that are alternately warm and glacial. All of which accounts for the prickly beauty of this inspired, spirited session..."
-Kevin Le Gendre, Jazzwise
HORACIO EL NEGRO HERNANDEZ AND ROBBY AMEEN
ROBBY & NEGRO AT THE THIRD WORLD WAR (LA TIMBA NO ES COMO AYER)

JOHN BEASLEY, RUBEN BLADES, PEDRO MARTINEZ, MARIE DAULNE, TAKUMA WATANABE, JERRY GONZALEZ, YOSVANY TERRY, INNERSOUL, KELLEY SAE, BOBBY FRANCESCHINI, XIOMARA LAUGART, RICHIE FLORES, LARRY BAEDER, CHARLIE TORRES, ORLANDO PUNTILLA RIOS, ESSIETT ESSIET, LINCOLN GOINES, BRIAN LYNCH, LUIS PERDOMO, RUBEN RODRIGUEZ, FERNANDO SAUNDERS, ROMAN DIAZ

Medley:Sympathy for the Devil / el Cielo; 3 for Africa; Un Golpecito Na’Mas; Richie's Brain; Hit This, Split This; All Jazz Era (al-jazeera); Blue, Red & White; The Moon Shows Red (Tsuki…); La Timba Francesa; We Got the Fu*k; La Timba No Es Como Ayer; Far From Beirut (Lino 5); Apres Midi de Robby et Negro

Produced by Kip Hanrahan, Horacio el Negro Hernandez and Robby Ameen
Recorded March 2000 through May 2002
Released July 2002 (Japan)
AMCL 1031

Now available at M4M
**** "You'd scarcely expect an album built around two drummers of high-caliber charge like Robby Ameen and Horacio Hernandez to be much more than clave power-plays and mountainous solos, but nothing could be further from the truth on Robby and Negro at the Third World War. Exploring neo-funk, Cuban roots and hip-hop, musical surprises rain down from track one: Ruben Blades dons the vestiments of Mick Jagger's diablo simpatico as Hernandez and Ameen build excitement..."
-Fred Bouchard, Downbeat

"...It’s a clattering delight whose particular hybridity is but one convincing example of a series of assemblages which weave together strands of Latin, funk, hiphop, rock and jazz. ...not a single moment feels forced or staged, every second exists in relation to the leaders’ polyrhythmic tours de force. The result is a culinary delight for the ear, heart and soul. As El Negro says in the booklet “making music in today’s world”..."
-Colin Buttimer, Signal To Noise Magazine

"...The excitement of a new find you want to share, of a whole passel of songs you can't get out of your head, of a band none of your friends have heard of but has you more excited about music than at any time since you were in high school. Only in thinking about it, you realize it's more than excitement. This CD is revelation – musical truths and gifts passed on to us that must be shared with the world..."
-Jim Trageser, Turbula

"...What happens when you let two hip drummers on the jazz scene today loose in a recording studio with Kip Hanrahan? You get a joyful project full of intriguing ideas, textures, imagination and unexpected combinations--a free-for-all of unbridled traps and percussion. ...Insightful and pointed, Robby Ameen and Horacio Hernández show that the drummers are still the messengers of the tribe..."
-Jesse Varela, Latin Beat Magazine

"...One of the 10 Best of the Year (2004)..."
-Fernando Gonzalez, Jazziz