At the intersection of Jazz and Jamaican music in the 50s and 60s stood two luminary figures… guitarist Ernest Ranglin and pianist Monty Alexander. Their historic recordings over many decades literally introduced the world to what we now know as the Jamaican Ska movement… which traveled throughout the Caribbean and the rest of the world. The ingenious interweaving of jazz’s complexities with the ancestral music of the Caribbean immediately influenced legends such as Bob Marley, Toots & the Maytals, and many other artists of the time.
Today, in his 80s, Monty Alexander has discovered the genius of a 17-year-old guitar prodigy from New Jersey who is heavily influenced and inspired by the great Ernest Ranglin. After a recent guest appearance with Alexander at the Blue Note in New York, Hidalgo’s virtuosic approach was clearly informed by Ranglin and an even deeper appreciation of the material that Ranglin and Alexander created many decades prior.
Both Ranglin and Alexander have recently proclaimed Hidalgo “the new torchbearer of Jamaican Jazz”.