Tolú Rumbero's Poetry (1999)

"It all started as a way to burn off some excess creative energy. The Los Angeles studio sessions drummer/percussionist Alex Acuña and woodwind artist Justo Almario found themselves doing in the early 1980s were financially rewarding but musically restrictive. Having already made names for themselves as musicians with world-class chops and distinctive individual styles in both Latin and jazz idioms, both had settled into comfortable Hollywood roles: releasing bland, middle-of-the-road-ish, Latin-tinged albums; backing pop singers; and helping craft movie and TV soundtracks. But Acuña and Almario still had the urge to create the kind of full-strength Latin-jazz music that had been their calling card a decade earlier. The opportunity came through a rehearsal group named for a small town in Colombia near Almario's birthplace. "Tolú was just something we put together to do on Sunday afternoons with our friends, the best Latin-jazz musicians in the L.A. area," recalls Acuña". (Jazziz).