She was already very successful with her debut: as a horn player, Sarah Willis combined traditional Cuban music with that of Mozart. Crazy? Maybe. In any case, the album was such a hit that a sequel was obvious. And for this she teamed up with six young composers from the Caribbean island and commissioned them to compose a dance in the style of traditional Cuban music. The result is a sound journey that is just pure joy. And anyone who has not yet had any contact with the horn as an instrument will be amazed at how catchy and versatile this instrument can be.
The British Sarah Willis was born in 1968. And if she hadn’t had a certain stubbornness as a child, neither of her two crossover albums would have happened, not even a performance. When she was at school, a teacher advised her to learn the flute or oboe better. The horn is an instrument only for boys. A bad joke? No, a real incident from the early eighties. It’s a good thing that Sarah Willis didn’t follow the advice, which might even have been well-intentioned.
Sarah Willis: Cuban Dances. Mozart and Mambo 2. (Alpha Classics)