Jelly Roll Morton once said that all good jazz had to have a "Latin tinge"—a rhythmic twist that added a visceral edge to the straight ahead jazz groove. The "Latin tinge" has surfaced in many shapes and sizes over the years—Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Kenton and Machito's big band Afro-Cuban music in the forties and fifties, Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto's bossa nova in the sixties; the arrival of Paquito D'Rivera and other Cuban jazz play-ers in the seventies; Puerto Rican salsa, Jamaican reggae, Caribbean calypso and a wealth of other variations on Central and Latin American influences in the eighties. Sometimes the Latin seasoning has worked very well, indeed; at other times, the results have emerged with neither the swing of jazz nor the passion of Latin.

Hilton Ruiz, a pianist/composer with impeccable jazz credentials, has managed to find room in his music for a vigorous "Latin tinge" without sacrificing its rhythmic and improvisational urgency.

Born in New York City on May 29, 1952, Ruiz was somewhat of a child prodigy, appearing on the Sandy Becker television show, performing at Carnegie Recital Hall at the age of eight, and playing in an accordion symphony at nine. Well-trained in all areas, he studied classical piano as well as Latin and received jazz guidance from the great Mary Lou Williams. "I was pretty lucky," he says, "in being exposed to a lot of different kinds of music, and studying them with good teachers."

By his early teens, Ruiz was working with a variety of Latin soul bands and , at age 14, recorded with a group called Ray Jay and the East Siders. But jazz was always close to his heart, and his obviously superlative improvisational skills quickly opened doors. Before he was twenty, Ruiz had worked with Frank Foster, Joe Newman, Cal Massey, Freddie Hubbard and Joe Henderson—an impressive list for an established player, a remarkable list for a relative newcomer.

His first recording on the Telarc label Manhattan Mambo released July 1992 earned him rave reviews.