For those unaware, Roger Glenn is the X factor ingredient in life. The secret sauce. The cat behind the cat. Now, after decades of elevating the music of bona fide legends in jazz, Latin jazz, blues, and funk, the most versatile, singular multi-instrumental master is stepping out of the shadows and into the spotlight with his first new album in four decades.

With credits on more than 40 albums he hasn’t been hiding, but his new release My Latin Heart (out on August 22nd, 2025 via Patois Records, and in celebration of Roger’s 80th birthday year) features a program of his enthralling original compositions, offering the most revealing glimpse yet of a jazz giant hiding in plain sight.

Known among his peers as a supremely talented improviser, Glenn has played flute with vibraphonist Cal Tjader, vibes with flautist Herbie Mann, and both flute and vibes with Dizzy Gillespie.

He made his recording debut with legendary pianist/composer Mary Lou Williams and contributed to classic albums with Cuban percussion maestro Mongo Santamaria (Mongo´70, Atlantic Records), pioneering funk/jazz trumpeter Donald Byrd (Black Byrd, Blue Note Records), and Latin jazz star Cal Tjader (Grammy Award-winning La Onda Va Bien, Concord Picante Label).

With My Latin Heart, Roger Glenn steps into the spotlight as bandleader, composer, and jazz giant with a unique story to tell. “I’ve always seen myself as a musician rather than a flutist or vibraphonist or saxophonist,” Glenn says. “I treasure and value all the instruments I play. My father always told me to ‘create your own sound.’ Playing 18-plus instruments allows me to express myself, selecting the best instrument for each song I play.”

1. Zambo’s Mambo
2. Cal’s Guajira
3. Brother Marshall
4. A Night of Love
6. Congo Square
7. Angola
8. Samba De Carnaval

Third-generation jazz master Roger Glenn (son of trombonist / vibraphonist Tyree Glenn), has spent decades elevating the music of bona fide legends in jazz, Latin jazz, and blues and thus lovingly brings that wealth of musical talent to the fore here on this new recording, one which opens on a warmly rounded Zambo’s Mambo and a clarity of melodies that bleeds throughout Cal’s Guajira and then brings us the infectiously laced Brother Marshall, the finely honed A Night of Love, the passionately unwavering Energizer, the all-embracing rhythms within Congo Square, the set rounding out on the furtively playful Angola, closing on a dutifully sculpted ode within Samba De Carnaval.

www.rogerglennjazz.com