First things first: The Essential Ibrahim Ferrer is not a hastily assembled, dodgy collection of questionable sound and material designed to cash in on the man’s name and legend. Manteca’s Cuban Legends series has regularly compiled retrospectives of different artist’s works (see the The Essential Compay Segundo volume), paying careful attention to selection, sonic reproduction, and getting true …
The major-label debut of salseros Bio Ritmo finds the band convincingly splitting the difference between the sound’s classic requirements and ear-catching pop moves aimed at listeners new to the style. Heated straightforward workouts such as “Yo Soy la Rumba” stand next to pulsating English-language tracks like “Call Me Up (644-7215)” that sound ready for modern-rock radio stations desperately …
Flor de Amor (Flower of Love) is the second solo album for World Circuit by Cuba’s leading female vocalist and Buena Vista Social Club star, Omara Portuondo. The best-selling solo artist of the Buena Vista collective next to Ibrahim Ferrer, Omara’s debut in 2000 went to the top of the world music sales and airplay charts, and sparked …
This CD hails the return of the Congolese rumba by one of the great veteran singers of the genre. Sam Mangwana, who has sung with such giant figures of Congolese music as Franco and Tabu Ley Rochereau, revives a style that has fallen out of fashion–and it makes for glorious listening. With songs penned by guitarist Dino Vangu, …
Venerable singer Wendo Kolosoy is a Congolese icon, and like his countryman Sam Mangwana, Cape Verde’s Cesaria Evora, and Cuba’s Buena Vista posse, he is presently enjoying a much-deserved late-life renaissance. His sandpapery vocals are interlaced with exuberant yodeling, playful asides, and slap-and-tickle exhortations to the other players. The swinging, mellow band brings back the classic rumbas that …
Ricardo Lemvo’s mix of Cuban salsa and pan-African styles (soukous, Congo rumba) has been described by the Los Angeles Times as “seamless and infectious.” Born in Congo-Kinshasa of Angolan ancestry, Lemvo formed his band, Makina Loca, in 1990. He has toured extensively in Europe, Australia and Latin America, and has performed in some of the most prestigious venues …
Fiesta con Billo de Federico Pacanins, Andy Duran Y Su Orquesta. Artistas Varios (Cd)
Various artists and composers under the Direction of ANDY DURAN Y SU ORQUESTA. Tracklist: Apretaito, Luna Caraqueña, Ven & Guarachando, Ay no me mires, El muerto de las Gradillas, Quien fue que mato a Consuelo?, La Ultima Guaracha, Mosaico 9-13 (Consentida, Chacumbele, Oui Madame & El Muerto se Fue de Rumba), Ya Don Rafael Hablo, Mosaico Memo (Cancion …
One of Latin music’s original 20th-century superstars of stage, record, and screen, the bandleader born Francisco de Asis Javier Cugat Mingall de Cru y Deulofeo may have delivered the rumba, tango, and mambo with a slick mainstream veneer, but it was precisely those shrewd commercial instincts that undoubtedly brought a rich, rhythm-charged world …