EditorsPick: ***Best of 2008 Editors Pick Award*** Just in! Wow, what a pristine, highly swinging salsa project — the second release by percussionist Michael Tate's 3D orchestra. With a pan-caribbean feel and jazzy flavor, Tate sets out to define himself differently from the commercial pop salsa mold. And, on Que Siga La Rumba, he went ... continues (BP)

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EditorsPick: Ok, so here’s the line-up. The Tata Güines (who just recently passed away), Pello El Afrokan, Jr., Fariñas, Joaquin Pozo, Papiosko, Francisco Pérez and a few more on percussion and a coro that includes Ciso Guanche, Barbaro Lopez, Carlos Amores and others. It’s an Envidia all-star group, goosed by some big names, and the qu ... continues (Peter Watrous)

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EditorsPick: Back in stock! Wow — what an impressive project. Powerhouse percussionist Annette Aguilar steps into the ring, on a grand scale, to offer No Cheap Dates, her intoxicating release that is packed with equal parts beauty and substance, qualities that don't necessarily come together. But on this project they do. Whether it's th ... continues (BP)

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EditorsPick: Back in stock! José Alberto continues to produce salsa that is, arguably, some of the best to be produced in the United States. With his crisp, totally danceable arrangements and a sparkling band that includes many special guests (Cuco Valoy, Papo Lucca, Alfredo De La Fe, Nelson Gonzalez, Eddy Zervigon, Julio Carvajal, Jim ... continues (BP)

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EditorsPick: What an amazing, highly swinging, deeply grooving sound. "Inspired by the Cuban jam session (descarga) albums of the late '50s" writes Bobby Sanabria in the liner notes. The legendary Alegre All Stars, as produced by the late, great, Al Santiago, featured the talent of Charlie Palmieri, Kako, Bobby Rodriguez, Barry Rogers, ... continues (BP)

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EditorsPick: Simply amazing, and long overdue, compilation of work by the legendary Puerto Rican composer Tite Curet Alonso. Alonso's work has been interpreted by just about every singer or band of note, especially in salsa, with deep associations with Fania artists — many of whom are featured on this exemplary 2-CD set: Willie Colón, H ... continues (Pablo Yglesias)

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EditorsPick: Have to love Adalberto, the king of good times. His music is so consistent, so good humored, it’s not surprising the universal, highly held opinion of the man and his music. It’s also hard to believe that he’s celebrating his 35th anniversary in music. Gozando En La Habana’s a great way to understand what he’s good at (borr ... continues (Peter Watrous)

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EditorsPick: This is a beautiful collaborative bolero project by singer Fernando Alvarez and producer Descemer Bueno (co-produced by Roberto Carcassés and Yosvanny Terry who also appear here). Eloquent and soulful, the project also features guitarrist Elmer Ferrer, trumpeter Julio Padrón, conguero Alejandro "El Picaro" Aparicio, bassist ... continues (BP)

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EditorsPick: Excellent compilation (incuding tracks from the now unavailable Son X Tres = Pancho Amat cd) featuring a whole bunch of Amats: Francisco "Pancho" Amat, Daniel "Ñano" Amat, José Francisco Amat, José Eladio Amat. Also with legendary trumpeter Manuel "El Guajiro" Mirabal. Highly Recommended. ... continues (BP)

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EditorsPick: Great Cuban orchestras never die, they reinvent themselves. Here is the latest incarnation of the venerable Charanga orchestra created by Ninón Mondejar in 1942. These days the band is led by pianist Emilio Aranzola and, while their repertoire borrows from the book of Cuban classics, the sound is fresh and totally infectiou ... continues (BP)

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EditorsPick: The band’s celebrating their 75th anniversary, and they’re doing it well, putting out an album that’s modern bass heavy Cuban salsa and son that doesn’t forget the vocal group style of the better known, original version of the orchestra. And it swings deeply, with some amazing singing; check out the chromatic licks on "Por ... continues (Peter Watrous)

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EditorsPick: Here's a terrific 27 track cd plus an 85 minute DVD documentary with performances. This is a wonderful documentary (two, really) of the infamous a girl Cuban dance band popular since the 1930s. Contains vintage clips, photos and audio as well as recent interviews, in Cuba, with original band members. It is wonderful to see ... continues (BP)

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EditorsPick: Wow, more timba from Havana, and this one’s a mix of Charanga Habanera and let’s say Paulito. It has a boy band thing going on, like Charanga, and some of the melodies are out of their school of timba, and clearly there’s an attempt to get the El Boni vibe. The singers do a bit of falsetto singing like in Charanga, and owe ... continues (Peter Watrous)

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EditorsPick: Oomph, this is great stuff. The great Antonio Arcaño (1911-1994) led an orchestra that was more like a university that produced a who's who of great musicians. Here are just a few: Frank Emilio, Ruben Rodíguez, Enrique Jorrín, Félix Reina, Ulpiano Díaz, Orlando López "Cachaito," Miguelito Cuní and a bookful more. The orches ... continues (BP)

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EditorsPick: What a great, special little record. The band, from Guantanamo, works through a bunch of the styles of the eastern part of Cuba, including the Changüí. The musicians use traditional instruments, including the marimbula, a large version of a thumb piano to take the bass parts, and the tres, plus smaller percussion instrument ... continues (Peter Watrous)

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EditorsPick: ***Best of 2008 Editors Pick Award*** British music man Dean Rudland at the new Fania label has been busy digging up and reissuing all the obscure Latin albums from the 60s and early 70s that DJs and collectors have been obsessing over for the last two decades, and he calls the series “Rare Grooves” – and I can very highly ... continues (Pablo Yglesias)

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EditorsPick: Those of us who love Linda Leida and La India del Oriente can’t help but going nuts over Nuviola. She’s a long time singer from Cuba — arguably the woman who put “Que Manera Que Quererte” on the map — and on Corazon she breaks out a bunch of her own writing. The band makes some pretty fine modern sounding salsa, somewhere b ... continues (Peter Watrous)

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EditorsPick: Another heap of non-stop timba from one of the great second generation Cuban timba bands, one that keeps going, due in part to the nonpareil ear of the leader Leonel Limonta. Limonta cranks out unforgettable songs, and has a way with the cool coro; as a talent scout, he’s no slouch either, regularly picking singers that can ... continues (Peter Watrous)

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EditorsPick: Baez is a guitarist from Venezuela living in New York, and he writes complicated music that takes classical and local sources and mixes them up. It’s often beautiful and he’s joined by Anat Cohen, a young hotshot in New York on clarinet and a varying group that includes Roberto Koch on bass, the percussion of Alexander Livi ... continues (Peter Watrous)

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EditorsPick: The Venezuelan band comes with some deep cool and reserve, taking its time to get to lift off, the sort of approach that only a road band can understand and pull off. Classic salsa, elegant, a two trombone attack, a flute and super swinging, with a real sonero or two. Can’t fault the coro; it’s big and real sounding. This i ... continues (Peter Watrous)

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EditorsPick: The great Senegalese dance orchestra, its tracks collected from a period between 1972 and 1978, illustrates the connection, or reconnection between African music and Cuba. The son is all over the music, the melodies taken from Cuba and made African, with pitch re-Africanized. And, man, what a band, what an allegiance to the ... continues (Peter Watrous)

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EditorsPick: Excellent compilation of material by the venerable West African orchestra. Contains material not currently available elsewhere, like the beautiful "On Verra Ca." Highly Recommended. ... continues (BP)

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EditorsPick: This is the venerable group Orchestra Baobab’s best effort to date. A wonderful selection of songs, in diverse styles, some old, some new, all beautifully recorded and packaged, as is usually the case with a Nick Gold production. There are the requisitely stunning Afro-Cuban influenced numbers, the mbalax style tunes, with ... continues (Pablo Yglesias)

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EditorsPick: Furthering their Masterworks series, Fania has reissued this Barretto classic, and has added 5 special bonus tracks, including some from this session that have *never* been released before. A collector's Must-Have, Barretto's seminal 1973 recording featured the vocal talent of Tito Allen along with a coro section that inclu ... continues (DR)

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EditorsPick: ***Best of 2008 Editors Pick Award*** Once of the prized gems of classic salsa, the 1972 Que Viva La Musica is considered by many to be Rays Barretto's masterpiece. And with tracks like "Cocinando," "La Pelota," "Que Viva La Musica," and "Alafia Cumaye," it's hard to argue the point. With Luis Cruz on piano (he also co-arra ... continues (DR)

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EditorsPick: Here's a really nice compilation of salsa on the jazzy side from Ray Barretto. Compiled by Bobby Sanabria (who also wrote the liner notes), the track list includes titles like "Espíritu Libre," "Power," "Round About Midnight" and "Canto Abacua." Barretto is joined on several tracks by Adalberto Santiago and Rubén Blades. Hi ... continues (BP)

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EditorsPick: ***Best of 2008 Editors Pick Award*** Another double disc, cd/dvd extravaganza from Egrem, and this one has non-stop driving music from one of the better working bands in Havana. Kemell’s band has the energy of the best timba orchestras, leavened with salsa, and it swings heavily. The singer, Yury Tejeda, can really rock, a ... continues (Peter Watrous)

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EditorsPick: Superb compilation of Joe Bataan's Latin soul output from the late sixties to to the early seventies. Bataan personally assisted with putting this compilation together. Original sessions produced by Jerry Masucci, Johnny Pacheco, Bataan, Al Santiago and Bobby Marin. With "Subway Joe," "Young Gifted And Brown," a previously ... continues (BP)

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EditorsPick: Back in stock! You want swing? We’ll give you swing, brother. The mega-mambo Palladium Orchestra is musically directed by José Madera. Madera, a Puente orchestra veteran, is joined here by the sons of Latin music big-band royalty: Tito Puente Jr., Machito Jr. (Mario Grillo), and Tito Rodriguez Jr. in what is not simply a ma ... continues (BP)

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EditorsPick: Back in stock! Terrific old-school salsa -- with trumpets *and* trombones -- and plenty of sabor and verve. Some tracks are in the style of, say, Eddie Palmieri's La Perfecta, or Conjunto Libre where a simple coro phrase is often used as the basis for extended jams. "Atrevete" is a good example of that, and it's one of the ... continues (BP)

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EditorsPick: ***Best of 2008 Editors Pick Award*** So many salsa albums today sound dead, prerecorded, vapid, without the joy or rawness of the old school. But the multi-cultural Virginia-based Bio Ritmo are the exception to the rule: they bring all the grit, sweat, and playful humor of all your favorite classic groups, without sounding ... continues (Pablo Yglesias)

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EditorsPick: The ultimate Ruben Blades collection. This 2-CD set features classic salsa tracks like "Descarga Caliente," "Pablo Pueblo, "Juan Pachanga," "Paula C," "Pedro Navaja," "Maestra Vida," "Tiburón," "El Cantante" and many, many others. Compiled by Ernesto Lechner and Nelson Abreu, and with excellent liners notes by Lechner. Hig ... continues (BP)

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EditorsPick: Meet Ruben Blades. This was his first release after arriving from Panama, four years before being hired to work the mail-room at Fania records. The rest is history, kid. This just-reissued CD has been one of the most requested recordings by collectors. A piece of salsa history. Highly Recommended. ... continues (BP)

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EditorsPick: **CLASSICS REVISITED** “Escenas” is one of Ruben Blades’ best. Blades is a multi-talented singer/actor/songwriter originally from Panama who brings to bear all his skill and insight into telling seven stories from El Barrio on this great, sophisticated salsa record from 1985. The sound of his band, Seis del Solar, is modern ... continues (Pablo Yglesias)

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EditorsPick: Here's the best distillation of Ruben Blades tracks that I have come across. Compiled by Nelson Abreu, this selection will win over anyone who doubts just how important Blades is in the history of Latin music; he created a genre of salsa for the "thinking man." The David Byrne of salsa. Liners by Jaime Torres Torres. With " ... continues (BP)

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EditorsPick: A ‘must-have’ for any serious fan of great music – not just Latin music. Rubén Blades and Willie Colon were a team that transcended the sometimes narrow confines of the salsa world. Poetry, politics, and dance? Those two could pull it off, though several of the compositions on this album make you listen more than just shake ... continues (Pablo Yglesias)

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EditorsPick: Live from Calí, Colombia... a 2-DVD set! There's a *lot* of classic material here... "Caminando," "Juan Pachanga," "Buscando Guayaba," "Plastico," "Amor Y Control," "Pedro Navaja," "Tiburon," and "Patria." Highly Recommended. A multi-faceted singer/songwriter and salsa pioneer who has also rose to prominence as a successfu ... continues (BP)

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EditorsPick: ***Best of 2008 Editors Pick Award*** Ah, the modern sound of Cuba led by the singer, percussionist, pianist and child prodigy Blanco. While this is called new generation timba, it’s something a bit more complicated, drawing on the sound of Van Van, and Pupy a bit; there’s even an updating of Chappotin’s Yo Como Candela, an ... continues (Peter Watrous)

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EditorsPick: Blasini’s a good, pinched singer who leads a local band around New York. The recording’s straight ahead, salsa dura, and totally pleasing. There’s some flute on it, and violin, but at its heart the project is a salsa dance record, and at that it succeeds well. At one time in New York there were hundreds of bands like this. ... continues (Peter Watrous)

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EditorsPick: ***Best of 2008 Editors Pick Award*** Raised in Spanish Harlem, William Bobo Correa (1934-1983) was one of the world's premiere jazz and Latin percussionists, most recognized for playing Afro-Cuban jazz. Bobo joined Tito Puente's band at the age of 19, where he was supposedly given his stage name, Willie Bobo, by piano virt ... continues (BP)

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EditorsPick: Here’s a nice project of modern Latin jazz and stuff, by one of the premier flutists in Latin jazz. She’s not fooling, here, either, working her way through some difficult changes on her first tune, "Q." She’s backed by a strong group, included Robert Quaranta, Elio Villafranca and Mike Longo on pianos, Andy Eulau and Paul ... continues (Peter Watrous)

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EditorsPick: This reissue of a sought after collectors item from the mid-80s is a welcome addition to the little known story of Venezuela’s important role in salsa music in the 1970s and 80s. Orquesta La Bronko brings to mind a quicker, more tightly wound and less jazz inflected version of Manny Oquendo’s Libre. On first liste ... continues (Pablo Yglesias)

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EditorsPick: ***Best of 2008 Editors Pick Award*** Listen here. If you dig Nuyorican Latin Funk at its hardest, if you loved Eddie Palmieri’s “Harlem River Drive,” the Boogaloo Combo from Brazil, or Joe Bataan’s “Salsoul” album, then you will surely go wil ... continues (Pablo Yglesias)

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EditorsPick: Back in stock! ***Best of 2008 Editors Pick Award*** Roberto Linares Brown, also known as “El Seña,” was born on April 2, 1976 in the city Guaimaro, in Camaguey, Cuba. In 1996, he completed his formal schooling. Soon afterwards he began his professional career, playing with several bands ...and became a pianist for Orquest ... continues (DJ Bongohead)

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EditorsPick: Back in stock! High quality DVD production documenting Mr. Brown's live concert at the Teatro Raúl Juliá Del Museo De Arte de Puerto Rico in February, 2005. Recorded in black and white, with excellent picture quality and sound. For fans of Mr. Brown's poetic social ballads, this one is Highly Recommended. ... continues (BP)

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EditorsPick: Brownout is an offshoot of the Austin based Latin band, Grupo Fantasma. Fantasma was formed out of two earlier bands, one being avant-garde jazz, the other a funk group with Latin influence. It makes sense then that once the members of Fantasma got the ball rolling, they would want to go for a side project mixing all three. ... continues (Pablo Yglesias)

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EditorsPick: This is the famed 1998 concert held at Carnegie Hall in New York City. It followed on the footsteps of the groundbreaking 1997 studio release, Buena Vista Social Club — something of a phenomenal success that stunned all who participated in the project. Of this concert, producer Ry Cooder says "Listening to the tape of the c ... continues (BP)

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EditorsPick: Back in stock! Great release, by one of our favorite sax and flute players, combining elements of Afro-Cuban folklore, jazz, and even rhythm and blues. Bunnett is joined by drummer Dafnis Prieto, pianist Hilario Duran, the geat Cuban percussionist Pancho Quinto and others. Highly Recommended. ... continues (BP)

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EditorsPick: A sparkling, old school Cuban Latin jazz recording. It’s all acoustic, and isn’t, weirdly enough, touched by fusion and Irakere — but there’s a rapper on the album, too. Go figure. Cabrera’s the heavy duty bassist, and he’s been in a bunch of Cuban bands, including Iya, cabaret bands, the Ciso Guanche group, El Zun Zun de l ... continues (Peter Watrous)

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EditorsPick: Here’s a find: The Camerata Romeu, a string orchestra from Cuba, performing achingly beautiful modern classical music written by Roberto Valera, a Cuban composer. And beautiful it is, romantically dense, at times Russian sounding — Shostakovich comes to mind — at times it sounds like the soundtrack music it could be. There’ ... continues (Peter Watrous)

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EditorsPick: ***Best of 2008 Editors Pick Award*** Wow - two albums on one CD – vintage 70s salsa from the obscure, short-lived, and highly collectible Ghetto label. I love all the Ghetto releases - from Joe Acosta, Paul Ortiz Y La Orquesta Son, Ray Rodriguez Y Su Orquesta, La Fantástica, and Eddie Lebron. This appears to be a bootleg f ... continues (Pablo Yglesias)

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EditorsPick: Cuban salsa-timba doesn't get much better than this. Mandy Cantero sports pretty darn good credentials: former singer for Charanga Forever (a spin-off of Charanga Habanera) and then for Pupy y Los Que Son Son. On this, his debut project as a leader, he's joined by primo bassist Pedro Pablo who is also the project's musica ... continues (BP)

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EditorsPick: The Caribbean Jazz Project’s dropped the great guitarist Steve Khan and added a big band. And the big band does some shouting, tearing through modern arrangements of standards by Oliver Nelson, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane and Dizzy Gillespie; Dave Samuels, the leader and vibraphonist wrote a bunch of tunes for the date a ... continues (Peter Watrous)

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EditorsPick: Thanks to this Colombian import collection of the bandleader’s Fiesta material from the late 50s – early 60s, I have discovered a real gem. This is a fun set of hard mambo, jazzy guaguanco, and funky cha-cha-cha, with some nice electric guitar, perky percussion, and a boisterous party atmosphere (lots of shouts, loud cowbel ... continues (Pablo Yglesias)

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EditorsPick: What a great compilation of guarachas and montunos by the venerable Cuban orchestra produced in the '40 and '50s. Features some the best vocalists of the era: Roberto Espí, Fernando Alvarez, Roberto Faz, Alberto Beltrán, Rolito Rodriguez, Celio González, Alberto Ruiz, Felo Martinez and many others. Compiled by Jorge Rodríge ... continues (BP)

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EditorsPick: ***Best of 2008 Editors Pick Award*** What a nice surprise. This circa 1980 sizzling salsa album by veteran singer Santiago Cerón sports wonderful 24 channel sound and is churning with sabor. Cerón, who sang with La Protesta, Pete "El Conde" and Arsenio Rodriguez, has surrounded himself with some of New York's legendary mus ... continues (BP)

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EditorsPick: Back in stock! Fasten your seat-belts... Chan Junior is in the house. Here's a very well-produced uptempo jazzy salsa project by the spirited Cuban singer Chan Junior. Never heard of him you say? Chan formerly sang with the local Cuban bands Orquesta Cubana, Sonora Caribeña, and Orquesta Ochuni. In 1993 he formed Chan Junio ... continues (BP)

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EditorsPick: Here’s another great New York local band, and a new one at that, putting together music at the intersection of charanga and salsa. Led by Joe De Jesus, a trombonist turned flautist, the band is full of salsa veterans, including Pito Castillo, Lewis Kahn, Ernie Acevedo (of Conjunto Imagen) and Julio Salgado, and they take t ... continues (Peter Watrous)

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EditorsPick: Everyone’s doing it now, the timba. So why not the Japanese, and Grupo Chevere knows exactly what to do and how, and when, and the band does a good job. The pianist, Masaru Okuyama, can lay down some tumbaos, and when the band goes into the moñas, it sounds particularly good. The band knows what it’s copying, too, and there ... continues (Peter Watrous)

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EditorsPick: On a corner in Brooklyn stands Barbes, one of the great bars of New York, and Chicha Libre plays there regularly, cranking out the camp sounds of Peruvian Chicha music. The record’s pretty cool, an homage to a lost style of music that mixed rock and pop with cumbia and other rhythms from around those parts. Sonido Amazonico ... continues (Peter Watrous)

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EditorsPick: ***Best of 2008 Editors Pick Award*** Originally released as a CD/DVD set, this title is now available here as DVD only. Here's the original review... ...(the) DVD — begins with Chirino singing a song "Yo Soy Un Tipo Tipico" that has him drifting though salsa, quoting everything from the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix to Cuban so ... continues (Peter Watrous)

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EditorsPick: It’s easy to forget what a great singer Chirino can be, given the too wide range of his ambitions. But, at his best, the man is one of the more gifted singers of his generation and Pa’Lante shows him off well, with a few straight-ahead salsa pieces — the fantastic "Por El Mismo Camino," which suggests he should record a who ... continues (Peter Watrous)

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EditorsPick: A sought after collector’s item, this album really holds up well. The sound is youthfully exuberant one minute, down and funky the next, in the mode of Joe Bataan and Willie Bobo, with that great Barrio mix of soul and Latin that was all abuzz in the streets of Harlem, Brooklyn, and the Bronx from the mid 60s till around 19 ... continues (Pablo Yglesias)

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EditorsPick: Here's a special treat. It's a two-cd, thirty-year, retrospective of material by the venerable New York salsa band and features all of their top-tier singers: Tito Nieves, Johnny Rivera, Rafael De Jesus, Tito Allen, Tempo Alomar, Daniel Santos, Jose Bello, and Raulin Rosendo. "Señora Ley," "Vamanos De Rumba," "Felicitacione ... continues (BP)

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EditorsPick: Another cross cultural meeting, led by the German pianist Gunther Bruck, who can bring a band together, that’s for sure. Recorded mostly in Brooklyn, the album features some heavyweights from Venezuela, including the brothers Quintero, Luisito and Robert, along with Nelson Gonzalez on tres, and the Colombian/Austrian bassi ... continues (Peter Watrous)

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EditorsPick: A duo project graced with depth and elegance. Recorded in Madrid during the summer of 1995 by two generations of jazz mastery: Tete Montoliu (Barcelona, 1933) and bassist Javier Colina (Pamplona, 1960). The repertoire includes standards like Jerome Kern's "Yesterdays," Arlen and Mercer's "Come Rain or Shine" and "Laura," th ... continues (BP)

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EditorsPick: Champeta is the riotous Afro-Colombian street  sound of Colombia's Caribbean coast – a powder-keg of rhythms from local slave descendants brewed together with Congolese soukous, Ghanaian highlife, and Nigerian Afro-beat. Three years in the making Voodoo Love Inna Champeta Land  finds Colombian champeta stars Viviano Torres, ... continues (DR)

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EditorsPick: ***Best of 2008 Editors Pick Award*** A recording like this will probably be overlooked today, though not tomorrow. The greatness of the groove, the explosion of the Puerto Rican/New York style so late in the day will be appreciated in historical terms — you know, a work of genius after the genre had flowered, etc. My sugge ... continues (Peter Watrous)

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EditorsPick: ***Best of 2008 Editors Pick Award*** Willie Colón’s “Asalto Navideño” franchise is a well-known, beloved institution, and in 1993, Colón went all out to put on a great live show in Puerto Rico’s Coliseo Roberto Clemente featuring the best of his Christmas output from the 70s and 80s. Colón is backed by an ace big band, man ... continues (Pablo Yglesias)

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EditorsPick: What a long, wild ride it has been for William Anthony Colón Román. Born 58 years ago in the Bronx, he cut his first record as a teenager and showed a lot of promise from his first live performances and recording sessions. Having recorded albums of historic significance with vocalists like Hector lavoe, Rubén Blades, and Ce ... continues (Pablo Yglesias)

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EditorsPick: ***Best of 2008 Editors Pick Award*** If there was a salsa equivalent to the Beatles iconic and critically acclaimed White Album, it would be Siembra, the 1978 Willie Colón and Rubén Blades collaboration that rendered the accepted notions of "salsa" obsolete. In celebration of its 30th Anniversary, Emusica has reissued this ... continues (BP)

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EditorsPick: Here's a fine collection of material from various Colón and Puente albums. With "El Titan," "Ran Kan Kan," "Guisando," "Oye Como Va," "Guajiro y Ven," "Para Los Rumberos" and many others. Recommended. continues (BP)

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EditorsPick: Oh man, salsa heaven, Colombian style. From the first bars you can hear that his isn’t just another. The young orchestra, on its first album, takes on the brass heavy style of classic New York and Puerto Rican salsa, and adds a modern swing to it, with Colombian singing and suggestions of explosion. The recording’s immediat ... continues (Peter Watrous)

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