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Jose Echaniz performs three compositions for piano that were written by Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona. The three pieces are "Andalucia (Suite Espagnole)", "Danzas Afro-Cubanas" and "Danzas Cubanos". Each piece is divided into six parts and the dance pieces are ...

Lively Latin work from Venezuelan drummer Frank Hernandez – cooked up in a style that rivals the best New York Latin sides of the time! As with other Hernandez albums, Frank's work on the drums and timbales is at the forefront of the session – giving the record a snapping groove that ...

Frank's definitely got a new sound on this album – one that's even groovier than before! The record still has Hernandez hitting that hard New York Latin groove that make all his 60s sets so nice – but he's also working here in a more instrumental mode, and one that's got more than a ...

One of Mongo Santamaria's best albums from the 70s – and one of his funkiest too! The record's got a sweet electric groove that sounds mighty nice next to the Latin jazz arrangements on the set – almost in the feel of some of Candido's funky work from the time, but possibly even ...

One of the few albums ever issued as a leader by the great Joe Cain – a wonderful Latin arranger with a really mad ear for a groove! Cain's approach is often quite choppy in the rhythms – short, hard, and very very sharp – then topped with sweeter, jazzier lines – played on ...

Killer early work by the Fania All Stars – caught live at the legendary Cheetah club, which was the heart of the New York salsa scene at the start of the 70s! The album is easily one of the best by the group – and features long tracks that really capture the jamming intensity that ...

A legendary Latin funk album – spearheaded by Eddie Palmieri! The record is a landmark crossover album from the early 70s – cut at the end of the Latin soul era, but featuring that genre's wonderful mix of Puerto Rican soul, Spanish Harlem Latin, and New York funk. The grooves are all ...

Killer Latin from South American drummer Frank Hernandez – easily the king of the scene on his side of the globe! Frank's taking a key cue here from the harder sound of the New York scene of the time – and the record's overflowing with great little tracks that mix together heavy ...

One of the most unique sessions ever cut for Blue Note – an album of very traditional Afro-Cuban jamming, led by percussionist Sabu Martinez! The music on the album's comprised mostly of percussion – plus some occasional guitar, bass, and vocals shouted by Sabu, and group members that ...

Landmark work from Eddie Palmieri – a stunning performance by his Harlem River Drive band, recorded live before a very wild crowd at Sing Sing Prison! The feel here is a blend of the sound heard on the legendary Harlem River Drive album – a unique fusion of Latin, soul, and political ...

A lost bit of Chicano funk from the Texas scene of the early 70s – brilliantly put together, and with a sound that's unlike anything else we can think of! The all-instrumental album has a quality that's only a bit like more familiar Chicano grooves from the west coast – and almost ...

A seminal bit of 70s Latin from Eddie Palmieri – a full, rich session that really earns the "sun" in its title! Eddie's working here in that complicated approach to jazzy rhythms from the later Tico years – inflected by a bit of straighter salsa rhythms – in a style ...

A stunning album from Orquesta Harlow – one of their wildest of the 60s, and filled with delights! The record starts with this strange sound of a train pulling into a station, then rolls into a massive boogaloo groove that really sets the pace for the album – hitting hard with some ...

A great and rare mid 70s cumbia LP from Peruvian combo Grupo 2000 – with floorshaking tropical rhythms to spare – made even more incredible by the guitar work of Tulio Trigoso! It's a pretty remarkable album just for the infectious rhythms and overall energy, but those guitars really ...

Sweet and sunny 70s Latin – the standout album from Yambu, a pretty hip group! The group's mostly a jazz-based one – and works with percussion from direction Milton Hamilton to forge a sound that's cleaner and more stripped-down than a lot of other groups at the time. There's some ...

Willie's in prime 70s salsa mode here – leading the group with amazing tightness, providing a perfect set of backdrops for the vocals of Junior Toledo and Guilio Rivera. The set's produced with a lightly bouncing style that was soon to become Willie's calling card in the 80s – a ...

Malo may be evolving a bit, but they're still right in the pocket as far as we're concerned! This excellent west coast Latin ensemble mixes together jazz, funk, soul, and slight touches of Chicano rock – into a heavy groove that was one of the best-conceived at the time. Jorge Santana lays ...

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A stellar Latin groover from Johnny Pacheco & Pete Colde Rodriguez – rightfully dubbed a perfect combination – recorded in 1969 and released in 1971, and we can think of no reason to have delayed such a smoking set! It's one of the better albums in the successful series of them ...

A compelling later collaboration between Willie Colon and Ruben Blades – recorded as the soundtrack for a film that starred Blades as a boxer and Colon as his shady manager! The music's much better than the movie, though – and represents a mature meeting of these two talents from the ...

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Trombonist Juan Pablo Torres is consistently putting out some of the best Latin jazz these days – and this excellent album is complete proof of that fact! The set features Torres working with an all-star cast that includes Arturo Sandoval, Chucho Valdes, Steve Turre, and others – ...

Plenty burning here – a smoking set of 70s salsa from Raphy Leavitt – one of the key figures of the Latin underground at the time! The album's got a righteous feel right from the start – thanks to the percussive overtones of "Voces Del Africa" – a great way to ...

It's always a treat to hear from the team of Kako and Totico – and this album's no exception! The pair have a way of coming up with lively interplay right from the start – the energy that would formerly build over time in Kako's early jam session records, nicely brought to the ...

A killer jam session from the 80s – a surprisingly great record from a decade in which we didn't hear much from Cachao – which makes this set even more essential! All the best elements of Cachao's early descarga modes are in place – but there's also a richer Latin jazz vibe too ...

Killer cuts from the glory days of the Latin Soul scene – and a really nice little set that goes way beyond other collections of this nature! All tunes are hard-burning Latin groovers, with plenty of jazz in the instrumentation, and lots of soul in the vocals – but what really makes ...

A pretty darn obscure one – with a wild cover, wild title, and a goofy looking bandleader who definitely had a great sense of humor! Pijuan leads the group, sings, and plays organ – and the record's a weird mix of groovy 60s pop, shing-a-ling/boogaloo tracks, and other Latin groovers. ...

A wicked dip into Colombian music – focused around the work of two true giants of the scene! CD1 features 21 massive tracks from Fruko – one of the hardest-hitting artists working in Colombia in the 70s – often in a sound that starts out in New York salsa, but takes all these ...

One of the many great recordings that Celia and Johnny cut together during the 70s – in a really great combination that had her soulful vocals giving a new injection of energy to the Pacheco sound of the time! The result was a great blend of new styles and respectful traditionalism – ...

A brilliant new move for Willie Colon – a set that goes even further than his mid 70s classics with Ruben Blades, and pushes Willie into a Pan-American consciousness carried off with ambitious musical vision! The sound is still salsa at the core, but Willie's also brought in bits of other ...

A solid 70s session from Willie Colon – a combination of a few tracks from previous efforts, mixed with other new ones, all featuring lead vocals by the wonderful Hector Lavoe! The work on the album's the kind that was so influential at the time, it's almost hard to hear how important it was ...

A rare early Latin session from Charles Fox – an artist who's best known for his TV and film soundtrack work of the 70s – but who really cooks nicely on this sweet 60s set! The album's got an all-star crew – including flute from Johnny Pacheco, and rhythms from Louie Ramirez ...

Smoking salsa, but with a heartbreaking undercurrent – thanks to the vocals in the set! The grooves are already great – raw, youthful 70s material, played by a group who are clearly excited to be stepping out into fresh territory – but when the vocals come into the mix, things ...

Great instrumental grooves from Fajardo – played with a group that's a bit fuller than the usual charanga, but which keeps things lean and tight throughout! Fajardo's flute is at the lead of all tracks – played with a style that's quite sharp, even when sweet – this edge that ...

Amazing flute work from the legendary Fajardo – a player who was right up there with Pacheco in his pre-percussion years! The set's got a great sharp edge right from the start – a quality that might well come from the production, but which definitely keeps things from ever sounding too ...

A killer set from the legendary Cachao – recorded during some lesser-known years in the 80s, but done with a rich sound that really hearkens back to his Havana roots! Most tracks are instrumental descargas, with a very bass-heavy groove – recorded in a way that really lets you hear ...

Lively pachanga work from the early 60s – one of the cookingest albums we've ever heard from Ruddy Calzado! Instrumentation is in the usual charanga mode from the time, but there's a focus on the rhythms that really drives the album along nicely – the kind of sharp-edge blend that you'd ...

Pachanga and plenty more – thanks to a nice blend of rhythms that really make the album sparkle! Instrumentation is heavy on horns, and not the usual mix you might expect from a pachanga album – and the percussion kicks along strongly on most numbers, grooving a good number of tracks ...

Kako and Totico do way more than jump start the car with this killer collaboration – and really make the record burn brightly with a classic 70s salsa sound! There's lots of dark twists and turns to the set – not just from the horn parts and the way they roll along the grooves easily ...

Soulful salsa from the early 70s – featuring pianist Raphy Leavitt heading up the La Selecta group, and vocals by Sammy Marrero that have a heartbreaking, almost falsetto-like quality! The album's kind of a mix of early salsa with a 60s Latin soul ethos – nicely rough around the edges, ...

Cortijo in New York – making for a classic meeting of Puerto Rican and Nuyorican sounds – with plenty of help from the young Ismael Rivera! Rhythms are tight throughout – very fierce and full, showing the new energy of the younger generation that Cortijo helped get going at the ...

Classic material from Cortijo's legendary combo with Ismael Rivera on vocals – one of the first records to really showcase the great sounds coming from the Puerto Rican scene in the early 60s! Rhythms are plenty lively – as Cortijo's group has the same sharp focus as the early Joe Cuba ...

Damn hard to go wrong with Cortijo at this point in his career – as records like this are razor-sharp, all the way through! The cooker features excellent vocals from a young Ismael Rivera – who's already got this transcendent quality that points towards larger Latin dimensions to come ...

The cover alone should be enough to tell you this is a cooker – as Cortijo and Kako go head to head on heavy percussion, working a heavy traditional groove despite the later date of the album! Rhythms are strongly in the plena and bomba modes – with timbales and congas dominating, as ...

Old school cumbia tunes – with plenty of raw rhythms and acoustic instrumentation in the mix! The package is a wicked batch of rare numbers from Colombia's legendary Discos Fuentes – most of which are from the early and mid 60s, recorded at a time when the imprint was really making ...

Killer cuts from the glory days of the Latin Soul scene – and a really nice little set that goes way beyond other collections of this nature! All tunes are hard-burning Latin groovers, with plenty of jazz in the instrumentation, and lots of soul in the vocals – but what really makes ...

Plenty happenin' here – a wealth of boogaloo grooves, mad Latin jazz riffs, and lots lots more – all served up on a platter that's easily one of the most cooking ever from trumpeter Willie Rodriguez! Like other releases on the Fonseca label, there's a nicely messed-up groove going on ...

A Latin soul treasure from Bobby Matos – quite different than his straighter jazzy work of recent years, and a stone cooker to rival the best of the New York indies in the late 60s! Like cookers on Fania and Cotique, the set's got a groove that's rooted in descarga – with loads of ...

A darn tough one to find – and one of Charlie Palmieri's best records from the 60s! The session is an obscure one-off done for Atlantic in 1968 – and for some reason, the record was never issued as widely as some of Charlie's other sides for smaller labels during the time, making it ...