A really pivotal album in the career of Mongo Santamaria – one that has Mongo stripping down the groove, kicking up some jazz, and mixing together soulful styles that brought him to the top of the Latin crowd of the 1960s! There's a tightness here that goes beyond any of Santamaria's previous albums – a no-nonsense approach that makes for some incredibly hard-hitting numbers – heavy on the conga, but also featuring strong piano lines from Rodger Grand, trumpet from Marty Sheller, flute and tenor from Hubert Laws, and alto sax and baritone from Bobby Capers! This small combo provides pretty much all of the instrumentation for the record – and there's no added tricks or gimmicks, just hard-grooving Latin jazz at its best! Titles include "El Pussy Cat", "Together", "Black Eyed Peas", "Ritmo Negro", "Sarai", "Hammer Head", and "Afro Lypso". LP, Vinyl record album

A really pivotal album in the career of Mongo Santamaria – one that has Mongo stripping down the groove, kicking up some jazz, and mixing together soulful styles that brought him to the top of the Latin crowd of the 1960s! There's a tightness here that goes beyond any of Santamaria's previous albums – a no-nonsense approach that makes for some incredibly hard-hitting numbers – heavy on the conga, but also featuring strong piano lines from Rodger Grand, trumpet from Marty Sheller, flute and tenor from Hubert Laws, and alto sax and baritone from Bobby Capers! This small combo provides pretty much all of the instrumentation for the record – and there's no added tricks or gimmicks, just hard-grooving Latin jazz at its best! Titles include "El Pussy Cat", "Together", "Black Eyed Peas", "Ritmo Negro", "Sarai", "Hammer Head", and "Afro Lypso". LP, Vinyl record album

Silly title – but a great album, with Cugie playing relatively straight Latin versions of 60s pop hits. A few of the tunes are a bit silly, but there's less of the goofiness that "caricatures" might imply. Titles include "Papa Loves Mambo", "Night Train", "Fly Me to The Moon", "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes", "Desafinado", "The Continental", "Witchcraft", and "I've Got The World On A String". LP, Vinyl record album

Great stuff – and one of the purest examples we can find of the Latin piano style of the great Noro Morales! Noro plays here without any of the trappings of some of his other records – just working with a small rhythm combo on an all-instrumental set – with tremendous solo work on the piano – filled with flourishes, but never in a way that's too overly-complicated, nor too dramatic to ever lose its swing! That balance is what made Noro so great back in the day – as you'll hear on cuts that include "Oye Men", "Pica Mosquito", "Mi Guajira", "Vitamina", "Que Linda Eres", and "Oye Negra". LP, Vinyl record album

Jazzy mambos from the king – and easily the most successful of Perez Prado's albums for RCA in the 50s! The album showcases the Latin mode that Prado crossed over big with on his hit "Cherry Pink & Apple Blossom White" – a tune that almost single-handedly grabbed the energy and audiences of the late swing years, and grafted them onto the growing New York Latin scene of the time! Prado's got that great growl in his chants, as usual – pushing the band to even more rhythmic heights and brassy horn flourishes with his trademark calls – and titles include the classic "Cherry Pink & Apple Blossom White", as well as tracks like "Tomcat Mambo", "Mambo Ala Kenton", "The High & The Mighty", "Marilyn Monroe Mambo", and "Skokiaan". LP, Vinyl record album

A great collaboration between Perez Prado and trumpeter Shorty Rogers – one in which Rogers' solos sparkle brilliantly over the top of Perez's tight Latin rhythms – all in a style that's as moody as it is evocative and rhythmic! Side one features the extended "Voodoo Suite" – a side-long track that builds nicely on rootsy Latin rhythms that are much freer than Prado's pop work of the 50s – and which features a growing jazz horizon at the edges, filled with players who include Bud Shank on alto and flute, Bob Cooper on tenor, Shelly Manne on drums, and Pete Candoli on trumpet – in a larger section underneath Shorty Rogers' solos. Side two features shorter tracks recorded a year later – a bit more in the standard Prado mode, but still with a really dynamic feel, and contributions from jazz players like Candoli and Rolf Erikson on trumpets, Willie Maiden on tenor, and Jay Hill on trombone. Titles include "Music Makers", "In The Mood", "St. James Infirmary", and "Jumpin At The Woodside". LP, Vinyl record album

This one's a bit subdued, but it's still classic RCA material by Tito – with a strong easy Latin vibe, of the sort that went down very big with the Catskills crowd. The record's got plenty of Cha Cha and Mambo Latin jazz tracks, most of which are covers, apart from the originals "Dancing Under Latin Skies", "Port Au Pleasure", and "Acapulco". LP, Vinyl record album

An excellent session of exotica-tinged Latin jazz – put together by pianist Don Ralke, and featuring some great work from flute player Buddy Collette – in a spirit that's very similar to Collette's own classic Jazz Heat Bongo Beat album! The set's also got some great bongo work by Jack "Bongo" Burger – plus congas from Tom Wofford – and although both players aren't the most autentico of Latin percussionists from the west coast scene at the time, they've got a really evocative approach here that makes for a great little set. Colette's flute is wonderful too – really shading in some great tones and colors –a nd titles are all fresh originals that include "Afro Mambo Alegre", "Mgombo", "Pasion Calienta", "Bembe Negro", "Calypso Cubano", and "Afro Bop". LP, Vinyl record album

Blazing trombone, brilliant vocals, and some really inventive rhythms – one of those sweet 60s sets that show why Mon Rivera was way more than just another Latin leader! The tight use of trombones and trumpet almost makes the record a precursor to salsa at some level – but at another, there's this rootsy quality to the rhythms that's very classic – almost more of the "afro" in Afro-Cuban at times – with congas and bongos often playing a heavier role than timbales. Mon's vocals are wonderful when he sings – and titles include "Bi Bi E", "Karacatis Ki", "A Papa Cuando Venga", "El Pachanguero", "Asi Trabaja Cualguiera", and "Humacao". LP, Vinyl record album

A great blend of Puerto Rican roots and some of the more sophisticated modes going down in the New York scene of the 60s – and a classic pre-salsa album from Mon Rivera! Rivera's got a small combo here who represent the hippest Alegre players of the time – both Charlie and Eddie Palmeri on piano, Mark Weinstein on trombone, and the legendary Kako on timbales – all backing up Mon with a sound that's rootsy, but which still has a fair bit of jazz as well. Styles include jazzy mambo and the plebochanga, a style that combines the plena and charanga – and overall, the album's got a really bouncy approach to the grooves – piano and percussion carrying most of the work, as vocals and horns come in over the top to sort things out a bit! Titles include "La Plechanga De Trabalengua", "Monina", "Una Plena", "Como Esta Pita", "En Casa De Pepe", and "La Cuca". LP, Vinyl record album