Nice 50's mambo material from one of the giants of the genre – and a good batch of tracks by Noro that you might not track down elsewhere. Tracks include "Mambo Away", "Humberto's Jump", "The Up & Down Mambo", "Mambo Jive", and "Ku-Kue". LP, Vinyl record album

The group's name is a reference to a classic Latin jazz instrumental, and the album's title is a reference to a Wayne Shorter song from years back – both of which together give a strong idea of the strength of the record within! These guys play Latin music, but with a lot more complexity on the tenor and trumpet solos as they soar out past the rhythms – with very strong work on horns from musicians who've worked with Incognito, Jamiroquai, and the Brand New Heavies – plus keyboards, percussion, bass, and guitar from musicians with experience in lots of other great groups too! There's a bit of vocals on the record, but the main focus is on instrumentals – titles that include great remakes of "Mahjong", "Black Nile", "Blue In Green", "Lazy Bird", and "Up Jumped Spring". (Jazz, Latin) LP, Vinyl record album

The Downtown Scene is a plenty groovy one – thanks to heavy percussion from Ninapinta, and some great jazzy backings from Jimmy Wisner! The album's a blend of Latin Soul, Latin jazz, and other mod 60s styles – all wrapped together with Verve-like perfection, with supporting players who include Clark Terry on trumpet, Artie Kaplan on sax and flute, Willie Rodriguez on percussion, and Jimmy Wisner on piano and organ! The tunes are jaunty, jumpy, and plenty darn soulful – all instrumental, and with just the sort of hip sound we're always searching for on records like this, but never find done so well. Many tunes are covers, but they're really transformed – and titles include "Downtown", "Mrs Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter", "1-2-3", "The In Crowd", "Help", "It Ain't Me Babe", and "Hang On Sloopy". (Jazz, Latin) LP, Vinyl record album

Lou's normally a straight charanga-type artist, but on this excellent set, he goes for that "New York" sound – meaning that he picks up a sweet bit of Latin funk, and carves out a soulful NuYorican groove! Many tracks have lyrics in English – set to jumpy rhythms often driven by a fair bit of electric bass, handled in a very soul-heavy style. Titles include "Gotta Move", "Oh How I Think About You", "I'll Call Her Monday", "Fryin Pan Man", "Caribbean Woman", "Guajira Con Tumbao", "Pins & Needles", and "Senor Babalu". LP, Vinyl record album