A stunner of a record from the Fania All Stars – a tremendous attempt to move into a 70s soul vein, complete with Satin Soul arrangements from Gene and Billy Page! The record bubbles over with the funky orchestrations you'd expect from the best Barry White work at the time – strings soaring over snapping beats and warmly soulful instrumentation – bearing little resemblance overall to the earlier work of the Fania All Stars, but blowing our minds all the more because of the rich ability to change sound so much. There's load of wonderful funk tracks on the album – and titles include "Picadillo", "I'll See You Again", "Foofer Soofer", "Sabrosa", "Desafio", and a great cover of "Rosemary's Baby". LP, Vinyl record album

A fresh new groove from The Fania All Stars – one that definitely has them picking up some of the Spanish elements mentioned in the title – the fusing them into the tight mix of Latin, club, and jazz they were doing at Columbia Records in the late 70s! These new elements are often light – a bit of acoustic guitar here, maracas there, or some slightly different rhythms – and they're warmed up nicely by the mix of electric and acoustic instrumentation used by the group – who are definitely at the height of their disco powers here! Core players include Papo Lucca on keyboards, Nicky Marrero on timbales, Johnny Pacheco and Roberto Roena on percussion, and Bobby Valentin on bass – and other players include Hubert Laws on flute, Eric Gale on guitar, Luie Ramirez on vibes, and Luiz Perico Ortiz on trumpet. Vocals are by Ismael Miranda, Pacheco, and Ruben Blades – and titles include "Spanish Fever", "Que Pasa", "Space Machine", "Donde", "Your Sereneness", and "Sin Tu Carino". LP, Vinyl record album

Groundbreaking Latin Jazz – and an essential 2LP set! The album brings together classic work for Norman Granz' Verve and Clef labels in the cubop mode – including Dizzy Gillespie's Manteca Suite, Machito's Afro-Cuban Suite, titles by Chico O'Farrill, and others recorded in 1949 and arranged by Rene Hernandez. Players include Machito, Charlie Parker, Diz, Mario Bauza, Eddie Bert, Flip Phillips, Chano Pozo, and Jos Mangual – and the quality of the work unifies the sessions wonderfully, even though they were recorded separately over a 5 year period. LP, Vinyl record album

... 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

Smoking early work from the team of Ricardo Ray and Bobby Cruz – the kind of record that marked the pair as one of the freshest new voices to hit Latin music in the New York scene of the 60s! The rhythms and modes are all familiar ones, but they're delivered with a different sort of edge here – partly because of Ricardo's heavy use of dark notes on the piano, but also because there's a nice sense of space in the arrangements that almost points the way towards some of the freer thinkers of the Latin Soul years. Bobby's vocals are well-placed, and very soulful – and Chivirico Davila and Felo Brito also sing a bit on the record too. Titles include an incredible mambo reworking of "Parisian Thoroughfare", done as a longer descarga number that's really great – and other tracks include "Chachita", "Mirame", and "Yenyere". LP, Vinyl record album

Wonderfully jazzy work from Tito Rodriguez – and further proof that his live albums are often some of the best he ever recorded! The set's got an earthy feel that's quite different than some of Tito's studio albums – still that tight groove he brought to Latin music at the end of the 50s, but a looser, freer quality too – one that comes through not only in the great horn passages in the group, but also in the way the rhythms cascade and open up – in a groove that must have been very appealing to Palladium dancers. Titles include "Double Talk", "Te Comiste Un Pan", "Satin & Lace", "Mama Guela", "El Mundo De Las Locas", and "El Sabio". 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

A killer bit of Latin funk from the west coast scene of the 70s – the only album we've ever seen from Sapo, but a set that almost blows away the efforts of bigger groups like Malo or El Chicano! There's a bit more funk in the mix here than in some of the group's contemporaries – a leaner, more soulful sound that's totally great – and topped with these cool compressed vocals from singer Richard Bean, who's got a very distinctive approach! The rhythms are wonderful – and the album explodes with great tracks that combine equal parts Latin, funk, and soul – all in a way that really lives up to the best promise of such a combination – and never falls too heavily on one or the other side of the fence. Titles include the killer break track "Been Had", the slamming electric jam "Ritmo Del Corazon", the fast modal groover "It's The Music", and the massive "Sapo's Montuno", with some very lively solos! Other cuts include "Nina", "Get It On", and "Can't Make It". LP, Vinyl record album