Heady work from Chango – a 70s combo with a style that's right in keeping with the Chicano Rock scene in LA! The group mix together a swirling blend of guitars, organ, and percussion – clearly inspired by Santana, but with rootsier touches, and a bit more energy to groove openly. Most tracks have vocals, but the real strength of the set is the instrumentation – especially on the keyboards, which get pretty out there on some of the best cuts! Titles include the extended jammer "Chango", plus "Mira Pa Ca", "Bembe", "Solid Karma", "Fire Over Water", "Walk On Hell", and "Caminando". LP, Vinyl record album

A record with a nicely earthy vibe, and a sound that definitely lives up to the "misticismo percussivo" and "primitivismo sonoro" promise of the cover! The group's a quartet with plenty of percussion throughout – mixed with bass, keyboards, and some nicely moody woodwinds – all served up on a set of tracks dedicated to the four elements wind, water, fire, and air – in a style that's almost a contemporary blend of spiritual jazz currents with older exotica inspirations! The approach is great, and makes the record slide nicely between genres to a space that's all its own – on titles that include "Chango", "Oyanza", "Ile Aye", and "Omi Tuto". LP, Vinyl record album

One Tito Puente's finest albums for RCA, with a tight hard bunch of cuts that have a Cuban big band sound, and a lot more drive to them than some of Tito's other work for the label. Ray Bryant wrote the great track "Cuban Fantasy", and Tito contributed most of the other tunes on the set – a really unique batch of material that includes "Yambeque", "Elegua Chango", "Que Sera", and "Cha Cha Cha De Los Pollos". The percussion is nice and hard, and the band grooves in tight ensemble playing throughout! CD

A really great project from Tito Puente – maybe not his only collaboration with Celia Cruz, but maybe one of the best – a top-to-bottom album of unified vision, topped with sublime vocals from the legendary lady! The set was arranged and produced by Tito – and brings together tunes that are maybe a bit rootsier than some of his other work – that return to tradition that Puente was clamoring for as the 70s began, as a way of shaking off what he felt were the worse influences of the Latin Soul youngsters (not something we agree with ourselves!) The vibe of the album is quite different than its 1970 date – more like something from pre-Castro Havana at times, but with an updated, more sophisticated sense of arrangements and percussion. Titles include "Guiro 6/8", "Chango", "Alguien Vendra", "Cuyi", "Sahara", "Elegua", and "Salsa De Tomate". LP, Vinyl record album

Late 50s Exotica jazz gems from Les Baxter for Capitol – Africa Jazz and Jungle Jazz in a single set! Africa Jazz is one of his greatest records, and one that's got just about everything you'd ever want! Plas Johnson plays tenor, and his solos are right out front, and recorded beautifully. There's a number of other great LA session players on percussion and vibes, and the arrangements have a definite jazz bent to them. Tracks include "Congo Train", "Walkin Watusi", "Ostrich Hunt", "Balinese Bongos", and "Mombasa After Midnight". Jungle Jazz is also fantastic stuff, and recorded with beautiful sound! It's right on a par with African Jazz, which uses a similar formula: Plas Johnson's up front playing gutsy tenor, and Les is behind, working a large group of exotica players into a tribal frenzy of mellow grooves. Titles include "Amazon Falls", "Coco", "Isle Of Cuba", "Jungla Brava", "Go Chango", and "Blue Jungle". CD

One of the real standouts in the career of Ricardo Ray and Bobby Cruz – a record of incredible tightness, and one that set a whole new level for Puerto Rican salsa in the 70s! There's still a few traces here of the Latin Soul years – sometimes in the rhythms, at other times in the record's use of an additional female vocalist – who sings behind Bobby's vocals in a really cool way on some of the best numbers. But the main focus here is really on the tightness of the instrumentation – razor-sharp in the arrangements, and served up in a lean mix of piano, trumpets, and percussion. Titles include a nice slow funk remake of "Fire & Rain", plus "Sondido Bestial", "No Tin Pena", "La Vimari", "Cha Cha Huele Chango", and "Volver". LP, Vinyl record album

Oooooo-weee – a monster album by one of our favorite talents of the Latin soul era! Monguito Santamaria had a really great way of putting the electric bass right up front in his tracks – kicking things up with a bouncing groove that's as sock-boogaloo as boogaloo can get, and which makes for some of the most outta site tracks of his era! Nearly ever number's a winner – and the album's stuffed with killer groovers like "Groovetime", "Work Out", "Monguito's Theme", "Mambo New", "Chango", "Hey Sister", and "El Dorado". LP, Vinyl record album

A percussion heavy Latin set from the start of the 80s – one that has a very classic Cuban descarga approach to the instrumentation, yet which also sparkles with some more contemporary arrangements as well! Chico Alvarez handles most of the vocals, and plenty of percussion too – but there's also some great players in the mix on other instruments too – including Felix Vega and Chocolate Armanteros on trumpets, Jose Rodriguez on trombone, and Xavier Lynch on some mighty nice soprano sax and baritone – really giving the whole record a nicely jazzy vibe! Yet the percussion persists too, and with a bit of tres from Victor Trias, there's plenty of very rootsy elements to the record too – on titles that include "Chino's Yambu", "Rumba En El Solar", "Con El Ritmo Del Tambo", "El Eden De Los Roncos", "Pineiro", "Esa Brujeira", and "Yo Tengo A Chango". LP, Vinyl record album

One Tito Puente's finest albums for RCA, with a tight hard bunch of cuts that have a Cuban big band sound, and a lot more drive to them than some of Tito's other work for the label. Ray Bryant wrote the great track "Cuban Fantasy", and Tito contributed most of the other tunes on the set – a really unique batch of material that includes "Yambeque", "Elegua Chango", "Que Sera", and "Cha Cha De Pollos". The percussion is nice and hard, and the band grooves in tight ensemble playing throughout! CD

A stunner of a set from the 70s African scene – and a record that may well be a lot rawer and harder than most that you have in your collection! Ferry Djimmy was originally a boxer, and spent time outside of his native Benin – but on a return to the country in the early 70s, he cut this cooker of a record – one that's completely unbridled and stripped-down – with a lot leaner vibe than most other African funk of the time! Many cuts just have basslines, percussion, and guitar – tight and sinister, and driving forward with non-stop action while Ferry sings the lyrics in a very earthy style. The whole thing's incredible – and titles include "Be Free", "When I Come In The Road", "Young Revolution", "Carry Me Blak", "Ichango", "Love Love", "Chiriki Man", and "Start To Pray". LP, Vinyl record album