At once spicy hot and languorously sweet, Putumayo Presents Cuba is a passionate marriage of active and passive, masculine and feminine, a contemporary festival of sound whose roots were born in defiance of onerous distraction and oppression. Based on Afro-Cuban culture, whose music comes from a combination of European and African instrumentation, the songs in this collection swing with the energetic rhythms of traditional son (also the base of salsa). Layered over the repetitive beat, guitars chime, maracas add shimmy, and trumpets take the upper accent melody, often repeating or contrasting the main vocal melody. One of the finest contributions to the disc is Mi Son's "Mecanica de Amor," in which the band substitutes the violin for the lead trumpet, making a treat of the unexpected. Irakere's funky fusion "Boliviera" comes on gangbusters with beefy bass, full horn section, and featured flute melody. Containing superb liner notes, Putumayo Presents Cuba makes a fine introduction to this island's rich sound, and a superb remedy to the blues. --Paige La Grone

With a raspy but warmly appealing voice, Polo Montañez mines the same roots guajira tradition as Buena Vista Social Club star Eliades Ochoa. But while Montañez's feet are planted in the countryside of West Cuba, his music reaches far beyond, from the jazzy flute that winds around the vocal on "Amenece el Nuevo Ano" to the almost-pop changes of "Un Monton de Estrellas" to "Si Fueras Mia" and its emotive violin accompaniment. For a debut, this is remarkably assured, and the former coal man has the kind of charisma that could easily translate into stardom. Whether on the son of "Como Sera Manana" or when letting his voice lead horns on the title track, Montañez sounds relaxed and simply oozes melody throughout the disc, although he seems happiest in a relatively stripped-down setting, such as on "Canten." Singers this good come along rarely; catch him before he's famous. --Chris Nickson

At 77, Ibrahim Ferrer has lost none of his cheeky charm. Buenos Hermanos lives beautifully up to its title--"Good Brothers"--with those Cuban stalwarts Cachaito Lopez and Chucho Valdes joined by that genius of the electric guitar, Manuel Galban, and with the Blind Boys of Alabama enriching the basic mix. Moreover, Ry Cooder, who originally coaxed Buena Vista Social Club into life, here acts as midwife once again. This CD, he says, was "the last chance in the world today to work with such a voice." Well, Ferrer's voice no longer has the ringing exhilaration we heard on his solo album, Ibrahim Ferrer. His effects are more muted now, more laid back, but they still cover a kaleidoscopic range of tone and color. He delivers his boleros with lovely swing, and he radiates the genuineness of a premarketing age. It's easy to believe that most of these tracks were one-takes: the whole thing has wonderful freshness. --Michael Church

A rousing ensemble recording, A Todo Cuba Le Gusta features a band made up largely of Cuban music elders. As a reflection of their collective experience playing multiple percussion instruments and brightly lit trumpets, the Afro-Cuban All Stars churn with high drama, even while playing music that's paced with extravagant patience. The time signatures overlay and run against each other in a casual trot while the trumpets blare with fat fullness. Add to that the impassioned group vocals and you've got a hard-to-beat Cuban traditional music session. --Andrew Bartlett

With his 10-gallon hat and cowboy boots, the Santiago-born Vocalist-guitarist Eliades Ochoa is known as the "cowboy" of the world-renowned Buena Vista Social Club. Because of his success with that group, he's made a few recordings of his own as the leader of Quarteto Patria. On this CD, Ochoa's romantic tenor voice and bouncy guitar playing are marvelously motored by the rhythms of the Cuban son. Along with trumpeter Anibal Avila, Ochoa is joined by special guest singer Raul Malo of the Mavericks on "No Me Preguntes Tanto," and guitarist David Hidalgo of Los Lobos lends his plectral pulsations to the title cut. Compay Segundo's heartfelt "Llora Mi Nena," and "El Chicarron es Pellejo" best reveal the rural blend of Spanish and African rhythms, melodies, instruments, and song forms that Eliades Ochoa highlights so well in his artistry. --Eugene Holley Jr.

Octogenarian Cuban legend Israel "Cachao" Lopez returns with Cuba Linda, another five-star album produced by actor Andy Garcia, who did the same for the earlier Master Sessions volumes one and two. Bassist-composer Cachao leads an outfit that near-magically blends subtlety and power; anyone with an ear for this meld of mambo, son, and other classic styles will be hooked within the first two cuts. "Goza Mi Mambo Cubano" ("Rejoice with My Cuban Mambo") hits its height with a flurry of percussive devices midway through, while the lyrics of "A Francisquita le Gusta el Cusube" ("Francisquita Loves the Cusube") turn on playful sex/food metaphors as trumpeter Feliciano "Pachu" Gomez unleashes some mighty wails. It's also easy to appreciate how the band rips through "Bailalo Si Puedes" before leaning into a tropical take on Rhapsody in Blue: Cuba Linda's melange of textures, rhythms, and unique soloists is indeed in the Ellingtonian tradition the disc's liner notes claim for Cachao. --Rickey Wright

Ry Cooder's name has helped bring attention to this session, but it's the veteran Cuban son musicians who make this album really special. Reminiscent of Ellington in its scope and sense of hushed romanticism, Buena Vista Social Club is that rare meld of quietude and intensity; while the players sound laid-back, they're putting forth very alive music, a reminder that aging doesn't mean taking to bed. Barbarito Torres's laoud solo on "El Cuarto de Tula" is both more blinding and more tasteful than any guitar showcase on any recent rock album; a quote from "Stormy Weather" and some very distinct parallels to Hawaiian styles remind us of why it's called "world music." --Rickey Wright

This compilation examines the connection between modern African music and Cuban styles that evolved from a slow-simmering cross-pollination of Spanish melodies and rhythms imported by homesick slaves. When Latin albums eventually found their way home to the Continent, local musicians immediately recognized the link and re-Africanized the tunes for their own markets. These versions then traveled back to the Caribbean, resealing the cultural circle and launching dozens of further permutations. The selections on this set are very well chosen, given that the subject is a huge one and a single CD is hardly adequate to the task. Gnonnas Pedro and Labah Soseh, two pioneering vocalists who hail from Benin and Gambia, respectively, receive well-deserved places of honor. Other master tracks include Congolese diva Tshala Muana's hypnotic "Lekela Muadi," and "Canto a la Vueltabajera" by Cuba's Alfredo Valdés, which abounds in goofy classical piano quotes. --Christina Roden

No fat cigar, not even Cuba's gorgeous sunsets, can register close on the sublimity scale to the country's lush, commercially unsullied music, something lots of folks discovered a few years back when a subtle loosening of regulatory strings let the brilliant, boundary-busting Buena Vista Social Club cross the shore. On Cuban Lullaby, another of Ellipsis Arts' impressively packaged, carefully annotated, and sweet-smelling Lullaby series (the scent of lavender, said to promote heavy-liddedness, comes wafting out once the protective plastic is removed), the tradition-steeped African and Spanish elements that fused the Cuban sound fall in for a 16-track close-up--intimacy, after all, is what lullabies are all about. The music moves from lilting piano ("Drume Negrita," "Berceuse a Jessie," "Drume Mobila") to elegant guitar (a different rendition of "Drume Negrita," "Suenos de Colores") to tribal-sounding bata drums ("Oguere"). The set is by turns sweepingly beautiful, twinkly sweet, and rhythmically soothing--no surprise, considering this record's artist roster. Grammy-winning pianist Chucho Valdes, immortal entertainer Bola de Nieve, and Buena Vista Social Club singer Omara Portuondo raise the talent bar to a dizzying level, the right altitude, it turns out, for drifting off to dreamland. If your little one is the lucky intended dozer, leave the light on and read the liner notes. The English translations of these songs, like "El Amor de Caracol y Lombriz," about a snail-worm romance, and "Nana Animalera," describing a late-night all-animal hootenanny, crack a window on Cuban culture, causing, without intending to, sharp regrets that it's been sealed away for so long. --Tammy La Gorce