Lartiste Quartier Latin Vol 1

The Gibson Brothers are a French musical group, originally from Martinique, who had their greatest success during the disco boom of the late 1970s. Their best known hit singles included "Cuba" and "Que Sera Mi Vida"…

Finally Blue Note issues a Latin collection from its Italian (Italiana SPA) and Brazilian (EMI-Odeon) vaults that reveals the true diversity of its catalog and exploits some of the serious sensuous grooves that DJs have been spinning for over a decade. This is the first of three volumes, all of which feature the rarest most representative tracks from the various trends in jazz that grew out of Brazilian pop in the '60s, '70s, and even '80s. For starters, there's the mean brass swagger of Luis Amuda Perez on "Upa Neguinho," which was written by Edu Lobo. Besides being a popular dance tune (you can hear that in the opening measures), it is a masterpiece of Brazilian big band arrangement. Also featured is the stellar "Noa Noa," a trademark of Sergio Mendez. This is a tough bossa nova trio jam, with arpeggiated piano figures cutting right through the rhythms in the tune. In addition, Mandrake Som's "Beriambu" was the first to utilize in a swinging pop jazz context the use of the one string percussion instrument – there's also a very soul-jazzy sax solo in the break. This set's full of warm, frighteningly good examples of bossa, samba, and even the MPB and Joven Guarda rhythms as they inform folk and jazz melodies and modal figures.

60 track collection of current hits and classics. Artists include, Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony, Gloria Estefan, Gibson Brothers, Gypsy Kings, Kaoma, Enrique Iglesias, Santana, Lou Bega, Will Smith, Cher, Quincy Jones, DJ Mendez, Los Lobos, Perez Prado, Geri Halliwell, Kylie Minogue, Toni Braxton, Safri Duo and many more.

Blue Bossa Vol. 1. This compilation should be titled Blue Latin because it's more of a sampler of various Latin jazz styles than just a bossa nova-jazz mix. In an age of overzealous marketing and grab-bag reissues, though, the oversight is understandable. Thankfully, the misguided approach doesn't dim the quality of this very enjoyable Blue Note release. The six actual bossa nova tracks in the collection - out of 14 - range from effervescent, hard bop treatments by Hank Mobley ("Recado Bossa Nova") and Cannonball Adderly ("Sambop") to languid ballad renditions by Ike Quebec ("Loie") and Eliane Elias ("Waters of March/Agua de Beber"). The most authentic and best of the bunch is Duke Pearson's "Sandalia Dela," which spotlights Brazilian stars Airto Moreira and Flora Purim. Another standout is John Patton's B-3 organ bossa "Latona," which features inspired solos by guitarist Grant Green and vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson…

Los Van Van, another group which qualifies as an "institution" in itself and which has continued going strong even after the passing of Juan Formell. Somewhat surprisingly for socialist Cuba, the early music of Los Van Van is much more engaged with the psychedelic pop and rock sounds coming from the imperialist countries of the U.S. and England than were in and around Latin New York and the diasporas of Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic. In that sense Los Van Van could be compared to the Tropicália movement in Brazil, freely taking and digesting elements from across the musical spectrum. I'm more partial to their second album, which didn't come along until quite a few years after this debut - it has more of a soul and funk influence - but this record is still great even if it sounds more "dated" because of its paisley and baroque embellishments.