Born Jose Calderon in Spanish Harlem N.Y.C. of Puerto Rican parentage, conga player anad bandleader Joe Cuba was one of the most successful N.Y. Latin artists in crossing over to non-hispanic audiences. At the forefront of the Latin boogaloo trend, which incorporated black music in a fusion of Latin rhythms and piano montunos with R&B and even jazz, his sextet used English to penetrate the American public, sometimes using themes which incorporated the two languages. Tnis CD of some of the finest work by the Joe Cuba Sextet is compiled from the five key albums Steppin Out, Diggin' The Most, Comin' At You , Breakin' Out, and Para Enamorados Siempre, which they recorded for the revered N.Y. Seeco label from 1962-64. The Joe Cuba Sextet played more than boogaloo. As you will hear on this CD, their repertoire features superb Latin-jazz, joyful mambo, cha cha, bolero, guaracha and other Afro-Cuban rythms including a grooving version of Tito Puente's 'Oye Como Va'.

Tropical Tribute to the Beatles is a tribute album of tropical artists released in 1996 by RMM Records (Ralph Mercado's record company), produced by Oscar Gomez (distributed by Bellaphon & Uni Distribution). Arrangements were made by Steve Roistein, and lyrics were adapted into Spanish by Jorge Córcega, who had previously adapted the lyrics of Salvatore Adamo.

Hits back to the '50s from Colombia's Disco Fuentes label, with history sweeping consistency aside–any gringo can tell Conjunto Tipico Vallenato's accordion side-closers are country and Rodolfo's coffee commercial isn't. But even if the accordion stuff belongs on a vallenata comp, it passes muster on a collection where at least half the songs bristle with the exigente hooks that sell classic pop the world over. And the unmistakable beat runs down a consummate South American groove, halfway between Euro clomp and Afro hipshake.

On this 13-track recording of voice and piano duets, there is no doubt from the first note to the last that you are experiencing the complete mastery of two Cuban music legends. Individually, the genius Valdés brings to his instrument, the piano, and the dramatic, bluesy, off-the-cuff singing (in Spanish) of the husky, pitch-perfect, purely articulated Portuondo, can both easily stand alone. But together, in this setting, they are making magic. You'll hear a variety of themes written by non-published Cuban composers (two by Valdés, ) suggested on the spot in the studio. It allows the two a rare spontaneity and freedom from rhythmic structures that is created, not produced. There are songs of love, regret, straight blues, the indomitable spirit of the oppressed Cuban peoples, pleading for salvation, and especially, lost in depression ("No Puedo Ser Feliz" ("Cannot Be Happy").

LaVoe and Willie Colon came blazing out of the bugalu era and wrote a new script for New York salsa during the late '60s and early '70s: a script that included Puerto Rican and Panamanian graftings on the basic Cuban scion, and a tough lyricism that spoke of "barrio" problems to a "barrio audience". Then the pair split, and eventually Ruben Blades filled LaVoe's place in the Colon band's developing persona. Now – for this album at least – LaVoe and Colon are back together with that fat, macho trombone sound and the old width of reference (including a splendid plena, "En el Fiando.")

Navegar is bursting at the seams with sounds drawn from funk, jazz and disco and is delivered in the form of a wild travel journal, with Selva meeting artists like Flavia Coelho and multi-instrumentalist Bruno Patchworks (The Dynamics, David Walters) along the way, and navigating freely with them on the black Atlantic.

GREATEST HITS is a more specific offering than the concept often suggests, culling hits from '84, '85 and '88. With a career stretching back to the mid-'60s, the cuts found here are but a sampling of Ruben Blades' decade or so with his illustrious sextet, Seis Del Solar. As the father of progressive salsa/tropical pop, some of Blades' greatest songwriting of the period is to be found here, in all its glistening studio glory. "Buscando America" opens with wafts of foreboding, Tyner-esque piano before easing into Blades' stirring, synth-laden call for Pan-American unity. With a piercing trombone arrangement that recalls Blades' days in Willie Colon's band, "La Marea" is a sinewy cut of salsa that explicates all the seasick tosses-and-turns of a choppy love affair. The singer's early predilection for doo-wop rears its head on the "who-oh" chorus of the soaring "El Padre Antonio" and the tongue-in-cheek intro to the witty "Decisiones." In the context of that dark morass of pop hell known as the mid-'80s, seekers of sweet melody and politically-conscious songcraft have plenty to dig on GREATEST HITS, Spanish-speaking or not.