Caribbean and Cuba music reviews

Outstanding CD. I've listened to it in my car so many times that I know all the songs by heart. Your money is well-spent when you get this one.

The Ros orchestra had a sound that was uniquely theirs - as much as Glenn Miller's sound was immediately recognizable. This CD features the Ros band at its very best! No recording gimicks, no extra instrumentation, just the classic Ros sound.

If you want stuck pig squealing from trumpets, Ros is not for you. If you want toe-tapping rhythms, and beautiful Latin orchestrations played with perfect balance and feel, give this one a try. But, watch out! I first heard Edmundo in 1957 and I have been hooked for life.

I have a lot of Ros music, and to me this is Ros at his absolute best!!!

Well OK, hands up those who can say they love Mambos? I bought this CD on a whim after listening to it entranced in a store (and after Perry Como just kept annoying me with "Papa loves Mambo...Mama loves Mambo..." etc).

A bit of a strange choice for me since I've never before taken the slightest bit of interest in this music before. But after a couple of listenings, it comes through for what it is -just plain livin' life to the fullest honest-to-goodness fun. It just puts a smile on my face listening to it. The strangest part is when parts of your body start to move compulsively.....

Highly recommended for those of us who are a little musically uneducated about Mambos (sorry, can't speak for the Mambo officianados), and a very nice addition to your cd collection if you think you'd like something just a little different from the usual popular stuff. This cd is infectious fun -and isn't that one of the best reasons to listen to music? Highlights for me are tracks 2-6.

Talk about diverse! This Rough Guide travels from Cuban son and the magnificent piano playing of Ruben Gonzalez to popular Indonesian songs and back again. One must have an open mind and broad tastes to be able to absorb the vastly divergent styles on this CD. However, each selection is superb on its own terms, and most of the music is danceable. If you are truly a connoisseur of world music, try this companion CD to volume two of the revised ROUGH GUIDE TO WORLD MUSIC.

Incomplete. What else can I say? This is a good mix, and a good cd, but the title is Islands. So, why not throw something a little more exotic into the mix? Cuba and Hawaii are predictable, but what about music from the Azores? What about the Madeira Islands? A little Luis Bettencourt, some Jose Medeiros, or Katia Guerreiro and this cd would have been a whole lot better!!!

"Danca ma mi Criola" is a bouncy love song."Me ki sa oule" is a lilting song of longing."Bomba traigo yo" is joyfully infectious.The BEST songs are "Falso Testemunho" from Cape Verde&"Veinte anos" from Cuba.Both these songs are about unrequited love&betrayal.For popular songs,they are moving."Sonegaly" is an enchanting song from Madagascar.Tarika hasn't been as good since."E I Taurua"&"Olinda Road" are magical songs from Tahiti&Hawaii.

D'Gary&Jihe from Madagascar as well as Quito Rymer from Tortola aren't quite so good.Interesting sidenote-Rymer's "Mix up world" is one of the themes for Putumayo's World Music Hour.Oh well.

This is still a good album."South Pacific Islands" is EVEN BETTER."Islands" has held up for a good 9 yrs since its release.No wonder it's still in print.How many pop albums last that long???

My whole family loves this CD. My 2 year old daughter dances up a storm and my 4 year old son puts on his jolly roger do-rag and swashbuckles about. A little mellower and less adventurous, musically, than similar compilations, but the quality is higher throughout.

Grupo Ilu Ana's SCARED RHYTHMS provides powerful vocal cantos to the Orisha: Afro-Cuban bata playing lies at the heart of lovely tradtional Cuban drumming emphasized in SACRED RHYTHMS.

This fantastic 1995 folkloric recording was made in Canada while several folkloric artists were participating in performances and workshops at the BANFF arts center. Led by percussionist Regino Jim�nez (Musical Director of Danza Contemporanea de Cuba) and the recently deceased Amelia Pedroso on lead vocals, this five member ensemble presents sacred songs to Afro-Cuban deities known as oricha utilizing bat� drums and voice. Also included on this recording is what bat� drummers refer to as the oru seco or oru del igbodu, a liturgical suite of rhythms played on three bat� drums. This ensemble is top-notch, and unlike field recordings, the audio fidelity is superb. If you are into Santeria music and bat� drumming, you already own this. I highly recommend the recording. The producers add a note that the majority of the royalties of the recording go directly to the artists (because it was recorded in Canada, it avoids American embargo problems).

The postwar band of England's great Latin bandleader Edmundo Ros was a finely oiled machine, churning out endlessly pert, perky dance tunes. Many of these songs are novelty number, often showcasing Ros' cheerfully bland vocals, which sound quite strikingly like Burl Ives. Ros riffs on Brazilian themes and money worries; many fans of "authentic" Latin dance music despise this stuff, but I think it's pretty cute. ...It's pretty fun, if you're in the right mood.

this is the 5th in the harlequin series of early ros recordings, and were up to 1947-48, pretty close to what many aficanados consider his peak years.the set kicks of with manana , the first of several sambas which include the laughing samba and the whistle samba. the musicianship is of a very high standard indeed throughout this disc.also included are 3 ernesto lecuona titles,la comparsa,jungle drums and a very pretty version of maria la,o.edmundo ros,s band always had a very unique sound compared to other latin bands of the time, smoother and more restrained, possibly this had something to do with ros being based in england. well another good job done by harlequin and oh yes look out for track no.19 on this set the wonderful moonlight on brazil one of edmundos most romantic tunes with vocals by denny vaughn.

Deliriously schmaltzy latin dance music recorded in England after the war. This will be a very pleasant surprise for folks who are mostly familiar with Ros' endless series of tepid EZ listening albums of the '50s and '60s... What we hear on this disc are perky, sprightly novelty tunes galore, with plenty of overwrought, corny vocals by Ros and crooner Ronaldo Mazar. The sound quality is very bright, although some of the source tapes seem to have aged around the margins: slight phasing problems creep in on some tracks, mostly noticable on the flute and woodwinds. Otherwise, this is pretty fab.

up to vol.5 of harlequins series of edmundos classic 1940-1950 recordings.sound quality is good as can be expected unless decca ever decide to release this stuff , remastered from original master tapes, if they still exist.their are several latin styles edmundo tackles here, including 3 or 4 caylpsos. ros had a very effective voice for this type of story tellers song, his warm tone giving the song a friendly feel. also included are :the wedding samba: his biggest hit (3 million copies sold), copacabana one of his most popular sambas, cuanto le gusto (from the carmen miranda film :a date with judy: i believe)and the maharajah of megador agreat novelty number. listening to this c.d evokes a feeling for a bygone time when people relied on artists like edmundo ros and xavier cugat to bring a little latin romance into their living rooms,longhaul jetplanes didn,t exist yet.the muscianship is as always with ros excellant. if you like 1940;s style latin dancebands it dont get much better.