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Sample Track 1:
"La Crisis - Roberto Linares Brown" from Lula Lounge: Essential Tracks
Sample Track 2:
"Guaguanco - Changüi Habana" from Lula Lounge: Essential Tracks
Sample Track 3:
"Latinos - Yani Borrell " from Lula Lounge: Essential Tracks
Sample Track 4:
"La Molotera - Jorge Maza & Tipica Toronto" from Lula Lounge: Essential Tracks
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Album Review

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Perceptive Travel, Album Review >>

We Say: More Toronto grooves, this one is pure Latin dance fever.

You wait years for world music output from Toronto and then suddenly two CDs come along in the same month. This one pays tribute to the city's vibrant Latin music scene and is an unapologetic collection of 15 favorite tracks from Toronto's most celebrated Latin dance club. There's a bonus too: a portion of this recording's sales profits go to a good cause, Canada's Dancing With Parkinson's charity. So, what's not to like?

Virtually all of the performers here are Cuban or Canadian-Cuban and the 15 tracks explore the broad range of musical genres that the country is famous for—there is little sign of Toronto's famously bleak winter here. Jorge Maza & Tipica Toronto perform "La Molotera" in a style known as Charanga Francesa, the 12-piece Changui Habana come up with the polyrhythmic workout of "Guaguanco," while Lady Son with "Cántame Sonera" conjure a groove that combines Guajiro and Son Montuno. Elsewhere, we have "Cuando Me Toca" by Hilario Durán, a pianist lauded by Cuban keyboard supremo Chucho Valdés as "one of the greatest Cuban pianists of the 20th century." Well, it may be the 21st century now but he is still pretty good.

This is a great collection. Music more for dancing than for listening to, perhaps, but none the worse for that.

 02/05/13 >> go there
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