OK, I have to confess that some splendid music came out in 2005 that wasn’t made in Oregon. Here are a few disks from various global cultures that tickled my ears this year.

Latin American: Anyone who loved the music in Buena Vista Social Club should be thrilled by the expansive, multi-disk Cuban Essentials collection (Escondida). Cuba boasts one of the hemisphere’s three richest musical traditions, and these disks span not only the son style of Ibrahim Ferrer, Compay Segundo and their BVSC cohorts, but also six decades of jazz, salsa and other dance music, and various hybrids — the greatest hits of Cuba’s greatest musicians.

Probably the biggest new star to emerge in world music last year was the Brazilian balladeer Seu Jorge, whose star turn in The Life Aquatic preceded the unanimous acclaim for his sometimes gritty, sometimes plaintive, always striking album, Cru.