AA.VV.
The Mambo Kings

The Mambo Kings, besides being the soundtrack of a moderately successful 1991 film, is also one of the records that had the merit, long before Ry Cooder and his "Buena Vista Social Club," of rekindling interest in Cuban musical rhythms, an island that has contributed immensely to modern popular music.

The film's plot: Two Cuban brothers, musicians living in Havana, decide in the early 50s to emigrate to New York, determined to try their luck on the wave of the growing success that Cuban rhythms are having in the land of the stars and stripes. After making ends meet in various ways and facing personal problems, they find success as musicians, spreading the fever of mambo and cha-cha-cha...

To accompany this film, a true avant-garde of Caribbean popular music was called upon: Tito Puente (who is actually Puerto Rican), Celia Cruz, Linda Rondstadt (mainly known for her country repertoire, but also a devoted performer of Mexican folk), the Los Lobos (then famous for "La Bamba"), and a super band here called "Mambo All Stars." Here we find some of the ingredients that would, by the late 60s, form what we today call "salsa", a genre not exactly born in Cuba but rather born in New York and based on the fusion (salsa, indeed) of Cuban rhythms such as "son," "charanga," "guaguancó," "rumba" (the Afro-Cuban one, which has nothing to do with what we mean), and, of course, "mambo."

The album contains several extraordinary tracks, starting with the pyrotechnic "Ran Kan Kan" by Tito Puente, whose initial brass and percussion attack is legendary, and that any true enthusiast of this music can recognize from the first notes; there's "Perfidia" sung by a fantastic Linda Rondstadt, transformed into an intoxicating son, and of course "Guantanamera" sung by Celia Cruz, which is to Cuba what "O Sole Mio" sung by Caruso is to Naples... There's also the cha-cha reinterpretation of the standard "Tea for Two," very captivating, but the purely melodic side also finds its space, with "Quiereme Mucho" once again performed by Linda Rondstadt, and "Beautiful Maria of My Soul," in two versions by the Mambo All Stars, and, my favorite, by Los Lobos, arranged with a chilling "bolero" rhythm.

The soundtrack compilers also pay a deserved tribute to a seminal Cuban music author like Benny Moré, present here with the original version (pure vintage..) of his classic "Como Fue." For the rest, another delightful cha-cha-cha by Celia Cruz "Melao de Cana" stands out, while the rest of the album's repertoire remains a bit in the background, as a supporting act to the better episodes.

So, if you want to discover (or rediscover) the foundations of the entire Latin American phenomenon that has now firmly established itself with us as well, this "The Mambo Kings" is an absolutely valid and representative starting point.

For bachata or reggaeton, however, look elsewhere; perhaps buy one of the many compilations that can now even be found at the butcher's...

Mambo Kings...... CON SABOR!!