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8 albums YOU shouldn’t live without
Just how diverse is the Latin sound? These eight recently released
albums offer a
sampling from Latin Jazz to Brazilian cool. The one unifying thread
among these
artists is their ability to transcend labels.
BY LISSETTE CORSA
IN THESE SHOES
Arturo O’Farrill & Claudia Acuña
 Known
for eschewing musical
conventions and blurring the
line between jazz and Latin
music, arranger/pianist/composer
Arturo O’Farrill does it
again, this time in the company
of the wonderfully eclectic
Chilean vocalist Claudia Acuña.
Together they glide through the
album’s 12 tracks with fl uidity
and free-reign insouciance. But
it’s the unbridled joy from a collaboration rooted in friendship
and mutual admiration that really shines through.
ES TIEMPO
Allá
Chicago-based trio Allá, made
up of brothers Jorge (producer/
multi-instrumentalist)
and Angel Ledezma (drummer)
and vocalist-guitarist Lupe
Martinez, is an electro-psychedelic
band out to pave a new
landscape for Latin alternative
music. Their debut is a trippy
swirl of multi-layered arrangements
infl uenced by Brazilian
tropicalia, American pop, and
European krautrock. The Mexican-
American outfi t lives in a
nebulous multi-culti space.
LO QUE QUIERO ES FIESTA
Maraca
 After
a few years away from the
studio and extensive touring,
Cuban fl utist/bandleader Orlando
‘Maraca’ Valle drops his
sixth recording, a high-energy
album that uses tradition as a
launching pad to break through
the contemporary and complex
horizons of Cuban dance music.
Maraca delivers a revamped
sound with a new collective of
young musicians who add just
the right doses of jazzy improvisation
and polyrhythmic fury.
NIÑA DE FUEGO
Buika
 From
the risque cover art to
the intimacy and rawness of
her themes and vocal delivery,
Buika has proven yet again
that she has completely surrendered
herself to her art.
In the most poignant album
of her career, she plunges
even deeper into emotions
and reveals inner anguish.
Traditional coplas and fusions
of fl amenco, jazz, gypsy rumba
and Afro-Cuban rhythms become
heart-wrenching songs
of despair and love lost.
SHAKE AWAY
Lila Downs
 No
stranger to straddling
dual cultures, the Oaxacaborn,
Minnesota-raised singer
dips into Pan-American traditions
on her eighth album,
juxtaposing styles that range
from brassy banda to Scottish
folk within a contemporary
framework. The new production
marks a turning point in
Downs’ 15-year career as she
reveals a feminine side absent
from her previous traditiondriven
forays.
BETO VILLARES
Brazilian producer Beto
 Villares’
eponymous debut
stands out from a smattering of
cutting-edge Brazilian albums
out this year as one the most
divinely original. Recognized
for his contemporary stylings
on Brazilian chanteuse CéU’s
breakthrough, Villares builds on
the known templates of Brazil’s
rich, musical landscape by infusing
futuristic strains and new
hues in the ever growing global
palette that shapes his native
soundscapes.
RIO
Aterciopelados
 Aterciopelados’
Héctor Buitrago
and Andrea Echeverri
looked to their own backyard
for inspiration on their seventh
album, the highly anticipated
follow-up to 2006’s Grammywinning
Oye. The fl uid title
track opener sets the tone and
signals a new phase for the
band, in its quest to achieve a
deeper sense of purpose and social
commitment. Rio is vibrant,
rousing, and defi nitely edgier
than its predecessor.
UN DÍA
Juana Molina
 The
typically ruminative multiinstrumentalist
from Argentina
opens up sonically with an
album that embraces a newfound
sense of rhythm. While
the disc’s more propulsive
patterns are prominent enough
to suggest a turning point, don’t
expect her to completely peel
away the abstract layers that
defi ne her style. Still on display
is an off-center knack for churning
out dismembered tracks
inspired by the mundane.
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