Various Artists – Disque La Rayé: 60’s French West Indies Boo-Boo-Galoo

Boogaloo is a genre that combines the best elements of black soul music with Latin American dance rhythms, and it found its strongest following in New York City. However, the genre also thrived in various pockets around the world during the 1960s and 1970s. One such outpost was the island Continue Reading

Lucho Bermudez y su Orquesta – The Coastal Invasion

The ever-stunning Radio Martiko out of Belgium release an amazing collection of cumbia from Colombia’s greatest export, Lucho Bermudez.  From the label’s Bandcamp release site: Bermudez was a key figure who modernised the tropical music of Colombia’s Caribbean coast. At the beginning of the 20th century, this music was largely Continue Reading

Kalí Rodriguez-Peña – Mélange

Kalí Rodriguez-Peña is a Cuban-American trumpeter who is one of the leading lights of New York’s modern salsa scene.  Salsa isn’t a genre that normally gets caught by my radar, but recently I’ve had the chance to explore the works of artists like Johnny Colón, Hector Lavoe and Willie Colón, Continue Reading

Salah Ragab and The Cairo Jazz Band – Egyptian Jazz

How do such wonderful musicians get lost in the mists of time?  It boggles the mind, though I must say I’m happy to be living in an age of crate-divers and those who have the same passion of discovering music as I do. This particular artist, Salah Ragab, a military Continue Reading