Rocking the party and ramming the dancefloor is the first priority of this review of Latin styles in classic West African dance music, as it emerged with 1950s anti-colonialism, and ran on gloriously into the 70s.

Lovely traditional Cuban music — bolero, guaracha, merengue, cha cha cha — recorded last year in Havana.

His beautiful voice in fine fettle on this missing link between The Bottle and the Salsoul disco-raps — a foretaste of disco in 1976, but previously released only in Japan, including fine Isaac Hayes and Billy Stewart covers.

A stupendous, exhilarating mix of Afro-Latino roots, out-jazz and rollicking dance rhythms by this top-notch twenty-piece, from 1988. Killer.

‘A perfect blend of barrio attitude and Caribbean swing, from 1972. Confident, creative arrangements, full of heavy Nuyorican underground salsa dura, propelled by raw trombones, off-kilter piano and in-your-face percussion. Standout tracks include the uplifting, anthemic Libre Soy, and Ha Llegado El Momento, with its minor key Moliendo Café quote at the beginning — both of which have become dance floor anthems over the years. Another mid-tempo killer is Guaguancó Tropical’, a favourite in Colombia since the 1970s.’

Nine killer selections from his first four LPs, stuffed with smash hits. Proper salsa; loads of trombone. Featuring the brilliant, legendary singer Hector Lavoe.
‘Crime Pays’ is Colon being ironic about the successful marketing of his archly bad-boy persona during this period.

Smoking mid-seventies Latin from Carlos Ruiz’ Ebirac label, headquartered back then in a bustling Puerto Rican community centre on the west side of the city.

Fabulous big-band tropical jazz — cumbias, porros — from 1950s and 60s Colombia.

Beautiful, small-group boleros. Ibrahim’s last, attenuated sessions before his passing in 2005.

Choca with unrelentingly hard and heavy salsa bangers, school of Willie Colon, this 1973 album is the fifth full-length salsa LP led by Julio Ernesto Estrada Rincón, aka Fruko, and the second credited to Fruko Y Sus Tesos. The singers are Joe Arroyo and Wilson ‘Saoko’ Manyoma; besides salsa, the rhythms are mozambique, conga, bomba, and jala jala.
The stone-cold-killer descarga Salsa Na Ma is here. Phew-wee. Raging dancefloor fire.

Rough, tough salsa brava from 1972.
The soaring, soulful vocals of Edulfamid Molina Díaz front an augmented, more aggressive brass section —introducing another trumpet and two trombones to the lineup— swaggering through a dazzling range of rhythms including guaguancó, bomba, plena, oriza, bolero, cha-cha-chá, descarga, and Latin soul.
Warmly recommended.