A Night In Colombia

Even if you don't know your cumbia from your bambuco or your champeta from your currulao, if you're generally susceptible to the swaying, stutter-step rhythmic patterns that seem to crop up in variations throughout Central and South America you're going to find plenty to enjoy on this startlingly varied collection of music from Colombia. Opening with a very old (but undated) recording of Pacho Galan & His Orchestra playing the gorgeous "Ay Cosita Linda," the program then veers into the 1990s with Wilson Choperena's strange but enjoyable "La Pollera Colora" (notice the timbral contrast between Choperena's strange singing voice and the keening clarinet that hoots and wails behind him); later the mood settles a bit with an emotionally intense, almost Mexican-sounding waltz courtesy of Garzon & Collazos, before blowing up again with the party-time mood of Diomedes Diaz & Ivan Zuleta's gleefully raucous "Caracoles de Colores." The album's best tracks are the cumbias, though, particularly "039" by Los Hermanos Zuleta and the delightful "Matilda Lina" by Alfredo Gutierrez. Note also the excellent horn writing on Leonor Gonzalez Mina's "Yo Me Llamo Cumbia." ~ Rick Anderson|