Ritmo + Soul

Canadian soprano saxophonist Jane Bunnett was grooving in Havana long before American listeners got hip to Buena Vista Social Club. With husband and trumpeter Larry Cramer and longtime cohorts pianist Hilario Duran, vocalist-percussionist Ernesto "El Gato" Gatell, and legendary conguero Pancho Quinto, Ritmo and Soul follows in the folkloric footsteps of 1998's Chamalongo. Here the crew is augmented by several new additions. Singer Dean Bowman adds his towering Paul Robeson-like pipes to the santeria spiritual "The River/El Rio." Lucumi, a teenage Cuban percussion prodigy, and Najacko Backo, an African kalimba master, join for "Three Voices One Spirit" with Bowman and Quinto. Bunnett's snaky sax lines and feathery flute work ring on "Drume Negrita" and on the splendid original compositions "Hebioso," "Fransilo's Dream," "Santos Suarez," and the Cubano rap "Joyful Noise." --Eugene Holley Jr.