*** Ricardo Lemvo & Makina Loca

SÌO SALVADOR

(Putumayo)

World-music successes often depend on combinations of disparate but complementary elements. It makes all the difference when the artist comes by the combination honestly, and Lemvo does. Born in Zaire (now Congo) with Angolan ancestry, Lemvo moved to Los Angeles as a school boy, and when he rolls Congolese soukous, Afro Cuban son, Puerto Rican bomba, and funky R&B together, it really works.

His second album leans more to the Latin than the African side, but Africa is there, as when he sings a classic Congolese rumba in Lingala and Spanish and melds piano montuna with cycling African guitar. The title track, a lovely ballad honoring a martyr of the ancient kingdom of Kongo, works accordion into the mix. Lemvo pulls in Congolese vocal star Bopol and delves into Dominican merengue on one track; his excursion into multi-lingual funk -- "Nganga Kisi" ("Witch Doctor") -- doesn't ring quite as true. He's not a four-star vocalist by Latin or African standards, but his take on the Afro-Latin grab bag is solid and convincing.

-- Banning Eyre

(Ricardo Lemvo and Makina Loca perform next Sunday, April 2, at the House of Blues. Call 491-BLUE.)