[[exclamdown]]Cubanismo!

MARDI GRAS MAMBO

(Hannibal)

Mardi Gras Mambo is [[exclamdown]]Cubanismo!'s fourth release since they formed, in 1995, but it's more like a fiery rebirth than just another salsa dance session. The ingredients: a Havana-based dance band and the Crescent City's R&B and jazz crème de la crème, mixing and matching second-line soul and Havana horn-drenched, nightclub passion. [[exclamdown]]Cubanismo! shoot brass blasts and pounding conga skins through Allen Toussaint's "Mother in Law" and Mardi Gras sing-alongs like "Iko Iko" and the disc's title cut. And though the horn players and percussionists provide the musical backbone in this band led by trumpeter Jesús Alemany, it's the velvety smooth tenor of New Orleans vocalist John Boutte that's the disc's secret weapon. The rest of it is pure polyrhythmic rumba by way of Africa -- that continent being the spiritual alpha and omega of the rhythms that feed these Cuban and Crescent City grooves.

-- Steven Ward