| The love affair between American jazz and Latin music may have begun with Don Azpiazu’s Cuban band releasing El Mansiero (Peanut Vendor) in 1930. Reputedly the first million selling 78 record, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington immediately absorbed the song into their repertoires and their versions can be heard on this double disc set. Years later bop musicians in their turn became enthralled with afro-Cuban rhythms while dance music played by latin bands became ever more popular. This collection pays homage to the mambo phenomena, taking in the pre-war rhumba and conga craze, Dizzy Gillespie’s cubop excursions and Machito’s Afro-Cuban Orchestra of the late ‘40s. |
