Mambo Sinuendo Ry Cooder Artist

{|Mambo Sinuendo|} is a collaboration between {|Ry Cooder|} and {|Buena Vista|} alum (and formerly of many other groups as well) {|Manuel Galban|}. The album attempts to catch an old style popularized in Cuba by {|Galban|}, and was, surprisingly, nev... Read more

{|Mambo Sinuendo|} is a collaboration between {|Ry Cooder|} and {|Buena Vista|} alum (and formerly of many other groups as well) {|Manuel Galban|}. The album attempts to catch an old style popularized in Cuba by {|Galban|}, and was, surprisingly, never followed up on by anybody after {|Galban|}. It's a guitar-based romp closely based in the {|pop|}/{|jazz|} crossovers of the 1950s-1960s ({|Henry Mancini|}, {|Nelson Riddle|}, etc). There's a touch of exoticism here and there, and a larger touch of a relatively Hawaiian feel throughout the whole via the guitar techniques employed by the pair. It's all somewhere in a form between {|lounge|}, {|mambo|}, and {|Esquivel|}'s old space-age-bachelor-pad music. In rare instances, there's even a little bit of a {|house|} drum loop added in by the percussionists. Aside from the stray spacey chorus in the title track, it's an entirely instrumental affair, which suits the musicians quite well, giving them a chance to show off their full virtuosity along the way. The musicality these guitarists hold, and the interplay between them, is really the treat of the album. For a nice look at the musical genre that never was, but probably should have been, this makes a good show. Newcomers to {|Cooder|} should perhaps dig into some older releases to get a feel before coming to this album, but all others should embrace it quickly. ~ Adam Greenberg Less