Cuban music and its labyrinth of rhythms are never far away, though they rarely escape from the Latin scene to wider acclaim, as the veterans of Buena Vista Social Club managed 20 years back. Signed to Daptone, a label that has helped reanimate the soul music of a previous era, Orquesta Akokán have done much the same for the big-band styles of 1950s Cuba, when the likes of Perez Prado and Benny Moré bossed Havana’s dancehalls. Purring reed and strident brass sections, rippling piano and exultant vocals are here, along with insistent, conga-driven rhythms, all overseen by producer Jacob Plasse and pianist Michael Eckroth. The languid charms of the Buena Vistas these are not.
On this third album comes a charismatic new singer and lyricist, Kiko Ruiz, who is also a priest in the Palo Mayombe religion, and whose mix of ritual and dance moves is captured in the video for Con Licencia. It’s all hugely danceable but not all flat out; the numbers are clipped, with a Prado-style swing to mambos like Pregonero and a token cha-cha-cha featuring singer Carolina Oliveros. The ensemble playing comes studded with slick solos – the bebop alto outburst on Doña Felipa is a case in point. Fresh and joyous.
