Diablos del Ritmo: The Colombian Melting Pot 1960-1985

Africa collided with Latin America in myriad ways, from the complex rhythms of son, the Yoruba pulse underpinning cumbia to the funereal sway of tango. Barranquilla, on Colombia’s Caribbean coast is the ‘melting pot’ of the title of this 32-track sampler of 70s tropical music, which ranges widely through puya, porto, gaita, chandé and plenty of other genres you’ve almost certainly never heard of. All come from the same broad root and are built on a syncopated melodic line dancing round and round a throbbing beat. For non-musicologists a lot of Diablos… will sound like moody proto-cumbia, with the percussion subdued and the accordion often plangent and searching. All-male choruses are a key part of the mix and the yearning but intimate vocals of the leads remind you it’s only a small stretch of sea between Barranquilla and Cuba. Songs like Andrés Landero’s ‘La Pava Congona’ possess a soulfulness rarely found in contemporary cumbia and J Alvear’s ‘Cumbia Cincelejana’ (which should be ‘Sincelejana’) has a swishy, old-school glamour that evokes al fresco, riverside fiestas beside the Magdalena. Ramiro Beltrán’s ‘Agoniza el Magdalena’ tells the tragic story of this iconic river, where the country’s trials and tribulations silt up with nowhere to go. The combos and sextets that perform these songs are made up of supremely talented brass and percussion players and even the vocal numbers usually find space for crazy little solos and gutsy improvs. Africa is there all the time in the clamorous rhythms and in the transformative force of the music.

If you thought Colombia was a Spanish colony, think again; as far as Wganda Kenya, Los Salvajes and Fuentes All Stars are concerned, the white guys only provided the boats.