Guajira Mas Guajira

More than half a century ago, Maria Ochoa used to sit in a hammock on the family's farm in rural Cuba singing to the sound of Eliades Ochoa playing a broken, three-string guitar. Now a member of the group Alma Latina, she teams up here once again with her brother, who went on to find fame with Cuarteto Patria and then Buena Vista Social Club, of course. The result is one of the most delightful Cuban albums for some time. Eliades underpins the sound with the ringing armonico guitar work so familiar from the immortal ‘Chan Chan’, and adds a few vocals. Yet mostly he leaves his sister's robust, throaty voice to take the vocal spotlight. The eight-strong Alma Latina are a cracking band, too, the familiar Cuban line-up of tres(guitar), bass, piano, congas and horns augmented by a sound far less customary in Cuban conjuntos – the stinging electric guitar lines of bandleader Julio Montoro, who also acts as producer. The material is splendidly diverse, from Eliades minor-key country-tinged guajira on ‘Brisa Mañanera’ to spirited son, rumba and salsa workouts, a lovely, party version of Celina Gonzalez's ‘Yo Soy el Punto Cubano’ and an invigorating take on Miguel Matamoros’ classic ‘Oye Va’.