La Gran Diversión

Out beyond the Buena Vista Social Club there is a piano. Roberto Fonseca will meet you there. Having stoked his international career by depping for Rubén González, collaborating with Ibrahim Ferrer and directing tours by Omara Portuondo, the hotshot Habanero knows the appeal of sepia-tinted tradition, of tunes you can sway to. That he is also a fan of jazz, funk, reggaeton and rap, all of which he’s folded into his oeuvre over the years, lends a left-field knowingness to this latest studio release, which woos the listener in ways inventive and subtle. Keenly aware that the world could do with some escapist fare, Fonseca gifts us ‘Mani Mambo’, a toe-tapping mix of bursting brass and Afro-Cuban grooves further lifted by the vocals of Barca-based soul star Clarence Bekker, and ‘Sal al Malecón’, a wildly varied tribute to the infamous oceanside boulevard. Both are invites to dance. But despite the retro vibe of videos respectively recreating Cuba’s Roaring 20s and the Cabane Cubaine club in Montmartre, Paris (where regulars included Cab Calloway and Rita Hayworth), Fonseca’s questing experimentalism is never far away. There’s the addition of American jazz violinist Regina Carter to Eddie Palmieri & Lalo Rodríguez’ Santeria-informed ‘Kinka Mache’, and the melodic lyricism inside ‘Oscar Please Stop’, a glorious ode to Oscar Peterson. Supreme stuff.