Salsa de la Buena!

Given the quality of the musicianship in evidence here, Toronto's salsa scene must be flourishing. No doubt conceived in the spirit of the Fania label's great all-star ensembles of the 1970s, the Lula All Stars – the name derives from the Lula Lounge, the city's top world music venue – brings together the finest local Latin musicians to spice up the salsa stew with their diverse musical origins. It's no surprise, therefore, to detect a dash of son in ‘Cuando el Rio Suena’, a pinch of cumbia in ‘Y Pensaba Yo’ and a whole fistful of charanga in the delicious ‘Juan Candela’, which recalls an era when flutes and violins gave contemporary Cuban music such a sweet swinging quality.

The impressive thing about these musicians is that they display the tight discipline of the legendary Cuban big band Irakere while retaining a relaxed retro sound reminiscent of all those jam sessions under the aegis of Cachao, Charlie Palmieri and other bygone masters. If all this suggests that the Lula All Stars don’t yet have their own distinct personality, then that might be true, but the music is so darn good that it doesn’t really matter.