Cumbia All-Stars, Tigres en Fuga

So today we travel a span of aural distance for some infectious contemporary cumbia music, a venerable Latin dance style with vibrant rhythm. The Cumbia All-Stars give us a contemporary slant on Cumbia Peruana sounds in their album Tigres en Fuga (World Village 450028).

It has the rhythmic vibrancy you expect, solid lead and call-and-response vocals, tunes that hit home, and perhaps most interestingly, a very guitar-centric approach. The lead and rhythm guitars are very outfront in a kind of Afro-meets-Santana hipness, meaning that the guitar work reminds slightly of the highlife-and-beyond African electric guitar tradition, is within the Latin tradition, yet has at times an almost rock feel as well.

Mind you this is not some kind of cumbia metal. The cumbia feel is always at the forefront. Yet the band sounds both magnetic and of today.

Guitar lovers will find this album most interesting, for the lead guitarist is good and very fluent. Yet the groove will grab you at the same time.

Bravo! Listen and enjoy!