Mongo Santamaria

Over 35 years since it was first released, Mongo '70 still explodes out of your stereo speakers -- even digital technology cannot contain the heat these 1970 sessions generated. This is soul-jazz read through a Latin filter, and Santamaria's conga playing sings a different tune in each song, speaking with the dense instrumental mix in a kind of wordless Latin American patois. Nobody else falls down on the job, either: composer Neal Creque provided the swinging source material, which each musician ran with.