Santiago de Cuba 1992 Live Recordings: La Reina del Sol (Boléro, Guaracha, Mambo, Conga, Guajira & Rumba) / Santiago de Cuba 1992 Live Recordings: La Reina del Sol (Bolero, Guaracha, Mambo, Conga, Guajira & Rumba)

Globetrotting journalist and ethnomusicologist Francois Jouffa has been tracking down virtuosic musicians in far-flung locales since the early ‘70s, when he recorded a series of remarkable Nepalese folk songs and religious ceremonies for the Disques Vogue imprint. In 1992 Jouffa traveled to Santiago, Cuba, where he captured venerable ensembles like The Septeto Turquino, The Quinteto de la Trova, and The Cuartete Oriente performing spirited rumbas, heartbreaking bolero ballads, and primal, folksy guarachas in a set of beguilingly informal field recordings. Santiago de Cuba: 1992 Live Recordings collects 15 of the most remarkable performances that Jouffa captured on his journey. They're mostly sensitively arranged ballads and dance tunes performed by small conjunto groups whose musical pedigrees date back to the pre-revolutionary golden age of Cuban music. Listeners will be immediately reminded of Ry Cooder’s similarly themed but far more commercially successful compilation Buena Vista Social Club, but Santiago de Cuba stands on its own merits and functions well as a rugged and folksy counterpart to Cooder’s more polished collection.