The challenge is not to get up and dance. Fugget it. Impossible. Ay Valeria! by Ricardo Lemvo and Makina Loca has one major purpose – to get me up off my couch and move. The story is a forlorn one, the narrator is going around asking people, including a gardener, what happened to his lover. The poetry is that his love is his “flower of Eden”, and therefore perhaps the gardener has seen her. He has fertilized her with tenderness, “and above all love”. In true Putumayo fashion, Ricardo was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and grew up loving the music of Cuba. His heritage allows him to truly place the elements of Africa that people talk about when discussing South American dance music. Works for me. He’s done an excellent job working with Makina Loca to make me want to listen over and over. A shoutout to Juanito y la Agresive for introducing me to the fascinating ¡Salsa Cali! scene in Columbia with the tune Angoa. Great party CD!Putumayo Presents ¡Salsa!
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Looking back in history:
