LATIN PULSE : ‘Mambo Kings’ Soundtrack Album Still Has the Beat

“The Mambo Kings” movie is gone from the theaters, but the soundtrack album is still a hot item on the Latin charts--No. 2 in the most recent edition of Billboard. The collection attempts to hurdle cultural barriers by using some English lyrics and star performers. Meanwhile, other entries in this periodic roundup of new Latin sounds--including veteran Colombian composer-singer Joe Arroyo--make attempts to broaden the music’s horizons and appeal while remaining en Espanol . Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to four stars (excellent).

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VARIOUS ARTISTS

“The Mambo Kings”

soundtrack

Elektra

Mambo--with its blend of elegant American jazz and spicy, percussive Caribbean music--was a vibrant, popular presence in the United States and Mexico during the ‘50s, as well as in many other parts of the world. Two contributions each from Tito Puente and the Mambo All-Stars Orchestra re-create the excitement of that era on this album.

Puente, one of the top proponents of mambo in New York during the late ‘50s, serves up new versions of his old “Ran Kan Kan” and “Para Los Rumberos.” The Mambo All-Stars Orchestra, a 14-member band grouped for this recording, re-creates the classic mambo with “Tea for Two,” but also injects new life into the old genre in the new composition “Tanga, Rumba-Afro-Cubana.”

The soundtrack album also features boleros , two of them performed by Linda Ronstadt, who seems more comfortable than ever singing in Spanish. But veteran Latin star Celia Cruz sounds less comfortable with some clumsy English-language vocals, and the album also stumbles with two versions (by Los Lobos and by actor Antonio Banderas) of a hopelessly melodramatic song written by Arne Glimcher, who also happens to be the director of the movie.

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JOE ARROYO “Toque De Clase”

Sony Discos

Arroyo has been one of the most exciting exponents of tropical music for more than a decade, but it’s only recently that his recordings have been widely distributed in this country. In this album, the Colombian native and his exceptional orchestra move boldly into fresh territory. Arroyo blends new sounds, employing not only the biting horns and percussion essential to his cumbia style, but also adding flutes, tasteful synthesizers, samples and vocal arrangements to come across as a sort of Ladysmith Black Mambazo with a Latin edge. The music documents the big influence African rhythms continue to have on Latin music.

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MIGUEL MATEOS “Kryptonita”

BMG-International

Mateos, a rock star in his native Argentina, has concentrated in recent years on trying to build a career in the more lucrative Mexican and U.S. markets. He’s attained that goal, but at the expense of musical quality. The classic example was his sadly artificial 1990 album “Obsesion,” a high-tech affair recorded with the help of “Flashdance” producer-musician Michael Sembello.

In “Kryptonita,” Mateos demonstrates some of his old power in such energetic songs as “Lola” and the more restrained “Si Tuvieramos Alas.” Unfortunately, most of the songs reflect recycled Western pop-rock sounds. On “No. 1 (Que Hable El Corazon),” the only song on the album sung in English, he seems to be headed down the same stale, melodramatic path taken by such mainstream figures as Michael Bolton.

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MARCOS LOYA “Love Is the Reason”

Spindletop

In his debut album, guitarist-composer Loya is at his best when he is mixing rich Latin rhythms with contemporary jazz. “Yo Te Quiero” is a scintillating marriage of jazz and rumba flamenca , the popular Spanish rhythm. But he wastes much of the album and his talent by simply giving us competent, colorless jazz--minus the Latin spice. “Rain Weatherman” and “Skins and Strings,” for instance, seem like imitation Earl Klugh. Loya needs to take more chances.