Speaking of mixing rap and singing, here comes Bimbo G, a rapper dropped in front of a great band anchored to the super swing of the bassist Arnaldo Jimenez. Backed by a tough coro, Bimbo rocks the house, playing the piano all the time. This is rap that owes less to the gangster American model than to some sort of indigenous Cuban rap, flavored deeply by Jamaican fast chat rap. Damn, it’s good. But there’s something else here, which is the inclusion of the singer Maikel Alonso on four of the tunes; he deserves his own record date, with a band of this caliber.

Read more about Bimbo G on Last.fm.