Track Listing

1. Amame Mam� (Give Me Love, Mama)
2. Ay Valeria!
3. Yembe
4. Tio Antonio (Uncle Tony)
5. Sani (The Vase)
6. Dos Mulatas (2 Lovely Babes)
7. Samba Luku Samba (Pay, You Must Pay)
8. Kidia M'Fuka (Con Artist)
9. Fikofiko Ko
10. Amor Matata (A Tempestuous Love Affair)
11. Ay Valeria! [Afro-Portuguese Version]
12. �mame Mam� [Club Remix]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #323996 in Music
• Released on: 2003-07-29
• Number of discs: 1

Album Description
Ricardo Lemvo has added a new touch to rumba music over the years, mixing Cuban and West African sounds. Born in Kinshasa, the capital of Zaire, Lemvo started out by playing in bands that covered American R&B, learning his English phonetically from the song lyrics. But he heard the rumba incessantly on the radio, and also in his cousin's large record collection. After moving to Los Angeles and paying his dues in the music scene, he formed his own group, Makina Loca (a deliberate misspelling of maquina loca, Spanish for crazy machine) On Ay Valeria, Ricardo and friends serve up fiery salsa with explosive African Soukous guitars.

Customer Reviews

Cuban piano mixed with African guitars, pulsating horns
Many African bands have tried to sound Cuban: some have succeeded, but nobody has successfully captured the essence of both the way Ricardo Lemvo and Makina Loca have.
Imagine Tito Puente or Johnny Pacheco at their salsa best mixed with occasional dashes of Franco or Tabu Ley Rochereau. Hot, hot, hot!

Some of the best african tinged salsa and merengue you will hear
The african here is mostly in the electric guitars and lyrics thrown in significantly enough for you to feel them, but not strongly enough that they give this album an overtly exotic feel. Many of the salsa and merengue tracks would feel just fine at any latin club. The band sounds tight with interplay between the instruments, specially on a track where the chorus urges the trumpet and flute to produce great jams.

He changes the pace with a few of the tracks having a more African feel. These tracks might be a bit unusual for most latin music listeners, but they sure change the pace and throw a little humor.

Most of the tracks are salsa and son based, with a couple of merengue and a couple of the African styles I cannot recognize.

Multi-Lingual Dance Party
Each track offers another world view, all set to a solid Afro-Latin beat. This is deeper than salsa or soukus.