Tibiri Tabara
One of Cuba's hippest musical exports, Sierra Maestra excels in the realm between rootsy son music and the more urbane brassiness of salsa.Tibiri Tabarapresents the band's forest of percussion behind bright, catchy horn lines that leap brashly from the complex rhythms. In addition, the group's vocals converse similarly, taking the antiphonal lead and chorus structure to new places through touches of humor and a pure, obvious sense of musical thrill. For the dancers, the plucked bass and harmonic guitar envelope the interlocked percussion instruments as they persist in laying down strong, sashaying claves for the horns and voices to riff off of. This is indeed music for dancers, or at least for very physical listeners who don't mind relentless toe-tapping. There are rhythmic joys aplenty inTibiri Tabara,including the muted counterpoint created from the bongos and guira, and the great punctuations laid down by the brass blasts. This is the past, present and future of Cuba's signature sound.--Andrew Bartlett