Lost City
Andy Garcia directed, starred in and composed the score for this obvious labor of love movie, set in late-'50s Cuba. In his spare time, he also played the piano in the Lost City Orchestra, the de facto house band that performs Garcia's music as well as numbers by the likes of Ernesto Lecuona, widely acknowledged as one of the greatest Cuban composers ever ("A la Antigua," "Danza Lucumi," and "La Comparsa" unfurl glorious string charts). Garcia plays a nightclub owner in Havana right before and during the revolution, thus making music an integral aspect of the movie--no wonder this two-CD set features 45 tracks. In keeping with the movie's period feel, the non-score songs are made up of an array of amazing Cuban dance classics by the likes of Rolando Laserie, inspired player of boleros and guarachas, or mambo master Cachao López (the subject of a documentary directed by Garcia). The latter performs the instrumental version of the gorgeous "Si Me Pudieras Querer," the song that serves as the movie's love theme, while Bola de Nieve handles the vocal one. It was brave of Garcia to juxtapose his own compositions to such numbers, but it's also hard not to think they sound a little bland by comparison.--Elisabeth Vincentelli