Vol. 5: Carnival
"Come and party with me, y'all," exhorts Bill Summers on Los Hombres Calientes' latest multi-culti celebration, telling you not only what the album is about and where he and co-leader Irvin Mayfield are from--the South, New Orleans to be precise--but also what their attitude is in breezing  through Cuban and Brazilian styles, funk and jazz, samba and mambo and salsa. Though they have an agenda as world travelers, they're neither purists nor rootsologists; they're mostly after a good time and will toss anything into the mix to attain it. On "Carnival," their deepest and most sustained effort, their ability to synthesize styles is so secure, tributes to a pair of Crescent City legends, piano maven James Booker and bass funkster George Porter of Meters fame rub off happily on West African and Congolese numbers, and vice versa. Reaching back to the Satchmo tradition with his high, hard-edged, trilling solos, but flashing modernistic colors as  well, Mayfield rides over and through the sound while Summer keeps things percolating on his usual assortment of percussion instruments. The hometown cast includes the Rebirth Brass Band, Kermit Ruffins and the Mardis Gras Indians. Party on, indeed.--Lloyd Sachs