World Music Network

With its origins in Cuba and hugely influenced by the New York dancehalls and orchestras, mambo’s driving rhythms and swinging horns are an original and distinctive Latin dance sound. With a golden age in the 1950s, mambo’s retro chic is more popular than ever today – especially on the salsa scene where dancers eager to check out frantic mambo rhythms can expand their feet skills. The Rough Guide To Mambo is an exceptional collection from the great originators and pioneers, such as Pérez Prado, Machito and Tito Puente who developed mambo history, to today’s mambo artists, such as Snowboy and Mamborama, whose exploration is reinventing the genre.

**** (four stars) 'Phenomenal musicianship and arrangements.' Songlines