El Changüí Majadero

Changüí music hails from the recently hurricane-ravaged area of Baracoa in Cuba's easterly Guantanamo province: it is a graceful, Caribbean-soaked blend of Spanish guitar melodies and African rhythms. It is also the basis for Cuban son – a genre that originated in nearby Santiago de Cuba, which then went off to New York and morphed into salsa. Oh, and in this case, took a little side-trip to east Los Angeles and put down roots as Changüí Majadero. They are a five-piece group with youthful energy, formidable Latin music chops and a debut album whose rough, raw-edged sound mirrors both its inspiration and its surrounds.

Founder Gabriel Garcia, a jazz and Afro-Latin-loving musician and academic of Mexican heritage, was bowled over by eastern Cuba's characteristic traditional music, with its often improvised lyrics and emphasis on syncopation, rhythm and harmony. Arming himself with a tres (a small guitar with three sets of strings tuned to the same pitch), he went to Guantanamo and learned changüí folk tunes from the old maestros, returning to co-write his own stuff and add his own spin.

The group's template of bongo, tres, bass, horns, maracas and vocals (by the Puerto Rican Norell Thompson) frame songs about everything from folk tales and Santería to the infamous 2014 Mexican student massacre; the changüí form allows for wide lyrical content, much like the blues. Cuban-born bassist Yosmel Montejo and bongo player George Ortiz shine on ‘La Rumba Esta Buena’, delivered here in two mixes, in straight-up traditional and salsafied versions for the urban dance floor – a move that sums up the forward-looking yet respectful Changüí Majadero aesthetic.