Salsa Classics

Classico Latino is a London-based collective led by pianist Ivan Guevara and cellist Graham Walker, who co-founded the outfit back in 1997 after meeting at Cambridge University and bonding over a combined love for European classical music and the zinging sounds of Latin America. Over the years they have developed a fusion that honours both disciplines in ways subtle, exuberant and keenly balanced, lending their vital mix of piano, vocals, strings, bass and percussion to everything from compositions by Ernesto Lecuona, the ‘Cuban Gershwin’, to the oeuvre of Cuban salsa queen Celia Cruz, their line-up changing over the years but their quality remaining steadfast. This, their sixth studio album, finds them collaborating with Colombian multi-instrumentalist and salsa legend Fruko (Julio Ernesto Estrada) on tracks including his own carnivalesque, sabor-laden ‘Barranquillero Arrebatao’ and his 1981 smash hit ‘El Son del Tren’, its Spanish-language lyrics about the day-to-day struggles of workers as relevant as they ever were. London-based Cuban bassist Rey Crespo is a solid, reassuring presence throughout, but it’s London-based violinist Omar Puente who makes the boleros, tangos and jaunty joropos soar. Highlights are many: the glorious instrumental ‘El Caminante’, once famously delivered by Joe Arroyo and Fruko, sprouts wings and flies. A danceathon beckons.