Salsa de la Bahia: A Collection of SF Bay Area Salsa and Latin Jazz

In this double-disc third volume of the Salsa de la Bahia series, documentary-maker and timbales-player Rita Hargreaves highlights the contributions of women within the San Francisco Bay Area’s Latin music scene. All the vocalists and most musicians here are female. Far from being musically second-class citizens, their richly diverse contributions illuminate a first-class compilation that leaves you wondering how many treasures have been buried by prejudice elsewhere in the world. If ‘Moving Day’ is a notable example of small-combo Latin jazz, featuring the mellow tenor saxophone of Kristen Strom, ‘La Mensajera’, ‘The Peanut Vendor’ and ‘Caravan’ are three of the cooking-most big-band numbers. ‘Frevo No Morrozinho’ is a delicious chunk of choro, while the extraordinary falsetto voice of Maria Marquez turns the traditional Venezuelan ‘La Lagrima’ into something ethereal and entrancing. “Love the dance, live the music”, the CD booklet exhorts. With so much to enjoy here, that’s guaranteed.