Orquesta Akokán
★★★★
Caracoles
DAPTONE. CD/DL/LP
Third outing for the Cubans putting a modern twist on the mambo.
IT’S NOT immediately obvious why this album has been named after the Spanish word for snails – its 10 tracks being aimed squarely at animals with gyrating hips – but the Cuban big band are a glorious throwback to the era when the orquestas gigantes of Beny Moré and Machito competed to dominate the ballrooms of Havana and New York. It’s no facsimile of those groups’ output – the nine-piece horn section contains four sax players (the woodwind instrument was often left out in the golden era, only becoming a sine qua non when salsa shook the Americas) – but with an all-star line-up of percussionists,