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Salswing!
Fans of TV’s
Rubén Blades’s work, as will anyone who saw the X-Files episode “El Mundo Gira”. Those with slightly longer memories may recall his role in Spike Lee’s
Mo’ Better Blues. Blades is, of course, both actor and musician. He made an album (
Siembra, 1978) with Willie Colon that sold 25 million copies and became the best-selling salsa release in history. Obviously none of this keeps him busy enough, so in 1994 he stood for the Presidency of Panama, winning 17% of the vote.
Blades has written or co-written about half of the tunes on this new album, which at a rough calculation seems to be his 38th as leader. His intention in making it was to show that a salsa orchestra is also capable of playing swing: the album is a mixture of styles, from salsa to… well, swing, the latter represented by three well-worn standard