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11/12/2005 - CHICAGO TRIBUNE |
THE YEAR'S BEST RECORDINGS: LATIN MUSIC
Much of year's creative sounds came from Latin music
In strict commercial terms, 2005 was the year when reggaeton became the biggest Latin music phenomenon since Ricky Martin lived la vida loca. The bouncy new style -- part Puerto Rican hip-hop, part Panamanian reggae -- dominated the charts alongside the established favorites from the Regional Mexican arena. So it was up to Latin rock to give us some of the year's most challenging, unconventional and ultimately satisfying records. The fields of Brazilian music, salsa, merengue and Latin jazz also delivered their share of goods, whereas Latin pop continued operating in a creative purgatory of endless bombast and self-complacency.
3. Kevin Johansen + The Nada: "City Zen" (Sony BMG)
The gravelly voiced Johansen has spent most of his life between Argentina and the U.S., which explains the international flavor of this delightful pop record. Johansen loves good music, and he pays tribute to artists as disparate as Sly and the Family Stone, folk pioneer Atahualpa Yupanqui and Brazilian iconoclast Tom Ze. If you're in search of a sunny album to lift you up, look no further.
By Ernesto Lechner
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