by John Storm Roberts
A stunner from Puente's golden age, this 1957 recording brought together Tito, Mongo , Willie Bobo , Aguabella , and Julito Collazo on percussion with vocalists that included Mercedita Valdez , in seven wonderful cuts of traditional and (then) contemporary Afro-Cuban skin-on-skin. Then as an unexpected gift, there is a seven-minute Latin-jazz suite featuring Puente's considerable jazz-arranger head and a powerful band with Doc Severinson on lead trumpet.