This almost totally instrumental album doesn't update old styles like guaguanco, tumbao and danzón so much as it reaffirms their vitality. Alemañy's forte is son, a roots form of salsa with the trumpet as the lead. The cha-cha "Aprovecha" counters the familiar ticking-clock back-up rhythm with Alemañy's trumpet, here sweetly persuasive, elsewhere rocketing up majestically or swelling with ripe romanticism. "Pa' que gozén" ("For Enjoyment's Sake") is medium-tempo Cuban folk that builds to a loose, triumphal percussive jam; appropriately enough, someone laughs at the end.

-- Wes Eichenwald