*** Various Artists

MERENGUE: DOMINCAN MUSIC AND DOMINICAN IDENTITY

(Rounder)

There's more to merengue than you might suspect. Today's slick, hugely popular dance music has roots that go back to the turn of the century to rural areas of the Dominican Republic. Even today, rough and raw folk variants survive in the countryside of the island nation. This eye-opening collection of historical sides and contemporary field recordings spans the irresistible music's recorded history, putting it in sociological and historical context and shedding light on its artistic diversity.

Compiled by Paul Austerlitz, the collection begins with examples from the turn of the century that establish the music's form and stylistic hallmarks: a peppy two-beat underscored by rapid-fire hand-drum triplets, coarse country singing, and riffs exchanged between accordion and alto saxophone in frenetic call-and-response. Subsequent developments reflect the island's changing history and the influences of other musics. Several of the songs, including Antonio Morel y su Orquesta's "San Cristóbal," pay tribute to dictator Rafael Trujillo. Swing big-band influences surface in Nini Vásquez y sus Rigoleros' "Compadre Pedro Juan," which features saxophonist Tavito Vásquez, a genuine unsung master of his instrument. "Me dejaste sola," by merengue's first female star, Belkis Concepción, is a more recent track indicating the impact of changing women's roles. The influence of modern jazz in felt in "El diente de oro," an astonishingly fast and complex track by Bartolo Alvarado.

-- Ed Hazell