This discography is from The Rough Guide to World Music (Volume 2: Latin and North America, Caribbean, India, Asia and Pacific)
CD = recommended first buy
cd = compact disc
t = tape only
v = vinyl only
Compilations
CD Venezuela: Pajarillo Verde
(World Network, Germany)
A good cross-section of llanera and other regional folk styles by four well-established traditional artistes, Fredy Reyna, Lilia Vera, the Serenata Guyanesa and the Trio Llanero. Includes local waltzes and merengues, bamboleos, joropos, and even an English language callipso in an accent to baffle all but the most expert of ethno-linguists.
cd The Music of Venezuela
(Zu-Zazz, UK)
The 15 tracks compiled here range across Venezuelan regions and styles, featuring local groups and folklorico ensembles playing mainly llanero and joropo songs, featuring harp and cuatros. There's also an oddball recording of country style merengue played on a single-string mouth bow.
Artists
Los Amigos Invisibles
As you'd expect of an act on David Byrne's label, the Caracas-based Los Amigos are hard to pin down - their music draws on Venezuelan roots (with lots of Afro-style percussion) but pulls in lashings of Latin jazz, bossa nova, and USfunk and lounge music.
cd The New Sound of the Venezuelan Gozadera
(Luaka Bop, US)
The group's international debut made quiet waves on the US and British lounge scene, with its quirky rather than kitsch dance work-outs and understated bossa novas.
Billo's Caracas Boys
A Venezuelan institution, Billo's big band was founded when its leader arrived in Caracas in 1937 from his native Santo Domingo to take on a residency at the Roof Garden of the Hotel Madrid. Though Billo died in 1990, the band is still going strong.
cd Billo's Caracas Boys 1941-44
(Harlequin, UK)
An excellent selection from the band's early years, when its style was based on Cuban ensembles such as the Orquesta del Casino de la Playa. Replete with guarachas, boleros, merengues, joropos and period curiosities such as a cantering guasa and the opening son-swing.
cd Lo Mejor de Billo's Caracas Boys
(Velvet, USA/Venezuela )
A 'Best Of' compilation featuring sixteen of the band's dance favourites, including newer Colombian standards such as 'Abusadora' and 'A mover tu colita'.
Oscar D'Leon
D'Leon comes from Venezuela but was born with a Cuban soul. His career is built on adaptation of Cuban son - in some cases jazzed up and jumpy with a recognisably Colombian tropical flavour, in others closer to the model set by his lifelong idol, the Cuban giant, Bene Mor茅.
CD El Sonero del Mundo
(RMM, US)
Straightahead, irresistibly danceable New York salsa led by D'Leon's unmistakably rich voice, joined on the hit duet, Hasme el Amor by current salsa-pop icon, La India.
cd La Formula Original
(RMM, USA)
D'Leon hasn't made a bad record in years, and his most recent, to end the millennium, is another classic, with high energy dance hits 'Mi Mujer Es Una Bomba' and 'Deja Que Te Quiera' and a cover title printed in Spanish, English, French and Japanese in recognition of his current audience.
Dimension Latina
D'Leon's old band, latterly proclaiming themselves 'Los G茅nerales de la Salsa', still put on a fine polished show, with impeccable co-ordinated uniform and dance steps, and three highly competent vocalists making up for the absence of their ex-boss and his star substitute, Andy Monta帽ez.
cd Los due帽os del Caribe
(Velvet, USA/Venezuela)
A good mid-period album of smooth old-school urban nightclub salsa.
Guaco
Formed in the 1960s as a Christmas festival percussion band, Guaco has grown into a dynamic, experimental and highly distinctive dance outfit. If Oscar D'Leon and the Dimension Latina fit into the Cuban-Puerto Rican tradition of classic son-based hard salsa, Guaco call more to mind a new wave Cuban model such as Los Van Van.
CD Como era y como es
(Latin World, Venezuela)
This 1999 outing is one of their strongest yet, a fizzing concoction of salsa, jazz, funk, joropo, gaita and touches of Brazilian and rock sounds.
Hurac谩n de Fuego
One of the most active, skilled and insider-knowledgeable of Venezuela's Afro-percussion ensembles, Hurac谩n are a kind of equivalent of the Cuban rumba group, Mu帽equitos de Matanzas.
cd Vamos a darle
(Nubenegra, Spain)
Studio recorded in Maracaibo and beautifully produced and packaged, with first-class liner notes (albeit in Spanish), this is an excellent introduction to the percussive richness of the country, and it isn't too ethnological to include a version of Joe Arroyo's hit Rebelion.
Cheo Hurtado
Born in 1960, Cheo is the son of Venezuelan guitarist and composer Ram贸n Hurtado and is one of the country's leading cuatro players, making his own innovations to the instrument and its playing style. He has founded several groups playing traditional and pop music and teaches cuatro, guitar and mandolin.
CD Cuatro arpas y un cuatro
(Tropical Music, Germany)
An alternative to the punning title ('Four Harps and a Cuatro') might be 'The Best Cuatro Disc in the World . . . Ever'. The line-up is that of a typical country (llanera) ensemble - harp, cuatro, bass and maracas (rattles). Hurtado plays with four different harpists and the notes and rhythms fly so fast that it's often impossible to tell who's doing what. Traditional artistry and improvisation at its thrilling best.
Orlando Poleo
A polished and prolific conga, bongo and guiro player, Poleo works mainly out of Paris, and is anchored primarily in international Afro-Cuban jazz. Nonetheless he employs an interesting range of Venezuelan rhythms on his guest-star-studded albums.
cd El Buen Camino
(Colombia, UK)
Recorded in Caracas in 1997, and featuring musicians of the calibre of Cuba's Chucho Valdez and 'Maraca' Valle, this is a sizzling collection, the percussion, flute and sax-driven jazz style harbouring curious rhythms such as the gaita de furro from Maracaibo, the Caracas merengue (decidedly not Elvis Crespo) and treats such as a chachach谩 in French.
Un Solo Pueblo
Un Solo Pueblo is Venezeula's most popular folk-pop band. Over the past quarter century, the group has recorded more than 20 albums. Many of their songs have become popular anthems.
cd Caramba
(World Network, Germany)
This collection features the best of Un Solo Pueblo's 25-year history, spanning a broad range of Venezuelan musical forms, including gaitas, calipsos, parranda, and sangeo.
Los Vasallos del Sol
Under the leadership of musical director Jesus Rond贸n, Los Vasallos del Sol is a 26-member song and dance troupe specialising in Afro-Venezeulan music, primarily from along the Caribbean coast.
cd Tibio Calor
(Ashe Records, US)
A landmark album of African music in the Americas, featuring six drummers and a dozen of the country's top vocalists.
