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One of Latin music's original 20th-century superstars of stage, record, and screen, the bandleader born Francisco de Asis Javier Cugat Mingall de Cru y Deulofeo may have delivered the rumba, tango, and mambo with a slick mainstream veneer, but it was precisely those shrewd commercial instincts that undoubtedly brought a rich, rhythm-charged world of music to audiences who might never otherwise have been exposed to it. The 23 gloriously remastered tracks here span the '40s and '50s, an era when "Cugie" was a household name due to his myriad radio and film appearances. The material ranges from an energetic 1941 Miguelito Valdes performance of the Afro-Cuban staple (and later Desi Arnaz signature tune) "Babalu" and a Cugie-ized take on Tito Puente's evergreen "Suavecito" to more jazz-kitschy renditions of "The Brand New Cha-Cha" and "The Anything Can Happen Mambo" by third wife Abbe Lane (Cugat would later marry pop culture icon Charro). The mambo and merengue fads of the '40s and '50s are also given their due via Pérez Prado's "Mambo Jambo" and "A Bailar Merengue" respectively. Machito may have been more "authentic," but few could quibble with the effervescence and missionary zeal Cugat brought to Latin music for eight remarkable decades. Let this be your appetizer. --Jerry McCulley
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