Latin America’s rich but bewildering cultural mix of native, Spanish, Portuguese, African and a few other traditions has produced an astonishing variety of musics. From the dance rhythms of the Dominican Republic’s Bachata to the aerobics of the Zumba and from the Bach/Brazilian hommages of Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras…

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…to the Argentinian, Astor Piazzolla’s  Nuevo Tango…

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…the South Americans have used, blended and (sometimes) transformed their diverse musical cultures to produce a rather heady mixture that, for all its enormous variety, seems somehow or other  to ‘belong’ to its terroir. It also exports rather well:

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