Cuban Originals: Beny Moré

El Bárbaro del Ritmo was one of the great voices of Cuban music’s golden age, and this collection struts with all the confidence and contradictions of mid-century Havana. Moré’s agile tenor swings and swaggers on brassy mambos and big-band cha-cha-chas like “La Culebra,” but positively aches on such slow-burning boleros as “Y Hoy Como Ayer.” We absolutely love the classic “Bonito y Sabroso,” which Moré recorded in Mexico with bandleader Perez Prado in the mid-'50s, when Mambo Kings still walked the earth.