Week 1 - The Very Best of Latin Jazz 2 - Starting the year off right

I felt it fitting that this be the first album I recommend as it is the first I can remember listening to. This is the album responsible for my taste in music (whether that taste in music is good or bad is not for me to decide). This was my dad’s idea of a lullaby and so has stuck with me throughout my life.

Quick syncopation, sultry vocals, jazz improvisation and bossa rhythm. Nothing but happy vibes that make you want to shake and dance, though it works just as well as it used to in putting me to sleep.

My favourites

1. Take Five - Tito Puente. - A jazz standard drenched in the bossa rhythm. I think I like it better than the original
   

2. Sonando - Poncho Sanchez - What I imagine a dive bar in Havana would sound like, complete with the smell of cigars and cerveza.
   

3. Bossa - Grant Green - A slow groovy bluesy track that makes you shake your shoulders and fall in love with brass.