Latin

Buying Latin records: bolero, cumbia, salsa and Latin jazz

In short: The Vinyl Room currently has 643 Latin records. The biggest groups are bolero and cumbia, plus Latin jazz, salsa, cha-cha and mambo. Many records date from the sixties and seventies – from the US, but also straight from Mexico, Colombia and Brazil. Pressings from Latin America like these are rarely seen in Europe.

What counts as Latin?

Latin is an umbrella term for music from Latin America and its scene in the US:

• Bolero – the romantic song from Cuba, sung by voices like Olga Guillot.
• Cumbia – the rhythm of Colombia’s coast, later at home across Latin America.
• Mambo, cha-cha and salsa – dance music with Cuban roots; salsa was shaped in New York above all by Puerto Rican musicians.
• Latin jazz and Afro-Cuban – jazz with Cuban rhythms, for example by Cal Tjader.
• MPB – Música Popular Brasileira, for example Marcos Valle.

Why collect Latin music on vinyl?

Because these records were often pressed for the home market – in Bogotá, Mexico City or Rio, with covers that have a visual language of their own. Put on a seventies Colombian cumbia record and you hear it the way it played at the parties of the Caribbean coast. And then there’s the sound: percussion, horns and bass are often recorded wonderfully directly.

Which labels matter to collectors?

• Discos Fuentes – Colombia, founded by Antonio Fuentes in Cartagena in 1934; the great cumbia label.
• Musart – Mexico: bolero, ranchera and the voices of Mexican cinema.
• Fantasy – California: among others the Latin jazz of Cal Tjader.

From our stock

Bolero

Cumbia

Salsa, mambo & cha-cha

Latin jazz & Afro-Cuban

Browse by style: Bolero · Cumbia · Salsa · Mambo · Cha-cha · Latin jazz · Afro-Cuban · MPB

FAQ

What is the difference between salsa and mambo? Mambo emerged from Cuban music in the forties and fifties and grew big in Havana, Mexico and New York. Salsa is the later umbrella term from the sixties and seventies on – with Cuban roots, shaped in New York above all by Puerto Rican musicians.

What is cumbia? A rhythm from Colombia’s Caribbean coast that spread across Latin America – here often on the Colombian label Discos Fuentes.

Where do your Latin records come from? Many from the US, plus pressings from Mexico, Colombia and Brazil. The country is listed with every record.

Are Latin American pressings worse? Not as a rule. Some are more simply packaged than US editions, but they often sound very direct. What matters is the condition – where given, it’s listed with the copy; otherwise ask us.

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