Sweet merengue

Merengada present yet another lively new take on the Latin dance boom. They are different not just because they are based in London, rather than Havana or Miami, but because they mix their salsa with merengue, the crisp, up-tempo dance music of the Dominican Republic. The 10-piece band includes members from the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Italy and of course the UK (they are led by alto-sax player Nina Jaffa), and they are notable both because of the sheer enthusiasm and vitality in their playing, and the variety in their songs. There are cheerful, danceable merengue tracks like En Verano and La Cintuba, bursts of well-played, classic salsa such as the Los Tempos De Ayer medley, soul-influenced ballads, and a couple of highly original, ambitious cover versions. Their treatment of Bob Marley's No Woman No Cry has already popped up on a batch of salsa compilations, and is an inventive, gently startling reminder that Kingston lies just across the Caribbean from Santo Domingo. The treatment of Stevie Wonder's Superstition is not quite so sure-footed, but again shows their ambition. The great jazz (and Latin-jazz) pianist Alex Wilson is not part of the touring band (his place is taken by Wilson Batista) but he appears on most of the tracks here, and co-produced the set. Merengada may have no major record label behind them at present, but this is well worth searching out.

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The Congo may have had a miserable history, battered by exploitation, corruption and fighting, but throughout it all the country has managed to produce some of the finest, most easy-going dance music in Africa. In the Congo, the guitarist has long been king, through the eras of the rumba and soukous, and Antoine Nedule Montswet is one of the great surviving stars. He was born on Christmas Day in 1940 - hence the nick-name Noel - and began playing guitar as a teenager, playing with most of the key bands in the Congo, including the now legendary TPOK Jazz, where he joined the country's most revered guitarist, Franco. Papa Noel is still going, working with veteran singer Sam Mangwana, and celebrates his 60th birthday with this classic compilation set. Half the tracks are from the 1984 album Bon Samaritan, recorded when he took a break from TPOK Jazz - much to Franco's fury - and sneaked across the river to Congo Brazzaville, to produce one of the classics of lilting Congolese rumba. The rest are from the slightly crisper, more elaborate Haute Tension, recorded in Paris after Franco's death. He is joined by singer Carlito Lassa, and both show off his relaxed, fluid and gently stirring guitar style. This may be party music in which the guitarist never seems to break sweat, but there's a mesmeric quality to his rock-steady, lyrical playing.