Los Super Seven: Canto

Formed by members of Los Lobos and Texas Tornados, as well as a few choice guests, Los Super Seven sprouted out of its principals' love for the Tejano border music of their youth. The project, which joined Los Lobos' Cesar Rosas and David Hidalgo and Texas Tornados' Flaco Jimenez and Freddy Fender with Rick Treviño, Reuben Ramos, and Joe Ely, was so successful that a sequel was inevitable. As great as Los Super Seven's self-titled debut still sounds, the new Canto, produced with even more flair by Los Lobos' Steve Berlin, widens the group's scope to include the entire Latin-American hemisphere, acting as an even broader tribute to Latino culture. Fender, Jimenez, and Ely are gone, but they're replaced by an excited new group of singer-songwriters: Mavericks singer Raul Malo, Brazilian legend Caetano Veloso, and Peruvian singer Susana Baca. (Rosas, Hidalgo, Treviño, Ramos, and sideman contributor Alberto Salas bring the group total to eight, but who's counting) "The more the merrier" seems to be Los Super Seven's motto, and Canto is better for it. The new additions are so talented that they can't help but stand out: Malo, whose voice falls somewhere in the range of Roy Orbison and Nat King Cole, leads off with the stunning "Siboney," an immediate highlight, and he also sings the Cuban son-influenced "Me Voy Pa' Pueblo." Veloso offers a version of his Tropicalia standard "Baby" and "Qualquem Coisa," a Portuguese-sung Brazilian ballad that will throw off anyone expecting only Spanish. Baca, meanwhile, more than pulls her weight with the playful torch song "Drumi Drumi Mobila." The returning players add slightly more traditional Tex-Mex tracks, each flavored by the respective singer (standouts include Ramos' "Compay Gato" and Treviño's "Paloma Guaramera"). If the first Los Super Seven record was a tribute to border music, the second is universal enough to demonstrate that the border was an illusion all along.