It feels like a Latin American show, but only three tracks are actually from the Continent.

The Argentinean accordionist Chango Spasiuk is one of those musicians who has to be seen live to get the point. It’s not just that he’s a virtuoso, which he clearly is, but it’s the playing of his ensemble that’s so thrilling. His albums tend to follow a similar shape, as he continue his adventures with Chamamé, the unique style from northern Argentina which has links back to Eastern Europe but also brings in the music of the people descended from pre-European South Americans. On the new album, track 1 sets out Chango’s stall: ‘Tierra Colorad’ is melodic, nostalgic and euphoric.

At fist glance, The Rough Guide to Romanian Gypsies seemed a bit superfluous. If we’ve got Garth Cartwright’s compilation from the Balkans, Princes Amongst Men, surely we don’t need this too. But on playing it, we find that compiler Dan Rosenberg ha excelled himself by introducing several previously unknown tracks yearning to be heard, starting with ‘Doamne Da-Mi Puture’ by Cornelia Catanga.

After six months as Brazil’s Minister of Culture, Gilberto Gil has returned to his recording career. No longer contracted to a record company, Gil finances his own productions and has licensed the finished item to Warner. By coincidence, I just spent a couple of days in his company and discovered a man with such wide interests and experiences in so many fields (dance, literature, etc), it was hard to think of a British equivalent. I suppose Brian Eno and Peter Gabriel might be the closest. When I told Gilberto that I specially liked ‘Outros Viram’ on his new album, he told me to look out for the English language version that he had recorded as bonus track from the American release. I doubted it could be better than the original played here; if you hear it, let me know what you think.

‘Cumbia Cienaguera’ is the Cumbia tune that was sampled for a European club hit by Samin last year. The original tune was recorded by many different artist in it heyday, and this one by Alberto Pacheco is at least as good a the others, and may even be the best, justifying its inclusion in Russ Jones’ compilation round-up of Cumbia tunes. Pity Russ mixed the album so the radio DJ has to lose the beginning and ends of each song in order to avoid hearing bits of the adjacent tracks.

Manu Chao’s La Vida Tombola’ almost counts as Latin American by virtue of it subject. The song is a tribute to the Argentinean footballer Maradona.

There is no thematic logic in the inclusion of an instrumental by the Indian master musician, Lalgudi G Jayaraman; the tune has been shuffled off several playlists in recent weeks, so I decided this week must be its chance, no matter what the circumstances. As many listeners have pointed out, I don’t play enough music from this part of the world.

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