“If we starve together we starve together,” wrote the arranger Mario Bauza in a letter to his brother-in- law, Machito. The year was 1938: Bauza was off to New York to seize the musical opportunities he felt weren’t on offer in Havana, and he wanted Machito – a fruity-voiced singer, bandleader and composer – to come with him. There they founded an orchestra of high- calibre Cuban and Puerto Rican players and crafted arrangements that, with their dynamism and contrasting rhythmic figures, created a dialogue between Cuban music and jazz that many – Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Cal Tjader and Cubanos such as Chucho Valdes – would follow. One spin of Tanga, an anthology of Machito recordings over a 15-year period and it’s easy to see why: the eponymous opener is a mambo- fuelled explosion of harmonious sax, sharp triple trumpet and hypnotic, relentless percussion. A first-time combo of timbales, conga and bongos lend good-time fury to the likes of ‘Mambo Inn’ and ‘Freelandia’ (which features vocals by Los Hermanos Rigual); the Chico O’Farrell-arranged ‘Afro- Cuban Jazz Suite’ sets the latin jazz bar sky high.