Various ArtistsThe Rough Guide To Latin-ArabiaReview

“What’s that?” is the probable response when showing friends the latest compilation from Rough Guide. As much as we’d all like a holiday in Latin Arabia, it doesn’t exist, and the girl on the cover of this sleeve has the diaphanous gowns of a belly dancer but no Latina-style jeans or figure-shrinking t-shirt.

But as compiler Nili Belkind explains in his detailed sleevenotes, Shakira wasn’t the first artist to bring Latin America and Arabia closer together. After all, the Moslem Arabs arrived in the Iberian Peninsula in the 9th century and contemporary flamenco is a direct link to that ancient migration. Track two, Amr Diab’s ‘Ya Nour El Ein’ taps this deep source with seemingly effortless style and throws in a hint of Colombian cumbia on top.

Since the New World was conquered in 1492, there has also been significant emigration by Levantine and other Arabs to the Americas and cross-fertilisation is the norm across that exuberant, anthropophagic continent. Afro-Latin rhythms dominate Brazilian music and samba has Arabian elements.

Arabia is the dominant partner in this dance, and only two of the tracks on this disc are fronted by Hispanic artists: Alfredo de la Fé and Benjamin Escoriza. But the names disguise a multicultural babel: Spanish-speaking gypsies, Los Niños de Sara, join polyglot Israel-born singer Ishtar for ‘Alabina’ while young Marrakech-born singer Rhany recorded his version of the Buena Vista classic ‘Chan Chan’ at Havana’s Egrem studios, with the Spanish-language track kept in the mix. Salamat, a creation of Nubian drummer Mahmoud Fadi, knocks out a wonderful mambo and Algerian Maurice Medioni reminds us that French culture and language are part of the Latino scene too.

So, Latin Arabia is more about open experimentation than some specific, limited exercise in fusioneering. At once ancient and contemporary, it’s definitely a stimulating place to be – and hats, veils and, well, jeans off to Rough Guide for pulling together this lively primer.