Jazz and World albums

MARC RIBOT| Muy Divertido (Atlantic) The American cult guitarist and occasional accomplice of Tom Waits, John Zorn, Elvis Costello and Marianne Faithfull says he found in the simplicity of Cuban music some of the spirit of old-time rock 'n' roll. Recorded in New York using a mixture of downtown avant-garde and Latin musicians, Ribot's ninth solo album - a tribute to 1950s composer and bandleader Arsenio Rodriguez - makes for an odd but continually diverting set, in which buzzing, rockabilly guitar sounds, clave beats, and greasy kid-stuff vocals conjure up a kind of Afro-Cuban jazzpunk. Ribot ensures that a Tom Waits sense of the carnivalesque is never far away. PHIL JOHNSON

MARCIO FARACO | Ciranda (Emarcy) Reflective, gentle, singer-songwriter samba by a major new talent from Brazil, who supported Virginia Rodrigues at her concert to launch the Brazil 500 Festival at the Barbican last month. Marcio Faraco's songs are light and catchy with delicate acoustic backings that occasionally suggest gypsy-jazz as well as the bossa nova of Jobim and Gilberto. Recorded in France, and including the odd squeak of an accordion - on "Flores pra lemanja" and "Vida ou game" in particular - as if to testify to the fact, the music has a delightful summery feel, accentuated by the retro-ish string and horn arrangements of Wagner Tiso. PJ

ALEX WILSON | Anglo-Cubano (Candid) English pianist Wilson has what sounds like a natural affinity for Afro-Cuban grooves, and the decision to send him to Havana's famous Egrem studio to record with a Cuban band is vindicated triumphantly. Fizzing, rhythmically intense numbers such as the opening title track mix quickwitted piano solos with heavy percussion work-outs and chanting choruses. The change in the weather evident on a few tracks recorded in London, however, fails to generate quite the same feeling, and the two vocal features by Lauren Dalrymple sound rather glumly rain-sodden. It's a dancing-round-thekitchen album all the same. PJ