You know those obnoxious list books of one thousand things to make you happy? Sunsets, strawberries and swimming in the ocean are all things you'll find on the list, but you probably won't see Orquesta América, which is a definite oversight. Sabor Profundo provides deep richness indeed: an opportunity to dance the entire night or mambo horizontally. The album is eminently suited to both activities.

Formed in the 1940s, Orquesta América was simply named after its musicians' homeland -- but for as great an icon as this band has become, they might well be the orchestra of América. The Orquesta América is made up of violins, piano, a flute and five drummers -- no brass, which one might automatically think of when considering Latino music. The founder of the traditional charanga band invented the chachacha, a salon dance that resembles the danzón, but is more rhythmic thanks to its melding with son style. The band still plays flawlessly on "Chá-Chá-Chá para un flautista", in which the flute sings so sweetly that it almost paints your steps on the dance floor. The band does son and boleros equally well; they're in particularly beautiful form on "Todo se paga", a bolero-son that recalls the '50s and '60s heyday of the bandstand arenas in downtown Havana, where Bebo Valdés played.

In fact, much of this album evokes classical charanga themes, and doesn't seemed to have changed them much from the traditions the band created -- although the band is supposed to have updated them. It doesn't matter much whether they have or not, since the major tradition of charanga is a call-and-response between musicians and audience, much like gospel. Improvisation ensures that something in the performance will always be different -- this, after all, was the method that inspired Jorrin's creation of the chachacha.

Although son is coming back into style thanks to Ry Cooder's film the Buena Vista Social Club, the aforementioned club itself and the Afro-Cuban All-Stars, it's rare that the general public has examined other traditional Cuban forms. Chachacha, these days, might evoke Ricky Ricardo rather than cool dance music. Orquesta América offers an education you can't afford to miss, and Sabor Profundo is an unbeatable lesson in the curriculum.