Summer tunes: Ray Barretto, Tito Coro, and Ruben Blades, 1974! With a Tito Puente bonus.

What we've been listening to in the Acts of Hope study tonight: the Live 50th Anniversary double CD of Ray Barretto, "The Giant of Salsa."

What we've got for you: a 1974 piece, Ban Ban Quere, with Ray Barretto, Ruben Blades on vocals, and Tito Gomez on coro. Enjoy. '70s haircuts, oy! But the salsa is still tasty.

Note: I already had Latin jazz on the brain, and then heard a great piece on NPR earlier today with a tribute to Tito Puente. Transcript and audio here.

"In Afro-Cuban music, we've inherited this concept of being possessed by the music on the dance floor," [Bobby] Sanabria says. "The same thing used to happen in jazz ... But we have this concept that goes way back further in terms of having a spiritual experience on the dance floor. And when you hear the power of this band coming at you like a tidal wave, and with those rhythms percolating, it excites the human organism to its utmost. It's like being in ecstasy.

"I'm not saying it's better than sex, but it's close to it."

Go here and click on "El Rey del Timbal" on the left, suffer through the short NPR announcement, and you can hear the the whole song.

P.S. I'm trying to learn how to use the block quote feature, but I'm not quite there yet.