It’s Viernes Social which means it’s time to put on yur dancing shoes and ir a rumbear! If you’re lucky enough to be in the New York City area tonight, you can head over to SOB’s to share the Plena Libre experience with me. If not, then you need to head to your local cd spot and pick up Plena Libre‘s 11th and latest cd, Evolución. Gary Núñez and his crew have put forth a dancable and musically relevant cd that stays true to the roots of Afro-Boricua music in all its forms.

Plena , the Rican musical genre rooted in the isla del encanto’s agricultural jibaro history, dominates Evolución with 7 tracks but none of them are redundant, each representing various themes ranging from Rican history,Afro-Rican religion, different manifestations of freedom, love, and of course music and dancing. Cantaré a Puerto Rico is probably my favorite plena on the cd, not just because its a love song to Puerto Rico’s spririt (and anything that shouts out Don Pedro Albizu Campos gets points in my book) but alos because it features Rican musical legend Andres Jimenes aka el jibarito.

Plena Libre doesn’t just limit itself to plena. Two bomba tracks are featured on the cd, Como son las cosas and Yenyeré and onLatin jazz track aptly titled and giving the cd its name, Evolución.

I could do without the Tumbao remix, a clubby dancy remix of a plena tune on the cd, but perhaps some will enjoy its pressence which attempts to make plena even more dancable, if that’s possible.

The entire cd , really is a portable fieston, rich in its mescla of traditional Rican rhythms. It should be part of everyone’s musical collection.