The recent re-discovery of the Buena Vista Social Club has once again brought Afro-Caribbean music into the forefront of the American musical psyche. For all the enthusiasm we share for the son, guaguanco, mambo and other Cuban music, it is important not to become polarized on how we view Afro-Caribbean music.

In his debut CD, accurately entitled Culturas Diversas (Diverse Cultures,) vocalist/composer Rudy Mills bring to life an abundant array of music from all corners of the Caribbean. Opening with a song of social protest, “Gasoline”—“I don’t want no Honda, nor Toyota, just give me my bicycle, ’cause Gasolina…there’s none!”—to which he gives a special twist by using rhythmic element of the Puerto Rican plena and the Dominican merengue.

My personal favorite is “Entonces,” originally written and performed as a ballad by one of South American’s foremost vocalists, Chilenean Lucho Gatica. Rudy’s rendition is a soulful bolero the embodies that heart to heart, belly to belly, loin to loin feeling which permeates the steamy “night-a-fun” dance rooms sprinkled along the Central American Caribbean coastline from Belize City, to Colon, Panama. The musical arrangement allows Rudy to display his mastery of vocal improvisation as well as the ever so soothing steel pan solo by Errol Issacs.

“You be Free” is a calypso-soca, which undoubtedly is Rudy’s joyful call to all for a new and better mankind—“Love your sister, respect your woman”—as we step into the 21st century. Equally comfortable singing in English or Spanish, Rudy’s Honduran/Jamaican patois exudes memories of the late Peter Tosh. The key ingredient to this CD is the non-stop celebration of life. This is a CD that belongs at every Christmas (or other) party.

Ruby and the Caribbean Funk Band will be featured at the Dream Palace on Friday, December 17, for the Sagittarius Ring of Fire. As in his words “You be Free”—be there!