David Byrne: Everybody Mambo!

NO DOUBT about it, the musical flavor of the week is Latin/Brazilian — even Paul Simon's recording an album of Brazilian music. It figures that one of our most reliable musical bellwethers, David Byrne, has already made two compilations of Brazilian music and a documentary about a Brazilian religious cult. Now there's his new solo album, Rei Momo, a remarkably delightful and surprisingly accessible album based on some very tasty Latin grooves. If Byrne's Brazilian experiments are half as prophetic as his African work with Talking Heads, we'll all be doing Post Modern sambas and merengues before you can say "Milton Nascimento". This musical Gauguin is touring Rei Momo with an all-star group of Latin musicians, and called HITS fresh from playing japan.