Hector Lavoe

Assembled in preparation for the 2007 release of the Marc Anthony/J.Lo film about Hector Lavoe's life, this disc collects the original versions of the Lavoe songs Anthony covers in the film. It also provides a short introduction to a singer who seduced audiences around the world with the clarity of his voice and the charm of his stage persona in the 1970s. A handful of Lavoe's biggest hits open the album, but the surprises lie deeper in, in the Santeria-inspired chants that invoke Afro-Cuban deities and plead, with tragic sincerity, for help.