Eleven different voices, from as many parts of the continent: when so much Latin-American music is by chaps, this exhilarating record, with its admirable notes, nicely redresses the sexual balance. Though in some cases "Latinas" is stretching it: Lhasa de Sela is--as her name implies--the child of globe-trotting parents, whose eclectic tastes have carried her music far from its Mexican roots. On the other hand, the husky-voiced Nazare Pereira's 30-year sojourn in Paris has in no way ironed out her Brazilian timbre. And if some of these singers purvey right-on sentiments in blandly internationalised mode, others are gloriously authentic. Here, to muted trumpets, is the ebullient Toto La Momposina; here is the inimitable Celina Gonzalez, queen of Cuban country music, and possessor of an infinitely more interesting voice than her currently more fashionable compatriot Omara Portuondo. Here, leading the Peruvian Trio Los Chasquis, is a beguiling singer named Queta Rivero whom I now want to hear more of. And here is the great Mercedes Sosa, Argentina's leading exponent of nueva cancion, whose political activism forced her into exile for decades: bitterness and triumph, delivered in a timbre one normally associates with flamenco. This is the true voice of Latin America. --Michael Church