CD: Aurelio - Darandi

CD: AURELIO - DARANDI Honduran Garifuna songwriter and surf guitar stylist revisits his career best

Honduran Garifuna songwriter and surf guitar stylist revisits his career best

It's a monstrous cliché – all too often laden with problematically patronising overtones – to describe African, Caribbean, or Afro-Latin music in terms of “sunshine”, with all the carefree holiday brochure imagery that brings. But damn, the music of the Garifuna people of the Caribbean coasts of Honduras, Belize, Guatemala and Nicaragua makes it hard not to.

Prom 67: Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, Dudamel

From siesta to fiesta, with subtle textures the Venezuelans' unusual keynote

Gone, it seems, is the era of epic three-part Proms. Sunday afternoon's programme, partly billed as a children's hour, might have pleased pianist and pundit Stephen Hough, whose recent broadsheet plea for shorter concerts somewhat overdid the need (lunchtime events already cater to concertgoers in a hurry very well, and the Proms has its late-nighters too). But it left many of us wanting more, not just of Ravel in the second half but also of the distinctive Simón Bolívar earthiness, which was given free rein only in one spirited encore.

CD: El Guincho - Hiperasia

CD: EL GUINCHO - HIPERASIA Mid-Atlantic born, global in vision, El Guincho barrels into the future

Mid-Atlantic born, global in vision, El Guincho barrels into the future

The career of the Gran Canaria-born musician Pablo Díaz-Reixa seems to work in an accelerated time-frame, speeding through decades and eras as he develops his sound. Though he has always worked with digital technology, his early work sounded archaic, its massed carnival percussion and traditional melodies roaming around the Afro-Latin diaspora.

CD: Sidestepper – Supernatural Love

CD: SIDESTEPPER - SUPERNATURAL LOVE The latest from the electro-cumbia pioneers

The latest from the electro-cumbia pioneers

Sidestepper have been ploughing the rich ground of "electro-cumbia" for some years now. Their appealing contribution to the world dance scene is the fruit of a collaboration between Richard Blair, with his taste for drum‘n’bass and dub, and a number of Colombian talents who’ve grown up with a heady mix of Afro-Caribbean polyrhythms and traditional tribal melodies.

CD: J-Sonics – Different Orbits

CD: J-SONICS - DIFFERENT ORBITS London Latin jazz band's debut album oozes all the right flavours

London Latin jazz band's debut album oozes all the right flavours

As a whole, J-Sonics are fairly new to the London jazz scene, but the members of this slinky sextet, assisted by vocalist Grace Rodson, have many years’ experience between them in other projects, which means they can sound both fresh and highly polished.

In the Heights, King's Cross Theatre

IN THE HEIGHTS, KING'S CROSS THEATRE Swagger, salsa and soul in Lin-Manuel Miranda's exhilarating musical

Swagger, salsa and soul in this exhilarating production of Lin-Manuel Miranda's innovative musical

Rents are going up, local businesses priced out, and the rich folk and hipsters are invading. That’s in Washington Heights, New York’s largely Dominican-American quarter, but it could as easily describe King’s Cross, one of multiple London areas undergoing gentrification. This Tony Award-winning musical from pioneering composer Lin-Manuel Miranda (currently ruling Broadway with Hamilton), which features an irresistible hip-hop, rap, pop and Latin fusion score, is propulsive entertainment with a resonant social conscience.

Ballroom Dancer

BALLROOM DANCER A man who would give up almost anything, including his humanity, to be the best

A man who would give up almost anything, including his humanity, to be the best

Slavik Kryklyvyy was Jennifer Lopez's tush-shaking partner in Shall We Dance?, getting one over on Richard Gere. But that was 2004, and what happened then? Ballroom Dancer is a documentary feature about his year on the edge, 2010, when the former world number one Latin dancer tried to come back from a series of injuries and broken partnerships to mount his throne once more.

The Arts Desk Radio Show 6

THE ARTS DESK RADIO SHOW 6: Psychedelic hip hop and Colombia in London with Peter Culshaw and Joe Muggs

Psychedelic hip hop and Colombia in London with Peter Culshaw and Joe Muggs

Welcome to another show, in which Joe guides us around some of the weirder, smokier corners of the broad church of hip hop, and discussion returns to how far genre can stretch and where originality can reside in a multi-channel, everything-available-at-once world. We also take a listen to more and less authentic sounds of South America courtesy of a Brit-in-Colombia, a Colombian Brit, and a legend of British underground sounds turning Colombian sounds into house music. There's some neo-psychedelia and neo-folk thrown into the mix for good measure.

Interview: Melody Gardot, Mysterious Traveller

MELODY GARDOT:  How the spirit and sounds of Portugal and South America inspired the singer's third album

How Portugal and South America inspired singer's third album

It was already apparent from Melody Gardot's last album, My One and Only Thrill, that she harboured a more than passing infatuation with the music of Brazil and Latin America. "I love Brazilian music, it's one of my favourite genres," she said at the time. "I love the Stan Getz bossa nova years, I love Getz/Giberto, Jobim, Caetano Veloso... "