CD Review: A.B. Quintanilla III Presents Kumbia Kings Live!

If you're a cumbia fan, you've been listening to the Kings for a long time. Not much new on this album, except the heat an enthusiastic audience brings to a live recording and the infectious energy returned by the band.

Listen

For Kumbia King fans, the bad news is that this may well be one of the last albums produced in their current configuration. Rumor has it that after the album that's currently being recorded, A.B. Quintanilla, the group's producer, arranger, songwriter and bassist is leaving in order to produce the music of other Latin artists. What the rest of the group does is yet to be seen.

Kumbia Kings Live! is a compilation album of some of their biggest hits recorded live in concert. As is often the case with live audience recordings, the interplay between the audience and the band brings a new level of excitement to the tracks - a level that wasn't necessarily apparent in the original recordings. The downside is that sound quality, balance and clarity is often sacrificed.

Among popular Kumbia King standards, the album contains performances of "Sshh" and "Boom Boom" from their 2001 album SShh!, "Fuego" and "Na, Na, Na" from 2004's Fuego and "Insomnia", "Mi Gente" and their signature "No Tengo Dienro" from A.B. Quintanilla Presents the Kumbia Kings.

All the tracks are a pleasant listening experience, except "No Tengo Dinero" which relies on the listener's knowledge of the song, because in requesting the audience to sing along with their well known song, the words and melody are lost.

If you are new to Los Kumbia Kings, skip this album and get one of their studio albums. If you're a Kings fan, you'll probably enjoy adding this CD to your collection.