Xamego

The musical heritage of Brazil is so much more than samba and bossa nova. Baião, which features the accordion and reminds me (to a limited degree) of merengue and cumbia, possesses a lively rhythm. Luiz Gonzaga, from what I recall, was one of the most popular proponents of this northeastern music genre. 

Daniel Santos

An excellent song featuring the immortal Puerto Rican vocalist, Daniel Santos. 

Monday Kompa

One of my favorites from the excellent Haiti Direct compilation released a few months ago. Funk influences appear in the guitar with lots of interesting sound effects, even if the music is not very complex. Enjoy!

El Barbarazo

'El Barbarazo" is one of my favorite merengues. I recall reading from Austerlitz's excellent book on merengue and some online forums about Wilfrido Vargas y Sus Beduinos. Clearly, Vargas was listening to music from elsewhere in the Caribbean, especially Haiti and Colombia. This song sounds like kompa of the 1970s in just about every way except for language. "El Barbarazo!"

Abdullah Ibrahim

Powerful South African jazz reflecting Abdullah Ibrahim's Muslim faith. I thought it would be appropriate to pay homage to Freedom Day with superb South African music, especially given the fact I was blessed to see the legend perform live (alas, if only I stayed in Cape Town a little longer, I would've been able to see Sathima perform!). 

Jacmel

A lovely merengue from Ventura's earlier work. From what I recall from Austerlitz, Ventura helped transform merengue by adapting the format of early Salsa bands, incorporating choreography from US soul and popular music, and seeming to absorb some Haitian influences. Alas, the singing on this track is a little too fast for me to understand, but with a name like Jacmel, Haitian references presumably abound (and I think I heard some Kreyol). 

Haiti: An Island Luminous

I recently came across this excellent online project that provides a useful overview of Haitian history with several useful photos and visuals. There is a great variety of writers who contributed to the project, including Patrick Bellegarde-Smith, Brenda Gayle Plummer (a former professor of mine in Afro-American Studies!), etc. The site's very accessible and usually direct and clear, really an amazing example of how the internet can be a powerful learning aid. The above graph was quite enlightening and from the excellent site.