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New York’s Latin music scene has had the benefit of having some of the sharpest minds and most talented musicians emigrate to the Big Apple in search of artistic freedom. During the 1920’s Dominican artists were flocking to New York, hoping to take advantage of the already established Latin music community built by New York’s Puerto Rican population. Challenging the supremacy of Puerto Rican and Cuban Salsa that dominated New York at the time, Dominican created merengue music began to take the city by storm. Quisqueya en el Hudson is a phenomenal retrospective of the influential Dominican music that has helped integrate Latino communities in New York and beyond interpreted by today’s most talented merengue connoisseurs. From the great series Global Beat of the Boroughs, the record covers everything from traditional merengue to the spiritual drum and chant based salve and palos styles to the more known son and bachata rhythms. The 33-page booklet covering both the history and influence of the music on this compilation is a perfect companion to the record and the entire album stands to be one another great example of the geniuses running things over at Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.