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Though he left his native Dominican Republic more than two decades ago to settle in Montreal, accordionist and singer Joaquin Diaz hasn’t lost his touch with his homeland—or with merengue, its most famous musical export. Rather than the genre’s hyperactive, chintzy modern iterations, he plays something more rustic and traditional—merengue tipica, more or less. In keeping with the romantic theme of his most recent album, Mi Corazon (Nuits D’Afrique), Diaz breaks up the upbeat numbers with a few boleros for the slow dancers—but most of the record is wall-to-wall rapid-fire rhythm, a lattice of grooves that come together unfailingly for accents on the one and the three 09/15/11
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