George Luke offers user a guide to 10 essential World Music tracks.

Giovanni Rios

"Juan en la Ciudad" (John In The City) is a modern-day retelling of the Prodigal Son parable from two of Latin America's most influential Christian artists. Ricardo Maldonado Morales (aka Richie Ray) was born in New York to Puerto Rican parents and attended the performing arts school featured in the movie Fame. Bobby Cruz came over to New York from Puerto Rico as a child and was a tough street kid. The two became friends and in the '60s formed the Richie Ray & Bobby Cruz Orchestra. Along with the other artists on the legendary Fania record label, they were credited with inventing the music style we know today as salsa. Then in 1975, Richie became a Christian after attending a Nicky Cruz crusade in Puerto Rico. Bobby followed suit six months later and the pair decided to dedicate their music to God. "The conservative Christians hated us and we had a lot of problems with the Church because of our music," says Richie. "But today - some 25 years later - there are over 100 Christian salsa bands in Puerto Rico." There's a certain irony in the story of how "Juan en la Ciudad" came to be recorded. After Richie and Bobby became Christians, their label made them an offer: they could record a couple of overtly Christian albums for themselves, on the condition that they recorded one "with a toned down message, but the same heavy beat" for the label. They agreed - and "Juan en la Ciudad" (one of the tracks on the "toned down" album) became their first gold record and their biggest ever hit single! This live version of it comes from the double CD of their 1999 reunion gig in Puerto Rico, at which some 5,000 fans became Christians. "Juan en la Ciudad" is now regarded as a Latin gospel classic and has been covered by several artists - including the next guy on this list...

Dominican Republic
Giovanni Rios: "El Culto Esta Bueno"
Featured on the compilation 'Solo Exitos' (Jostom) Availability: Cat No CD65481-600124. Available from Libreria Cristiana Jireh, tel 0794 653 3079 or 0794 631 1384 www.giovannirios.com

Musically, the Dominican Republic is best known for merengue and Giovanni Rios is widely regarded as the premier exponent of Christian merengue music. Giovanni was born in the Dominican Republic on new year's eve, 1968, but he and his mother moved to Puerto Rico when he was 13. He attended a Christian school and by the time he was 17 had been in a few merengue bands and become quite well known. He became a Christian when he was 20, after "encountering the Lord" at a party one night. After completing a course in Bible College, Giovanni recorded his debut album, Te Sequire (I Will Follow You)' in 1988. He has since recorded 20 albums and "El Culto Esta Bueno" (I'm not 100% sure of the literal translation, but it's something to do with church and fellowship being great) is one of his greatest hits. Giovanni currently lives in Florida with his Puerto Rican wife Sandra and their three children: Stephanie, Giovanni Jr and Thalia.

Australia
Rivertribe: "River Crossing"
From the album 'The Blessing' (Tribal World) availability: www.tribalworld.com.au

Rivertribe are Matt Aitchison, David Gleeson and Mike Lane, from Victoria. Their sound is a cool blend of didgeridoos, native American flutes, Irish whistles, African drums, Armenian duduk, piano and "sounds of the Australian native forests." It's a unique sound which has won them loads of fans worldwide and the band have performed at a number of high-profile events in their home country, including the Sydney Olympic and Paralympic games. "River Crossing" comes from Rivertribe's second album, released last year. Both their albums recently received very favourable reviews in this magazine and are highly recommended if you're looking for something contemplative.

South Korea
Song Jung Mee: "Psalm 1"
From the album 'Psalms' (Song's Ministry) Availability: KumSung Record co Cat No. KGC-278.
I did a Google search and found a website (either Korean or Japanese) which sells her music - but I don't know the web address or name of the site.

Song Jung Mee hails from South Korea and, according to the Korea Herald, almost single-handedly brought the country's contemporary Christian music scene into the music mainstream. I sort of stumbled on this CD of hers by accident on a recent trip to the USA, when my cousin and I wandered into a Korean shop which, among other things, had rows and rows of CDs on display. Although all the writing on the CD covers was in Korean, we did notice one or two English words on them - words like "praise" and "CCM". Were the CDs what we thought they were? Intrigued, we asked the shopkeeper, and yes - they were all CDs of Christian music from Korea (the funny thing is, we'd only gone into the shop because we heard Latin music being played there!). Although the 'Psalms' CD is an independent recording, Song Jung Mee is signed to Sony in Japan.

Nigeria
VITUS: "PlusHaut"
From the album 'African Praise Festival' (Simply Divine) Availability: Cat No SDMCD01. Contact Simply Divine: 01992 787965. Was advertised a lot on Premier, so must be available for sale here www.simplydivinemusic.com

The last track on our list comes from Nigeria - a country virtually overflowing with talented gospel artists. As with some of the other countries featured here, a number of Nigeria's top showbiz stars have become Christians over the years. Some (such as the right Reverends Sonny Okossuns and Ebenezer Obey) now make gospel music; Chris Okotie, a former pop star, now pastors one of the country's most influential charismatic churches. Vitus Eze is a worship leader at the Redeemed Evangelical Mission International church in Lagos, and "Plus Haut (Higher)" is one of the standout tracks on his 'African Praise Festival' album, released last year. Musically, the track takes its inspiration from soukouss - the guitar-heavy Congolese style which is hugely popular across Africa and beyond (the Radio 1 DJ John Peel is a big fan). The song itself is a medley of choruses in French, English and one or two other languages and sums up rather well the whole aim of the album on which it appears. As Vitus puts it in the liner notes: "The dark days are over and there has arisen the sound of rejoicing all over the land because the glory is here and freedom reigns all over Africa...to the glory of God."