This celebration of Afro-Caribbean unity combusts with all the raucous excitement of improvisation modulated by a single, comprehensive performance vision. Covering an ambitious range--from traditional Puerto Rican Christmas folk music ("El Pitorrito") to troubadour ballads to a tropical version of a new and growing form out of Central and Latin America, rock en Español, ("Oye Mi Amor" and "Un Cachito")--Descaraga is clearly the creation of producer-general director Frank Ferrer. The 17-member orchestra (including a rotating cast of four male vocalists, each with his own, powerfully distinctive style) was founded by Ferrer in 1972 as Puerto Rico 2010. In 1993 the group took its current name and issued a two-CD set, Esta Si Va, followed by "96"s Abrasate. Ferrer guides Descarga--and this album"s lengthy guest musician list--with a firm hand that leaves just the right amount of room for little pockets of surprise, lending Somos Uno the intoxicating spirit of freedom that energizes the orchestra"s two previous sets and conjures up images of late-night musical abandon. It"s as if these merry music makers had been drawn together like filings to a magnet and lost all inhibitions in a gloriously free-wheeling after-hours jam. --Elena Oumano