Capitol Latin Presents, Juan Luis Guerra's latest album, "A SON DE GUERRA," which will be released on June 8. An acclaimed singer, songwriter, musician and producer, Juan Luis Guerra is one of the most credible and respected names in the music Industry. A multiple award winning artist, Guerra, has proven that his music not only crosses oceans, but musical boundaries with accolades like: winning 2 Grammy Awards, 9 Latin Grammy Awards, 2 Billboard Awards and 10 Latin Billboard Music Awards. Right when the production was wrapping on "A Son de Guerra," the prodigious musician undertook the titanic labor of organizing the benefit concert "Song of Hope for Haiti" along with some of his famous colleagues to help raise funds for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. The event was a complete success, as well as his historic participation a few days later in the New Orleans Jazz Festival. But if you ask him to account for all of his incredible achievements and honors, Juan Luis Guerra wastes no time reflecting on such things, preferring to concentrate on the now: "Every day is a new beginning," he affirms, "I'm always thinking that the best is yet to come." On this new album, "A SON DE GUERRA," we can expect Juan Luis' unique style as he self-produces the album. Highlights include special guest artists Colombian rocker, Juanes, and American trumpeter and composer, Chris Botti, adding more flavor to the mix that allows Juan Luis' music to easily cross genres and market boundaries worldwide.

Juan Luis Guerra takes another look at his long, successful career on Colección Romántica, a lavish, two-disc affair that finds the Dominican Republic native revisiting and remixing some of his most successful songs. The collection's 20 tracks could have arguably fit on only one CD, especially considering that Guerra has already released two greatest-hits albums in 1994 and 1996. Still, this is a compulsively listenable affair, marked by Guerra's trademark dabbling in jazz harmonies, African music, and pop flavors. The collection's first five tracks--"Tú," "Razones," "Ay Mujer," "Quisiera," and "Amor de Conuco"--have been transformed from their original salsa and merengue versions into polished ballads. The trick works, and it sets the exotic, candlelit mood that figures throughout the album. Other hits such as "Burbujas de Amor" and "Bachata Rosa" have never sounded better, thanks to studio remastering. Even if Guerra's previous hits albums are already in your library, Colección Romántica deserves a prime spot on the shelf. --Joey Guerra

Beginning in 1989 with his breakthrough album Ojala Que Llueva Café, Dominican singer-songwriter Juan Luis Guerra shook the Latin pop world by writing music that was successful both artistically and commercially. Without losing sight of the dancers on the dance floor or of hook-driven radio, Guerra reworked Dominican merengue, and later the romantic, bolero-like bachata, with sophisticated jazz harmonies, poetic lyrics, and top-shelf pop-style production. He even made some astute connections between modern Caribbean and West African pop. But in 1994 he disappeared from view. Ni Es lo Mismo ni Es Igual shows an artist finding his way back, looking for the markers he left behind but not wanting to simply re-create the past. He has a couple of potential hits in "Mi PC," a catchy merengue in which Guerra romances using the imagery and language of our computer world, and "El Primo," a witty, crisp merengue about a cousin who "knows Michael Jordan and is an actor / Breathes underwater and is a painter / Is a sociologist and pilot planes...." The highlight of the disc is "El Niagara en Bicicleta," a merengue-rap that deals with the tragicomic miseries of health care in the contemporary Dominican Republic and shows Guerra at his very best: a devastating social critic with a fine-tuned pop sensibility. No Es lo Mismo is solid rather than impressive. But still, solid, for Guerra, is already better than most anything else on the Latin music charts. --Fernando Gonzalez

GUERRA JUAN LUIS PARA TI