RY COODER Chavez Ravine Nonesuch Records *****

The freedom-loving Bush administration has ended Ry Cooder's Cuban experiments, but the Los Angeles-born maverick guitarist and musicologist has returned to his own roots to tell the rich and compelling story of Chavez Ravine, a small Latin barrio in downtown LA which was sacrificed on the altar of dodgy deals and progress in the 1950s to build a baseball stadium.

Cooder has always sought out and celebrated nuggets of indigenous culture, from the Chicken Skin music of the Tex-Mex border to the timeless Cuban rhythms of the Buena Vista Social Club. His musical excavations are informed by a deep respect for local culture and the key players. Chavez Ravine is no different. He enlists the help of performers such as Little Willie G, Esri Arvizu, Don Tosti and Lalo Guerrero (the latter two have died since the recording), who are all experts in the strains of conjunto, r'n'b, Latin pop and jazz, the sounds of Chavez Ravine that Cooder uses to tell his tale over 15 tracks.

Initially, the musical shapes seem too disparate to hold the theme together, infectious Latin pop bangs up against spacey jazz, but the broad sweep of the music, a mix of obscure covers and thoughtful originals, grows with repeated listening. In the process, Cooder conveys a real sense of the richness of the barrio, and of the complex tale of greed and opportunism that led to its destruction. You can sample the music at www.nonesuch.com

Joe Breen