Born in the Congo and now living in Los Angeles, acclaimed singer and bandleader Ricardo Lemvo has been hailed by critics as the “future of salsa” for his red-hot fusion of African and Latin music. With his energetic 10-piece band, Makina Loca, Lemvo has crafted what the Boston Herald calls “one of the most potent musical marriages imaginable, the Cuban son with African soukous.” Lemvo’s distinctive Afro-Cuban blend is actually broader than that, including also Congolese rumba, salsa, Puerto Rican bomba and Dominican merengue and bachata in the mix. With Lemvo singing in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Lingala and Kikongo, it’s an irresistible and eminently danceable sound. Lemvo and Makina Loca (“crazy machine” in Spanish, “dancing in a trance” in Kikongo) have recorded five highly acclaimed albums—São Salvador, Mambo Yo Yo, Tata Masamba, Ay Veleria and, the most recent, Isabela—and toured widely in the Americas, Europe and Australia.