The singer-songwriter musical format is about the most ubiquitous on the music scene, and encompasses a pretty wide range of styles, from the original folk, to rock, blues and jazz. But there are not many that bring in world music influence, since often world music is, almost by definition, not in English. A notable exception was Paul Simon’s trailblazing album Graceland back in 1986, that helped to introduce wider American audiences to African pop. This week we have a great singer-songwriter album that is strong on the Latin American influence, with a few tracks in Spanish, but largely with lyrics that American audiences can relate to, and often with great danceable Salsa and Caribbean beats. It’s by Victoria Cardona, and the album is called Que Pasó .

Victoria Cardona is described as Cuban-American, growing up in a traditional Cuban household, and listening to Cuban music from the likes of Celia Cruz. She studied jazz guitar in Florida and Minnesota, and developed a solo act using looping to create solo orchestrations in her live performances, mostly in Florida. Que Pasó is her first studio album of original music. But instead of being created solo by looping as she does in her live act, the album has a stellar cast of backing musicians, including Bill Payne of Little Feat on keyboards, Jimmy Haslip of Yellowjackets on bass, ubiquitous jazz drummer Jimmy Branley, who by the way, is a native of Cuba, jazz sax great Justo Almario and several others. Multi-instrumentalist Tim Goodman served as producer. Together, they create first rate salsa-influenced grooves, plus reggae influence, Caribbean soca and slower Latin boleros.

Most of the songs on the album are originals by Ms. Cardona, and they touch on a wide variety of topics, ranging from fleeing Cuba, to a good time beach song, to the story of a poker game Ms.Cardona was involved with. There are also a couple of covers, including a traditional Cuban song and a remake with Spanish lyrics of a Little Feat tune.

While there is the great gathering of studio musicians, Ms. Cardona also remains the multi-instrumentalist playing lead and rhythm guitar, bass, drums, percussion and keyboards at times.

Opening is the title track Que Pasó en la Habana, about the difficulties the Cuban people have faced under Castro and his successors, set in a great easy-going salsa beat. <<>>

More personal in the song Ghost about seeing the image of a loved one who has passed on. It’s sort of salsa-rock. <<>>

One the most lighthearted and rhythmically infectious songs is one called George From Heaven, which Ms. Cardona says is based on actual encounter with the quirky lead character, in his big old car, performed with a great Caribbean beat. <<>>

In Spanish is a kind of reggaeton tune called Me Voy a la Playa, or “I’m Going to the Beach.” It’s a great danceable track. <<>>

Another lyrically interesting songis Rhodes Royale apparently based on another true incident in which Ms. Cardona joined a poker tournament as the only woman, who then upset some of the guys when she won. <<>>

Also in Spanish is the autobiographical song Camarena Baila which relates the story of Ms. Cardona’s family’s escape from Cuba. The upbeat rhythm is meant to be a contrast from the struggles endured by her family. <<>>

Ms.Cardona and her band go reggae on the song Tuesday Rain about meeting someone one had a crush on at a distance. <<>>

The song by Little Feat that Ms. Cardona covers, is Spanish Moon, with original Little Feat keyboard player Bill Payne on the session, with some Spanish verses added. <<>> Ms. Cardona gets in a little guitar shredding. <<>>

Victoria Cardona’s new debut studio album Que Pasó is an impressive musical project that combines singer-songwriter material with danceable world music, in this case mostly Latin American influence. She’s a worthy lyricist in both English and Spanish addressing her Cuban background along with more whimsical topics, and she’s a multi-instrumentalist to boot, though some of that gets eclipsed by the stellar cast on her album.

Our grade for audio quality is an A-minus for good clarity and a mix that pretty much does everything right. But the recording suffers from the all-too-common volume compression that saps the dynamics of the performances and especially dilutes the impact of the drums and percussion.

World Music singer-songwriter albums are not particularly common, but Victoria Cardona’s Que Pasó is a definite gem.

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<<>> indicates audio excerpt played in produced radio review

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