Crowdambo

Latigo, a 2007 Grammy-nominated disc by Quartet San Francisco, features Latin percussion accompanying string quartet tangos and dances. Some of the tracks have odd ripples of “Oye Como Va”—congas and cowbells playing familiar patterns—but Cohen, the group’s first violinist, uses the quartet creatively to mirror the percussion instruments in his piece “Crowdambo.” Some fancy bow work that sounds like a scraped cuica, along with guitar-like pizzicato and short, brittle attacks make “Crowdambo” stand out from the rest of the disc.

—DA