Whatever you do, don't call Mas Mamones a merengue band.

"All the new stuff coming out of the Latin world is really, really bland," Manny Lander say of the contemporary Latin styles making their way into New Orleans. "And that stuff is huge right now. You can turn on Channel 50 and find it in to minutes. I don't listen to any of that stuff. I can't stand it."

Lander is vocalist for the nine-member Mas Mamones, whose stylish revival of Cuban jazz is one of the hottest new sounds to emerg...