U.S. music

More than 25 years after they were formed, the Backstreet Boys performed in Costa Rica for the first time.

Eagles guitarist and founding member Glenn Frey, a U.S. rocker whose band dominated charts throughout the 1970s with hits such as "Hotel California," died Monday, the group said. Frey died of complications from rheumatoid arthritis, acute ulcerative colitis and pneumonia.

In her highly anticipated fourth album released Friday, Lana Del Rey returns to the somber, cinematic sound that has made her among the most unique and complicated recent pop sensations.

For many listeners, their warm feelings for Cuban music and the Cuban people began with that 1997 Buena Vista Social Club album. The "Adiós Tour" offers perhaps the last chance to share an evening with some of the club's original members.

AZ has finally made his way to the land of pura vida to film the video for his new song "Back to Myself." That track, and others forthcoming, will mark the 20th anniversary of "Doe or Die" with the release of "Doe or Die, Vol. 2." in coming months.

We spoke with trumpet player and composer Etienne Charles outside the upper Manhattan club Smoke a few weeks ago, where he told us about his latest project, an unusual suite involving San José, Costa Rica; San Jose, California; and St. Joseph in Trinidad.

"2 all my Sweden fans U can blame YA police dept for never seeing me again in your beautiful country," the rapper wrote in a tweet.

"For the moment, we are thinking more about bringing out new songs every six months," Michael Durham Prince told the French newspaper Le Parisien.

The entire club is soon bouncing to the rhythms and melodies of the music, a mix of standards such as Tito Puente’s “Five Beat Mambo” and “Confucius Mambo,” and originals such as Fournier’s “Vibes Bolero” and “Una de cal.” Super Mambo is paying tribute to percussionist Tito Puente, who was not just the King of Timbales, but also a sophisticated vibraphonist as well.

A Costa Rican fan named Marcela last Thursday climbed onstage in Chicago and danced with lead singer Bono, who loves Costa Rica and its people.