Imagen Latina is an album by Venezuelan musician Alberto Naranjo, originally released in 1992 and reedited thrice in 2002, 2008 and 2012.
Naranjo (Caracas, 1941) is one of Venezuela's icons of contemporary music, establishing his prestige as an arranger, conductor, composer and drummer.
Soloists with an already established career in Venezuela participated in this project; renowned salseros as Canelita Medina, Carlos Espósito, Vladimir Lozano, Trina Medina, Carlos Daniel Palacios and Mauricio Silva; noted folklorists as Simón Díaz, Cecilia Todd and the group Serenata Guayanesa, and also counted with the collaboration of poet Jesús Rosas Marcano, musician Benjamín Brea, pop singer María Rivas, jazz pianist Otmaro Ruiz, and the polifacetic Aldemaro Romero.
Most salsa bands are a tightly wound unit that developed their music through years of playing in clubs around their hometown.
The eclectic body of Naranjo's work shows some debt to Billo Frómeta, Tito Puente and the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band, preferring traditional guaracha, jazz, bolero, mambo and Venezuelan genres, creating a sophisticated and distinctive sound with accessible melodic hooks, complex harmonies and time signatures, as well as a special devotion to the recording studio.