National Geographic Music (National Geographic)

While we love Dominican pop-bachata superstars Aventura here at Nat Geo Music, sometimes we just want to kick it old school-and nobody does old school Dominican music like Puerto Plata.

For the uninitiated, Puerto Plata is the stage name of veteran sonero José Cobles. At 86 years old, Cobles is living repository of decades of Dominican songcraft, summoning up classic boleros, sones and more from his years performing in the underground cabarets and dancehalls of Santiago's red light districts in the repressive Trujillo era.

But unlike his contemporaries in Cuba's Buena Vista Social Club crew, Cobles never had the opportunity to record in his younger days, and didn't release his debut until 2007 with Mujer de Cabaret on indie label IASO records. That record, and his subsequent Stateside appearances, was a revelation-a gorgeous mix of sweet, romantic melodies and sly, subversive cabaret humor-making Puerto Plata an "overnight" sensation among Latin music cognoscenti.

Earlier this year IASO released Cobles' second solo album, Casita De Campo, which further focuses on the classic love songs and dance tunes composed during the years of the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic (1930-1960). As always, Puerto Plata brings these decades-old compositions to life with so much humor, intelligence and soul that puts most contemporary pop to shame.

But don't take our word for it-check out this video of Puerto Plata performing "Porqué no hay de ser" by composer Juan Lockward. It's a scorcher-and check out the sweet requinto-playing by accompanist Frank Mendez... the talent runs deep on the IASO roster!