During his long career Jean Françaix held largely to the same style, a light, clear, melodic and entertaining sort of music. He can be viewed as maintaining a tradition going back to Erik Satie and later embraced by Milhaud and Poulenc, partaking of the music of the boulevards and music halls, happy to include popular-style phrases and dance rhythms.

This suite originated as a piece in eight movements for two pianos, composed in 1957. In 1961 Françaix rewrote five of the movements for saxophone and piano. The dances are "exotic" because they are all Latin American. The five brief movements (none over two minutes long and the finale merely a half minute) are a "Pambiche," a "Baiao," a "Mambo," a slow "Samba," and a final "Merengue."

© Joseph Stevenson, All Music Guide