70s Salsa (was The Fania Label 1970-1980: S/D)

Someone hooked me up with a copy of this, which I know nothing about and have never heard of previously, and it's pretty good. There's a goofy party theme to it, but even that is handled okay. A cover of "Cisco Kid." Some great fast-paced vibes and flute stuff. I am just assuming it's from the 70's.

A crack set of early 70s Latin, played by "the cream of New York" -- a group that includes Louie Ramirez on piano, vibes, and organ, and Mauricio Smith on flute and sax! The whole album's pretty darn great, with a really strong jazzy touch -- thanks to great work by Ramirez and Smith -- and at some level, the feel of the record is similar to that of labelmates Ocho, with an equally righteous blend of styles. Most tracks have vocals, but the main focus is on the strong instrumentation -- and 2 cuts on the set are instrumentals. Titles include "Salta Perico", "El Party", "Quimbia", "Mi Pais", and a great funky cover of "Cisco Kid"!

Woah! That's the only record by eiher of them that I own. I got it the Gigante (a kind of Mexican K-Mart) in Puebla or somewhere in Mexico, in their discount bin. My brother made me get it, he was living there in the early-mid 80s I dug it, my friends all hated it.

that looks awesome

It figures.

Anyway, that's their best album together, from what I've heard of their work (and I don't think I've ever come across even one person who dissents from that view).

x-post:

The La Crema you mean? It actually is really good. It's not as crazy as the cover makes it look, but in the beginning there are people ringing a doorbell and coming in to the party, and then at the end there's party-leaving chatter as well. I didn't realize Louie Ramirez was involved until I Googled it, but I generally like him (as vibraphonist and as arranger/bandleader).

More about it:

http://www.descarga.com/cgi-bin/db/12572.10?izsWRqZi;;595

(Last post: WTF, a bit off-topic. tiit, I will get to this eventually. I remind you that it was your idea. In general, it's better to let me "go first" in a trade.)

are any of the compilations worth getting? like the 'our latin thing' cds?

I'm not too familiar with the compilations, but based on casually looking at the track listings for a lot of them, I usually find myself thinking: wouldn't you want to just get the whole album some of these songs come from? In many cases we are talking about albums that are strong overall (not that the individual tracks can't stand up outside that context). Of course, I'm not really telling you to just start buying dozens of these albums. If you can give me some examples of tracklists, I might be able to comment. (I can't find a tracklist for the first volume of those Our Latin Thing compilations, and I'm not familiar with at least half of what's on Vol. 2.)

heres the tracklisting for vol 1 of our latin thing. i just ordered this and the new york salsa 2cd comp. i would like to buy the full albums as usually i dont really like compilations as they dont hang that well together but then i often find when you buy the proper albums, sometimes the albums are mostly a few standout tracks supported by filler. i dont know if thats how it is with fania though....

1. Bang Bang - Cuba, Joe
2. I Like It Like That - Rodriguez, Pete
3. Boogaloo Sabrosa - Santamaria, Monguito (1)
4. Mercy Mercy Baby - Barretto, Ray
5. Subway Joe - Bataan, Joe
6. Hit The Bongo - Puente, Tito
7. Gotta Do My Number - Averne, Harvey
8. Willie Wopper - Colon, Willie
9. Consolacion - Roena, Roberto Y Su Apollo Sound
10. Change Had Better Come - Dimmond, Mark
11. Soul Makossa - Fania All Stars
12. Quimbara - Cruz, Celia & Johnny Pacheco

also i dont know these artists that well or latin music especially well either (apart from things here and there) so i dont really know which albums to get. seems so daunting. i picked up a la lupe album yesterday which i love which is why im trying to get more...

That looks like it's tilted toward the boogaloo/Latin soul side of things, but I definitely do like some of those cuts. It's kind of weird because it starts off mostly boogaloo (-ish) and then you get something like that Celia Cruz/Johnny Pacheco track at the end, which has a much more traditional, Cuban-rooted, conjunto sound. But the three tracks ahead of it could provide a transition. (I don't know them, by name anyway.)

I'm not anti-compilation in general, I've just seen a lot of Fania compilations that pull out individual tracks from albums I consider good all around. (And sometimes you will get a series of this where volume 1 has one track from album x, and then volume 3 has another track from album x, and volume 4 has yet another track. . . It just seems like a weird way to repackage it. You might as well get a list of albums in a case like that.)

the new york salsa 2cd

Do you know the exact title? (Sorry, but there are so many of these things.)

its this one -
http://www.amazon.co.uk/York-City-Salsa-Various-Artists/dp/B000H5V98A/ref=sr_1_3/203-7480237-8151966?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1179661062&sr=1-3

see, i dont really know if the our latin thing vol 1 is mainly boogaloo or what, although id be interested to get a good grasp on whats what, which is why i thought maybe a compilation would be a good place to start. i dont wanna spend loads of money and feel like i got burnt cos i bought the wrong stuff that isnt to my taste. i just hate comps though cos they seem so all over the place and not often very cohesive or worse, just lacking in quality control and compiled by someone who doesnt know much about the tracks (or they have loads of obscure stuff which is only really good once you know the most famous songs).

I don't honestly recognize a lot of the individual tracks, but it looks good, more broadly based than Our Latin Thing, vol.1. There may be some weird transitions, like "Bilongo" to "Periodico De Ayer." It's got some less obvious artists, but not anyone overly obscure. (I'm not sure I'd consider anyone who appeared on Fania to be truly obscure though, so that judgment might not amount to much.)

I have two words for you: Orestes Vilato.

Which two words are mentioned above in the Hard Hands review from descarga.

i like all of the cuts on that "our latin thing" comp, but i am more into latin soul / boogaloo than salsa.

funny that this got revived ... been listening to "son cubano nyc" quite a bit over the last few days...

there's some dude on that son cubano comp that goes by the name of "chocolate", his stuff is STELLAR.

The trumpet player, Alfredo "Chocolate" Armenteros, Beny Moré's cousin, this guy?