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

(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?

Yeah, is it the trumpeter? He's definitely a ubiquitous and legendary trumpet player. I didn't know he was related to Beny Moré.

dudes, this cantante movie is absolute shit. surprise surprise

We've been anticipating it on the Rolling... thread, but maybe we should discuss it on this specially created thread

Who Will Be Playing Yomo Toro In The Soon-To-Be-Released Hector Lavoe Biopic El Cantante?

Since Fania was just sold, I'm worried that it will soon disappear from eMusic. Any recommendations for titles to download from the label are greatly appreciated.

What do you like so far?

I can't say I've spent a lot of time with them so far, but I like two Willie Colon discs: Cosa Nuestra and Siembra (the latter is with Ruben Blades).

Also, the soundscans on this compilation seem interesting. It's credited to the Emusica label, but I know that's related to Fania (or was), and I'm pretty sure I've seen the disc credited to Fania elsewhere.

Well that's not a lot to go on, so I'll just recommend some titles:

Eddie Palmieri: Azucar Pa' Ti
Cheo Feliciano: Cheo [this has a few boleros, and in general is somewhat on the smooth side]
Willie Colon/Hector Lavoe: El Juicio
Sonora Poncena: Explorando [I recommended this to unperson and he didn't like it too much, so be warned]
Willie Colon: The Good The Bad and the Ugly
Ismael Rivera: Greatest Hits [I'm just checking the tracking listing now and this has some incredible songs on it]
Pete Rodriguez: I Like it Like That [if you want some Latin soul/boogaloo]
Willie Colon: Lo Malo
Eddie Palmieri: Molasss
Eddie Palmieri: Mozambique
La Lupe: Queen of Latin Soul
Angel Canales: Sabor
Willie Colon/Mon Rivera: There Goes the Neighborhood
Orchestra Harlow: La Raza Latina: A Salsa Suite [though I haven't heard it all myself]

You might also want to pick up something representative by Ray Barretto, Roberto Roena, Bobby Valentin, and Johnny Pacheco. The La Herencia compilations for individual artists generally look good.

In my opinion, there's nothing else that really sounds like Siembra.

I know I should give reasons and so forth, but I'm feeling too lazy.

No, no: This is great! I'm going to sample the soundscans tonight. Thanks, RS.

Forgot I also have Ray Barretto's Acid. I think that's on the Fania label, too.

(Also have a late-career Eddie Palmieri disc. It isn't on Fania, but I love the jazzy feel.)

Fania has a whole series of really good two-CD single-artist compilations called A Man And His Music; I've got the ones dedicated to Willie Colón, Ruben Blades, Cheo Feliciano, Eddie Palmieri, Ray Barretto, the Fania All-Stars and Celia Cruz, and there's one for Hector Lavoe, too, of course. They're all excellent. They run about $20 a pop, but Best Buy frequently has 'em for $17.