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FORUM DISCUSSIONS
VARIOUS ARTISTS - THE SOUL OF SPANISH HARLEM  Various Artists"The Soul of Spanish Harlem" BGP (CDBGPD197) File under Jazz, Acid Jazz and Latin For further details and full tracklisting click here Mark Ellis checks out BGP's latest collection of late 60s Latin boogaloo. Having Shingaling’d with Spanish Harlem’s bad, bad gangsters of Boogaloo on two belting albums (courtesy of the Fania label) BGP dive headfirst into this brief but fertile period in pop cultural history. On ‘The Soul of Spanish Harlem’ a trawl through 60’s and early 70’s Hispano-American musical creativity focuses this time on (you’ve guessed it) more soulful, heartfelt material.
Excellent sleeve notes detail the talents of Bobby Marin and Jerry Masucci - songwriters and production maestros for some of the leading lights of Latin crossover music and the tracks on this double album reflect this association. The artists throughout this collection worked for major players Fania, Cotique, Tico and Speed along with cult labels Uptite and Swinger releasing records that fused Cuban and Puerto Rican sounds and song structures with that of emergent black R’n’B. Kicking off in style with Ralfi Pagan’s throbbing ‘Ain’t No Big Thing’ we continue on a funky tip with the Terrible Frankie Nieves’ ‘True Love’ (and a piano riff straight from Barbara Acklin’s/Young Holt’s ‘Am I The Same Girl’) Side one then slows down , mellows out and kicks off its shoes courtesy of Tito Ramos, Harvey Averne, Monguito Santamaria and the Lebron Brothers. Joey Pastrano’s. ‘Rumours’, seven minutes of laid back street talk call-and-response reminds us that we’re firmly in East Harlem before more slipping ‘n’ sliding soulful cuts are supplied by Ray Jay And The Eastsiders, Parrish and Ronnie Marks. We are then treated to the insistent, achingly beautiful ‘Maria, Maria’ by King Nando and the way-groovy ‘I’m Satisfied’ by the superb Tony Middleton. The latter, the flip of Middleton’s classic ‘Return To Spanish Harlem’ has hijacked many a dancefloor over the years and serves its purpose royally here as a hip shaking lead-up to the rather fantastic final side. The Lat-Teens crank it up in their ‘I’ll Never Let You Go’- all brass, piano and plaintive vocals which is followed by one stonking slab of Boogaloo in ‘Nitty Boo Boo’. This unreleased track featured the inclusion of the absolute giants of Latin Soul in a kind of ‘supergroup’ and The Nitty Sextette come forth with this extremely catchy piece of garage organ led craziness. Produced by Bobby Marin’s brother, Richard, Willie Torres took up vocal duties and was backed by Bobby, Ray Pollard, Jimmy Sabater, Ricardo Ray, Charlie Palmieri, Tito Puente and Louis Ramirez (wow!) A killer track in all senses of the word. Just when you thought you could leave the dancefloor, Russell Cohen and The New Yorkers whip it up some more with ‘I’m Gonna Leave You’ but things slow down again for the final two tracks. The stunning ‘Lonely Has Been My Day’ by Ralphie & The Latin Lovers, a song that nicely builds to a glorious end precedes the much loved ‘Ordinary Guy’ by Joe Bataan.-a stone cold classic! Yet another fascinating journey into a time and place that through the happy accident of multi-ethnic, cross-cultural convergence produced some of the most vibrant and exciting music ever. Compiled by the ever reliant Dean Rudland, I can but say that this album is a very classy addition to the swelling ranks of testaments to this music. Bravo! |
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