WILLIE COLON Asalto Navideno Fania Records (FSLP-399) Asalto Navideno is vintage salsa. The two volumes came out in 1972 and 1973, respectively, the peak years of the salsa boom. Any list of the top ten all-time salsa classics would have to include Asalto Navideno, and there are many who place it on the top self. Today more than 30 years after its initial release, most would still agree that this is the best Puerto Rican Christmas album ever!. Theres not a Puerto Rican Christmas party in New York, San Juan, or elsewhere, that isnt heated up to the strains of this irresistible medley of holiday tunes. Here the bad boy team of Willie Colon and vocalist Hector Lavoe join forces with premier cuatro player Yomo Toro and legendary percussionists Milton Cardona and Jose Mangual Jr. to cook up salsa versions of typical Christmas songs familiar to Puerto Rican audiences of all ages. This tipico sound of traditional country music, called musica jibara, is mixed and blended, salsa-style, with a wide range of other rhythms, starting of course, with Cuban guaguanco and African-American jazz, but ranging to Brazilian samba, Panamanian murga, Dominican merengue, and others. The overall effect is that of a party, or rather, a parranda, the traditional Puerto Rican and Latin American custom of going door to door at Christmas time singing and assaulting the houses of good friends and neighbors - hence the term asalto! - who then welcome the invading troupe with holiday treats and plenty of rum. And so the party begins! After well-known disc jockey Polito Vega ignites the Christmas spirit and introduces the musicians on the opening track Introduccion, the following two cuts Canto A Borinquen and Popurri Navideno, evoke the religious and patriotic meaning of the holidays and offer samples of the musical styles of the three principals, Willie Colon, Hector Lavoe, and Yomo Toro. The thematic core of the collection is provided by numbers four and seven, Traigo La Salsa and Esta Navidad, which are clearly intended to resonate with each other. The message is that while the holiday traditions are rooted on the beloved island of Puerto Rico, they also are celebrated by the millions of Puerto Ricans living in New York and other mainland communities who indeed have something special to bring to the party. Attention is drawn to this message at the beginning of Traigo La Salsa: Oigame señor, listen to me, sir. What the band of musicians brings with them is, in fact, la salsa, the musical styles played and danced to by Puerto Rican in the mainland diaspora. Where ever it go (dondequiera que yo voy), the singer announces, I bear with me the typical Christmas spirit and symbolically he does so in the strains of rumba guaguanco, the Cuban-based improvisational forms that are at the base of what came to be called salsa. And in Esta Navidad the encounter between New York Ricans and those on the island is dramatized directly - first by condemning jibaros who come back to the island with an attitude (con aires de superioridad) and then by insisting that they still have something to contribute, which is referred to toward the end of the number as mi tumbaito. Musically, the song starts off with the strong cadences of typical jibaro music, contains a full minute in the middle of Yomo Toro improvisation on the cuatro, and ends with the conga and vocal improvisations of the tumbao. This powerful thematic message, so important to modern-day Puerto Ricans and all Latinos, is interspersed with song that has remained the best known and most popular on the entire album, La Murga, one of the classic dance tunes in the salsa repertoire. Its contagious rhythm and unforgettable trombone motive assures its place in the pantheon, and its loving reference to Panama attests to the pan-Latin American reach of New York Puerto Rican salsa. Though the main emphasis of Asalto Navideno is on the jibaro strain of the traditional music, the collection ends with the playful tune Vive Tu Vida Contento, a plena with direct reference to the Afro-Puerto Rican form of la bomba. Enjoy! Side A 1. Introduccion 2. Canto A Boriquen 3. Popurri Navideno 4. Traigo La Salsa Side B 1. Aries De Navidad 2. La Murga 3. Esta Navidad 4. Vive Tu Vida Contento Personnel: Willie Colon: Leader, Trombone Hector Lavoe: Maracas Willie Sweet Campbell: Trombone Joe Professor Torres: Acoustic Grand Piano Santi Choflomo Gonzalez: Ampeg Baby Bass Yomo Toro: Cuatro Milton Cardona: Conga Jose Mangual Jr: Bongo, Cowbell Louie Timbalito Romero: Timbales, Snare Drum Eric Matos: Band Boy, Booze Getter Lead Vocals: Hector Lavoe Coro: Willie Colon Johnny Pacheco Justo Betancourt Musical Arrangements by: Willie Colon Produced by: Jerry Masucci Executive Producer: Jerry Masucci Recording Director: Johnny Pacheco Album Cover & Liner Photos: Len Bauman Album Cover Design: Izzy Sanabria Album Cover Site: Elliot Sachs Recording Engineer: Irving Greenbaum Recorded @: Broadway Sound Recording Studios, NYC FANIA RECORDS, 1972 A FANIA RECORDS PRODUCTION
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 03:53:47 +0000
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