Thank God for music that continues to be created and arriving from all parts both in Salsa and Latin Jazz for our sanity as this pandemic continues.
A few months back I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that one of our greatest pianists, performer and Salsa pioneer was releasing a new CD. The legendary artist Richard Maldonado, better known to us as Richie Ray of the Ricardo Ray & Bobby Cruz fame, announced he was bringing out the CD “Salsa Jazz & Beethoven”.
Richie Ray, who is his early years was constantly reinventing himself (the use of his horns to start each song, the Boogaloo, Jala Jala and more importantly the use of classical music), has done it again with an all -instrumental CD that defines a new direction for veteran star.
This pandemic has been a God send to many musicians this past year and Richie was one who was able to take advantage of this time and create some of the best music of 2020. The man has gotten better with age!
While there were plans to use Bobby Cruz health issues with Bobby’s wife changed what was being planned and hence this new CD that does include some tracks as instrumental Salsa’s that fans will know such as “El Sonido Bestial” and “Richie’s Jala Jala”.
For this recording Richie went in deep into his classical training fusing his music with the classics of Beethoven, Chopin, Bach and Rachmanioff amongst others.
The entire CD is a dancer’s delight that will also please the listeners starting with the fiery opening track that reminds me of the 60’s superhero series “The Green Hornet”. “La Reina Abeja” is a take on “Flight of The Bumblebee” coming from the prospective of the queen bee.
Listen to “Mi Amigo Juan”, “Oh, Camina”, “Fantaisie Impromptu”, “La Danza Del Fuego” and “Adagio” that will be a part of many playlists and radio shows worldwide throughout 2021.
A key note is the excellent improvisations by Marc Anthony;s trumpet player Gerardo Rodriguez, Danny Lopez’ trombone on “La Reina Abeja” and Richard Bravo’s percussion on “Mi Amigo Juan”. The Final track, “Love Journey”, takes you through the emotional steps of a couple who meet, date, fall in love, marry, go through the honeymoon period before the rocky stage and love conquering at the end.
One of today’s new names in Salsa is Puerto Rican percussionist David Lucca & Los Clasicos and their new CD, “Ponle Corazon”, that showcases the guests Ed Calle, Tito De Gracia, Nelson Gonzalez and Grupo Plena Es and great vocalists and excellent selections starting with the first single “Ponle’ sung by the legend Luisito Carrion.
One of the hottest soneros of the past decade Marcial Isturiz does a superb job singing “Te Voy A Dar Un Chance” while Javi Marrero, who sang with Mulenze & Roberto Roena, covers the CD title track “Ponle Corazon”.
Ex-NG2 vocalist Gerardo Rivas is the guest on “Dilema” that features Tito De Gracia one of Salsa’s best timbaleros and cuatro player Tony Toyan.
Trumpeter/C0-Producer Luis ‘Papo’ Marquez plays a key factor on this recording where he also handles the mix and masterization.
Back in the 80’s I met bass player Gary Nuñez at Audiorama Distributors on 10th Avenue, in New York, where I worked as TH Records Representative and he was being distributed for his recording debut. Gary went on to form what is in the past 25 years and 15 recordings the premiere plena band in the world.
“La Cosa Nuestra” is a wonderful compilation of appropriately titled with fantastic selections that will make this a huge recording this year and on my shows on Alma Del barrio and WorldSalsaRadio.com.
Check out all the great tunes starting with the opener “Rica Que Esta” with the young piano sensation from Puerto Rico who is also a great vocalist and arranger Carlos Garcia and “Remolino Del Mar” with guest Roberto Roena and vocalist Nilo Torres who also plays a mean electric guitar.
“Lo Que Tiene Ella” invites Hall of Famer trumpeter Luis ‘Perico’ Ortiz while “Plena, Plena, Plena” showcases ‘The Sun of Latin Music’ Eddie Palmieri who wrote the track.
“Juan Jose” has the hottest Latin Jazz Plena trombonist William Cepeda and conguero Sammy Garcia, who is today Charlie Aponte’s musical director, as guests.
Cuatro extraordinaire Pedro Guzman, who leads Jibaro Jazz, is the soloist on “100% Boricua” and “El Bravo” has the great trumpeter Charlie Sepulveda and Electric Guitarist Jorge Laboy.
Some of the guest vocalists include Jose Alberto ‘El Canario’ on “Somos Diferentes”, Wichy Camacho on Los Van Van Salsa mega-hit “Sandunguera”, Andy Montañez on “Parrandera”.
Papo Lucca plays a beautiful piano riff on “Malcriada” as does Alfredo De La Fe on “Olvidalo” and cuatro player Christian Nieves on “La Trulla Chevere”.
For my Jazzeando En El Valle show I loved “Lluvia Con Nieve” that highlights the improvisations of Luis Marin, Charlie Sepulveda and Roberto Roena and “Tema de Luis Gabriel” with flutist Nestor Torres.
There are many new bands that have been surfacing over the last decade and Orquesta Urbana has jumped into the arena for new bands of the year with their CD “Phase One”. Their first single, “Eres Tan Linda”, came out In March of 2019 and features one of the bands vocalists Charlie Hernandez and the song, written by Pedro Jesus (one of the brightest composers in Salsa), became a true hit. The second single was “Somos Infieles” that featured Diego Gale.
Pedro Jesus also wrote the opening CD track, “Desperte En La Habana”, with Carlitos Garcia on vocals who sings various tracks on the recording. Two other tunes with hit potential are “Me Dice Que Me Quieres” and “Soy Sonero”.
Make Sound is a band of young ladies, led by conguero Alexandra Alban, that debuted with the CD title track, “Identidad”, back in March 2020, with vocalist/flutist Jeremy Bosch as guest. The second single featured Alain Perez on “Oye Como Suena”.
What made this CD interesting is that after these two vocal releases the album is all Latin Jazz that showcases all the ladies. My favorites here are “Siboney”, “Toma Tu Tomate”, “Then There Were Four”, “Magdalena River”, “Quizas, Quizas, Quizas” and “Merengue” (that is not a merengue).