Back in the 1960s, I lived for the Billboard pop and R&B charts and WABC-AM Top 40 countdown. Everything then was rock or soul, Black and white, uptown and downtown. But if you lived in New York, as I did then, in Washington Heights, you knew there was a third stream—boogaloo. You could hear it coming out of the open windows of apartments on summer weekends in Washington Heights, from 140th to 175th streets, and in East Harlem. Amazing what you'd hear in the days before air conditioning, when the thump of large rectangular fans keep people in apartments cool. I didn't speak Spanish and no one I knew did. But I knew this musical subculture existed nearby and I loved the sound.
The boogaloo was distinctly Latin music but in truth it was a funky amalgamation of Latin, soul and jazz, and occasionally a rock guitar created by the Hispanic youth culture. Songs blended mambo and son montuno rhythms, jazzy horn licks and soul-inspired vocals, often sung in English. As a kid riding in the back of my parents navy-blue Rambler on our way back uptown from dinner in Chinatown or returning over the George Washington Bridge from a night at Palisades Amusement Park in New Jersey, the music grinding outside was high-energy, hypnotic and alluring.
Now, Craft Latino, a division of Concord, has released It’s a Good, Good Feeling: The Latin Soul of Fania Records (The Singles), a spectacularly edited box set of boogaloo and Latin-soul singles featuring 89 tracks of bliss. Just listening to this box takes me back to those sweltering twilights, when neon lights came on in Spanish neighborhoods between sundown and nighttime. The vibrant colors shimmered in the humid air and you could smell the mist of onions, garlic and sofrito being cooked down in pans before the chicken, rice and green olives went in.
The four-CD set with a bonus 7-inch single packaged in a 60-page hardcover book spans from 1965 to 1975. It features dynamic tracks by leading boogaloo artists such as Joe Bataan, Ray Barretto, Bobby Valentín, Ralfi Pagan, Mongo Santamaria and Larry Harlow. There's also an abridged 28-track double-vinyl version. All of these tracks come with a big beat, powerful vocals and were designed for creative freestyle dancing. It was Latin's take on transistor-radio pop.
Among the highlights are Joe Bataan's Gypsy Woman and When We Get Married, Larry Harlow's That Groovy Shingaling, Ray Barretto's A Deeper Shade of Soul and New York Soul, Mongo Santamaria's Hey Sister, Ralfi Pagan's Make It With You, Butter Scotch's Try Just a Little Harder, and W.R.L.C.'s Johnny's No Good. There are even two Latin-flavored Jumpin' With Symphony Sid radio air checks by Bataan and Valentin, in tribute to "Symphony" Sid Torin, the bop DJ who during these later years was instrumental in promoting Latin music on WEVD-FM in New York. Symph always knew what was good, even if his audience wasn't hip to the scene.
All 89 tracks are chunky, red-hot swingers, and the set's sound is fantastic. A shame this music didn't receive more mainstream airplay and coverage by the music media through the years. By the mid-1970s, the boogaloo and Latin soul were gone, replaced by a new form of dance music—salsa. It's a joy to know that this Latin music is still killer today and will appeal to anyone who's passionate about love, life and art.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find It’s a Good, Good Feeling: The Latin Soul of Fania Records (The Singles) from Craft Latino here.
JazzWax clips: Here's Joe Bataan's Gypsy Woman...
Here's Ray Barretto's New York Soul...
And here's Mercie by Ralph Robles...
Now, if you're curious, dig We Like It Like That, a documentary directed by Mathew Ramirez Warren that came out in 2016. You'll find it at Amazon. Here's the trailer...
