If you plan on discussing the origins of salsa, you'd better make a large pot of Café Rico coffee. You're going to be arguing late into the night. There are multiple definitions of the music as well as a raging debate over its roots, starting point and how it evolved. To me, as a former resident of Washington Heights, the definition is rather simple: salsa began at the dawn of the 1970s and followed the boogaloo as a popular style in New York's Latin communities.
The boogaloo was a funky Latin-soul form that originated in the early 1960s by young black and Puerto Rican musicians seeking a form in sync with the youth culture. At clubs, the music encouraged a freestyle dance form, much in the way discotheque go-go dancing surfaced around the same time in response to big-beat pop music. Dance partners did their own thing across from each other and never touched. Salsa, by contrast, restored touch dancing as couples sought a more intimate form on the dance floor.
Most notable about salsa is the distinct lead vocal approach known as son montuno, a conversational shout style, and the unison horn arrangements, which have a certain bravado and are crafted to mirror the vocals of background singers. It should be noted that salsa had a profound influence on the rise of disco's touch-dancing in the early 1970s, as soul dance beats merged with the sleek heat of Latin dance music. This fusion gave rise to several disco dances, including the hustle, an early incarnation of Salsoul Records and a range of cross-over artists ranging from Yambu to Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band. The Fania All-Stars helped pioneer salsa early on, Izzy Sanabria promoted the music and the Miami Sound Machine helped mainstream it mid-decade. That's the short story.
Now, Vinyl Me Please and Now-Again Records have released The Story of Ghetto Records, a blockbuster box of seven early salsa albums on Ghetto Records, a label formed by Joe Bataan and George Febo in 1970. The seven albums are Joe Acosta's The Power Of Love, La Fantastica's From Ear To Ear, Paul Ortiz Y La Orquesta Son's Los Que Son, Candido Y Su Movimiento's Palos De Fuego, Eddie Lebron's Ghetto Records Presents...Eddie Lebron, Papo Felix and Ray Rodriguez's Papo Felix Meets Ray Rodriguez and Joe Bataan's previously unreleased Drug Story.
If you want to hear the real deal, these seven albums provide a smashing early salsa survey. It's the sound you would have heard live at Latin clubs in New York in the very early 1970s. The flavor on these albums is so rich and pure, you can't sit still. One track after the next engages and captivates with a brash, brassy and bossy sound. I've been listening to the box for days in a state of joy. Hopefully this is the start of an early salsa revival as dozens of other albums are re-issued and a firmer history of this glorious music is codified by gifted writers and documentarians. Caliente!
JazzWax: You'll find the limited edition The Story of Ghetto Records (VMP/NAR) on vinyl here for $319.
Lacquers for all titles (except Drug Story) were cut by Bernie Grundman at Bernie Grundman Mastering. All seven titles are pressed on exclusive 180g black vinyl.
Hopefully these individual albums will be digitized soon.
JazzWax tracks: The following tracks aren't from the new vinyl releases. They are from the original albums. But they are from the seven albums in the box and will give you a taste of what you're getting:
Here's Joe Acosta's I Need Her...
Here's La Fantastica's Borinquen...
Here's Paul Ortiz Y La Orquesta Son's Son Los Que Son...
Here's Candido Y Su Movimiento's El Lobo...
Here's Eddie LeBron's Fui Sincero...
Here's Joe Bataan's Drug Story...
And here's Papo Felix Meets Ray Rodriguez's Work Out (Part 1)...
