Great Music, Terrible Sound
sergiobklyn | 12/21/2008
(3 out of 5 stars)
"The re-issue quality of Fania albums by Emusica has been a hit-and-miss process. The re-mastering on this CD made the tracks sound louder but duller. I don't know how they managed it, but they even made Willie Colón's voice sound panned to the right channel while maintaining the same loudness on both channels. On the plus side, I really enjoyed the liner notes.
I really like the music on this CD. It has excellent arrangements, great compositions, and outstanding performances. It seems to me that Fania was trying hard to recover from their crossover fiasco of previous albums and they made two great follow-up productions: Commitment and Latin Connection where they used all their heavyweight singers and instrumentalists. The one singer I think is missing from Latin Connection is Rubén Blades, but the presence of Maelo singing Bilongo more than makes up.
Based only on the quality of the music I'd give this CD 5 stars.
Get this CD if the lack of quality does not bother you as much. Or get the first Fania CD release (JM 595 Latin Connection) and EQ to your taste."