DISGUSTINGLY AWFUL COMPARED TO VOL.1! Shing-A-Lings, Boogalo
S. | 07/15/2008
(2 out of 5 stars)
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If you bought THE EXCEPTIONALLY OUTSTANDING Vol.1 of Fania All Stars Live At The Red Garter, and you said: "Great!" Let's now find out about Vol.2"! 'You'll fall from a Coconut tree'! (Like we say at home!...) You won't believe the disappointment! Why? Because the original Fania owners of the era decided to include ALL that boogaloo & Shing-A-Ling 'Anglo-American' junk "Latin" sort of music that was the fashion of the era!...
(IF YOU'RE A REAL FANIA RECORDS COLLECTOR, OR YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING FOR FROM THIS CD, GET IT, OTHERWISE, AVOID IT!...)
The only 2 good songs from this album are the 1st two.
The 8:30 mins Son Cuero y Boogaloo from Ray Barretto which is actually not that Anglo-American and does sound pretty good (although there's by far a better version of it in Barretto's second Fania Album Hard Hands (also from 1968) which is definitely shorter, but better quality) and the second song from Larry Harlow: Noche (7:07 mins) which is quite exceptional, I think! (I've heard clips from it, as it's the only song that doesn't work on the faniarecords website! (They had to screw it with THE best song from the album!...)
Then you get the 'Okayish' Charlie Palmieri Kikapoo Joy Juice song which eventually gets better after the English vocals from the song finish...
You also get Charlie soloing on Piano!...
Then, the rest, is BELOW average!... Don't bother... (Get it of a friend and record on CD, 2, or MAXIMUM 3 songs.)
Sound quality: I haven't bothered to get the chance to hear the songs from this Cd, but from what I think, it's above average, if not, pretty good, so there, it's not an issue AT ALL. The sound quality is good enough, I THINK...
I would also like to take the opportunity to 'thank' V2 Music for having re-made SUCH a MEDIOCRE album for the U.K/Europe at the cost of leaving out the historically classic Fania recordings from the 1970's!
If they at least had also released Vol.1 of the Red Garter, then it would've been more bearable for me, but excluding Vol.1 to replace it for Vol.2 is a SCANDALOUS decision!
They don't SEEM to want to promote the pure & propre contemporary classic style of Latin music from Fania, but the Anglo-American 1960's stuff!...
They seem to think that the golden era of Latin music was in the 60's, but as we all real salsa listeners, and obviously the experts know, the golden age of Salsa was IN THE SEVENTIES! It's just SO OBVIOUS!...
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Track Listings (6) - Disc #1
