Ray Barretto – Hard Hands (1968) (Fania Records 1972 repress)

This is a Latin rare groove classic,  a mix of Latin Soul, boogaloo, and salsa dura from the great Ray Barretto. Whoever owned this before me obviously played the hell out of the title track.

There is a bit of distortion on that cut that can’t be helped, but this is still a glorious listen that beats any of the CD versions out there that I’ve encountered.  Adelberto Santiago was a fine vocalist and Bobby Valentin (credited as “Mr.Soul” here) is one of the best bassists in all of Latin music.  There’s a shout out to African roots (the Ivory Coast to be specific) with Abidjan.

A1 Hard Hands 2:50
A2 Abidjan 4:52
A3 Love Beads 2:36
A4 Mi Ritmo Te Llama 4:55
A5 Got To Have You 2:27
B1 Son Con Cuero 5:12
B2 Mirame De Frente 4:27
B3 New York Soul 2:38
B4 Ahora Si 5:36

Mastered At – Longwear Plating

Bass – Mr. Soul  (Bobby Valentin)
Bongos – Tony Fuentes
Congas – Ray Barretto
Design – Izzy Sanabria
Photography By [Cover] – Marty Topp
Piano – Louis Cruz
Producer – Jerry Masucci
Timbales – Orestes Vilato
Trumpet – “Papy” Roman*, Roberto Rodriguez (2)
Vocals – Adalberto Santiago

Early 1970s repress on the multi-colored cloud label.

Matrix / Runout (Side A runout): SLP 362-FM-A LW rL
Matrix / Runout (Side B runout): SLP 362-FM-B LW rL

DIG THAT CRAZY SOUND, MAN!

LINEAGE: 1972 Fania (repress) SLP 362 ; Pro-Ject RM-5SE with Audio Tecnica Signet TK7E cartridge and AT-618 disc stabilizer; Speedbox power supply; Pro-Ject Tube Box S2 preamp; Audioquest Black Mamba and Pangea Premier interconnect cables; RME Babyface Pro interface ; Adobe Audition at 32-bit float 192khz; Click Repair with real-time monitoring of output; further clicks and pops removed manually with Adobe Audition 3.0; resampled, dithered, and converted to FLAC using iZotope RX Advanced. Tags done with Foobar 2000 and Tag and Rename.

Hi-res FLAC – 24/96 and 24/192

password: vibes

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