Category: Cuban

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Juan Formell y Los Van Van – Vol. III (1974)

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Juan Formell & Los Van Van
Juan Formel & Los Van Van (Vol. III)
Label: Egrem – CD 0128
Series: Coleccion Juan Formell Y Los Van Van – Vol. III
Format: CD, Album, Reissue, Special Edition
Cuba, 1995
Genre: Latin, Funk / Soul
Style: Funk, Son, Salsa, Cubano

Well, dear friends, I had planned to post something special for my birthday, which was two weeks ago, but being the notorious party animal that I am, time went out the window as I left a trail of havoc and destruction in my wake.  Actually, I spent the night alone, mildly intoxicated, and rewatching episodes of Flight of the Conchords.  In any event, not as if a record by Los Van Van isn’t special (I haven’t heard a bad one yet), but this was not the post I had planned to do.  It’s a lovely record and sounds like it could have been recorded at the same sessions as their other release from 1974.  It opens with a piece (Llegué Llegue / Guararey de Pastora)  that could maybe have been inspired by Fela Kuti.  Another tune (De Todo Lo Mejor) reminds me of chansón.  Both are real possibilities with someone as forward-thinking at Juan Formell.  Lots of Vox and/or Farfisa organ all over the place too. The album may not have any monster earworms like Chirrin Chirran from their previous release (though Sera Tan Grande El Amor comes very close), but it’s no slouch either!

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Arsenio Rodríguez – Primitivo (1965)

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Arsenio Rodríguez
Primitivo
Original release, 1965 – Roost Records LP 2261
CD reissue, 1999 Tico Records SLP-1173

The blind Afro-Cuban tres player, percussionist, composer and bandleader Arsenio Rodríguez was one of a handful of individuals who fundamentally changed Latin music in the twentieth century, a fact which history and audiences were somewhat slow to recognize.  This record features a lean, stripped-down ensemble he put together in early 1958 at the behest of Teddy Reig, who for some reason sat on the recordings for a full seven years.  Reig was apparently interested in “folkloric” Cuban music but Arsenio brought him a dozen new compositions.  It is kind of an “unplugged” album, though – the tres is unamplified, without the pleasingly gritty tone he would get when running it through an amp, and hence so of the most crystal clear playing he ever committed to tape.  The clarity is also helped by the absence of piano and bongó, leaving the middle and middle-upper registers all to the tres and the trumpets.  For me, “Rumba Guajira” is the most spell-binding cut here but all the tunes are excellent.  Maybe Reig’s thirst for folklore was quenched by the vernacular poetic form showed off in ‘Coplas de España” with Arsenio ripping 16th-noted arpeggios with hints of flamenco.  Shortly after this recording session, Arsenio made one of several tours to Chicago, playing for the Puerto Rican and  Cuban audiences on the city’s north side at clubs like the Capri.*

1 La Pasion
2 Me Engañastes Juana
3 Lo Que Dice Justi
4 Rumba Guajira
5 Coplas De España
6 Que Mala Suerte
7 Fiesta En El Solar
8 Me Equivoque Contigo
9 A Gozar Mujeres
10 No Lo Niegues
11 El Lema Del Guaguanco
12 Guaguanco De Puerta Tierra

Sessions recorded in 1958 in NYC.  Also issued as Arsenio y Kike: canta Monguito (Tico LP-1173) on vinyl.

Credits:
Ramón “Monguito” Quián – first vocal
Davy González – first vocal
Candido Antomattei – second voice
Israel Berrios – second voice and guitar
Agustin Caraballoso – trumpet
Johnny Malco – trumpet
Arsenio Rodríguez – tres
Abelardo Chacón – timbal
Kiki – tumbadora

Producer – Teddy Reig
Written songs composed by Arsenio Rodriguez except track 3 by Justí Barreto

*Information for this post was drawn from the excellent book, Arsenio Rodríguez and the Transnational Flows of Latin Popular Music by David F. García, 2006 Temple University Press.

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