In 2006, Fania Records, the dominant salsa/Afro-Cuban music label in the late 1960s and especially throughout the 1970s, began releasing remastered versions of their classic albums. One of the first, is this 1974 collaboration between Celia Cruz, “the Queen of Salsa”, and Johnny Pacheco, the labels co-founder and influential percussionist/flautist/bandleader/producer. Its considered one of the career high points of these musicians and an essential recording for salsa and Latin music.
Cruz, Pacheco, and the Fania All-Stars performing Quimbara in Kinshasa, Zaire, 1974:
The album opens with Quimbara a classic fast burner, followed up by mid-tempo Toro Mata followed by two sweet ballads Vieja Luna and El Paso del Mulo. The rest of the album settles into a mid-tempo vibe(the fastest rhythms are much slower than those in contemporary salsa music), but never repetitive, constantly changing. The band builds to up to a climax and breaks down, restarting in a new melody and beat, and Cruz’s vocals keeping up all along. Pacheco’s arrangements allows Cruz to freely express and improvise, showing off her voice at its finest.
Links:
Fania Records: http://www.faniarecords.com/Fania/site/Home.aspx
Johnny Pacheco official site: http://www.johnnypacheco.com/
Celia Cruz exhibition at Smithsonian Institute: http://americanhistory.si.edu/celiacruz/
