Ray Barretto Cocinando 45 (Fania, 1972)
One of my favorite musicians, Ray Barretto, died on February 17. An percussion inovator, Barretto revolutionized both Latin music and jazz in the 1960s. His album Acid is one monster of a record and recommended to any Latin, jazz, funk or soul fan. For a propper send off, please go here.
Below is something I posted October 7, 2005. Rerun today in memory of a music great.
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I am guessing that the first time I heard Latin music was watching Desi Arnez on I Love Lucy. I know the second time I heard it was in high school when I found a 45 of Perez Prado's Mambo Jambo at the school's jury-rigged, 50 watt radio "station" i.e. a few storage rooms with some ancient radio gear in it. The rhythm of it was pretty infectuous and I showed my obsession with it by slapping it on a turntable in the classroom next to the "station" and doing a dance. What kind of dance? I don't think it had a name but it was pretty much some kind of smart ass, teenage jig or a demented softshoe. I could do it for you if you were here because I still have the record, or at least I have the song.
I found the song on a Prado album that I bought in the mid-1980s when burned out on punk rock youngsters such as I started digging through thrift stores for exotica albums. I was in some store, remembered the name Perez Prado so I when I stumbled upon a copy of his Big Hits I bought it, listened to it and liked it.
The next Latin record I bought was Cal Tjader's Mambo with Tjader. Impossible to pass up for the cover alone, it is my favorite Tjader album. Unlike Prado, Tjader is a bit more hip. His band is smaller, the recording is more immediate, and there certainly is more of an edge to it than with Prado. From Tjader it was Tito Puente, Mongo Santamaria, and Willie Bobo. However I didn't flip for Latin until I found The Hustler by Willie Colon.
The Hustler came to me via a girlfriend. We were staying with her husband's ex in Santa Cruz, while on our way to Southern California. I was flipping through records at the house and the ex told us that they were my then-girlfriend's dad's and to take what we wanted. The Hustler was one that went home. I could write pages on that record, but I will just note that it is one of my top five records of all time and it sent me on a frantic search for more.
Until The Hustler (and the Fania All Stars' Latin-Soul-Rock and a few other LPs), I passed up Latin stuff. Not anymore. Record stores, thrift stores, flea markets - I scoured everything. But finding good New York salsa music on the West Coast is tough. Though there is a large Spanish speaking population here, the Chicano population has long been hooked on oldies. The Mexicanos tend toward Norteno. And when you do find salsa it is usually later Celia Cruz or Ruben Blades album not the raw, soulful stuff.
Ray Barretto is certainly not obscure: he is one of the heavies of New York salsa. His Cocinando 45 has been in my constant rotation since I picked it up at a flea market with a stack of Latin 45s five years ago. The record might not be easy to track down but I am sure this has been reissued in one form or another. Like all the great stuff from that period, Cocinando has a nice deep, dark groove and violent horns. This is a dance floor filler.
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