Un Gran Dia en el Barrio

United We Swing Spanish Harlem Orchestra's United We Swing does more than just make you want to dance. The joyous collection will likely incite a full-scale house party, complete with flowy dresses, sparkly jewelry, and silky, unbuttoned shirts. The disc plays like an actual live performance, a...	Across 110th Street	Salsa Dura	El Cantante There will likely be lots of scoffing at Marc Anthony's interpretation--both on disc and onscreen--of late salsa singer Hector Lavoe. But let's not forget that Anthony is a salsa superstar in his own right. He has anchored some of the genre's most thrilling moments and has taken ...	Heavy Salsa
El Avión de la Salsa	Arroz Con Habichuela	Soneando Trombon	El Cantante: The Originals Héctor Lavoe (1946-1993) was born Héctor Juan Pérez in Ponce, Puerto Rico, and became known to his fans simply as El Cantante (the singer). His hectic career began when he moved to New York City as a teenager and headlined with Willie Colôn's band and, later, with the Fania A...	Listen Here! The Puerto Rican pianist/bandleader Eddie Palmieri has reigned as "The Sun of Latin Music" for fifty years. He innovated salsa music with his two-trombone La Perfecta groups, and his propulsive piano style combines McCoy Tyner's power and Thelonious Monk's dark, chordal shadings....

I am going to dead this stupid argument!
It's one thing to be proud of one's nationality and heiritage but this is just stupid. As a so called "African-American", I don't know a Cha Cha Cha from a Mozambique but I know good music and this album is pretty good, although I have heard better. Unless you trace your family back to Quuen Isabella or some other Spanish royalty, chances are neither you nor I will pass the infamous "brown paper bag test" (well at least I know I won't, yeah for melanin). Therefore it's pointless to feed into the whole divide and conquer thing. In the documentary which accompanies the excellent performance film "Calle 54", Bebo and Chucho Valdes, Richie Gonzalez, Michel Camilo, Eliane Elias, and even Chano Dominguez all say that 'Africa is the Grandfather of Latin Jazz'. In case you lost count, that's two Cubans, a Puerto Rican, a Dominican, a Brazilian and a Spainard (thrown in for good measure) all saying the same thing so what are we arguing about. We know that the majority of the "ritmos" that make up what we today call Salsa came from what "re-emerged" and "melded" in Cuba. These styles were brought to New York, met with some Bomba, Plena and probably a little, Merengue and Bachata (and don't forget the Blues, Swing and Soul)and eventually became the "sauce" that we now call "Salsa". So instead of you guys fighting, you should be happy that your ancestors were ablle to keep more of their own unique traditions and music (unlike my own) and give the world such a rich palette of culture and music. So don't let the pride blind you to the truth. By the way, this CD is worth the price for "Obssesion" alone, as one reviewer pointed out.

Basic and unmoving. Unoriginal.
With the caliber of musicians playing on this album, I expected a hard hitting original. Instead we get re-arranged covers and lots of "filler" salsa. No surprises here. The classic salsa albums are worth your cash but if you are curious, you'll play this one once.

Solid Throughout
Not sure that the controversy in the other reviews below does much to help the potential CD purchaser to make a choice, This is very solid NY salsa with tight ensemble playing, great soloists and good vocals. I don't really think there is a bad cut on the CD. The musical forms that comprise salsa are all well represented and the musicianship is top notch. You can't go wrong buying this. I listen to it often.

Nuyorican vs Cuban - There is a difference
First of all, on the record, it's a decent album. But the new album - Across 110 st - is better. But the bolero "Obsesion" is done perfectly and is worth the CD just for that. Further "Vale Mas Un Guaguanco" is slamming. Again though, the new album is better, if only it has Ruben Blades on 4 tracks. Also, comparing Buena Vista Social Club (BVSC) to Spanish Harlem orchestra is like comparing Apples to Oranges. BVSC are firmly rooted in the Cuban "salsa" tradition, whereas SHO are rooted in the Nuyorican tradition. There is a distinct difference (read below). Also complaining about the voices of Ferrer and Portuondo is silly because they are both elderly and there best days are behind them. There is no way they could sound as good as younger singers in their prime.Now, on this Puerto Rican - Cuban feud. I think I can speak ojectively because my father is Spanish, my mother Peruvian, and I was born in Australia. I have no alegiance to either side (except that I do prefer Nuyorican-salsa dura to Cuban salsa-guaguanco, etc) . Also I am 27 but am a lover of Latin American music in general and I devour it. So here it is. The Cubans no doubt invented forms that would lead and formed the base of salsa - for example Guaguanco, Montuno, etc - but they did not invent salsa. Salsa is the music that came out of New York in the late 60's and 70's (and indeed the term didn't even get used to describe the music until mid 70's). Nobody was calling Cuban music "salsa" prior to the 70's. Salsa was used to describe the music coming from New York (and the Puerto Rican community) and the Fania label as well as the stuff on the Tico and Inca labels. Then it got adopted by every other music with a clave and is even used to describe certain manufactured pop artists (whom I won't name). On the music itself, listen to a Sonora Matancera record and then compare it to Sonora Poncena. They are different forms of music. It's like comparing Benny Goodman to Count Basie. The fact is the "salsa" music coming out of New York/Puerto Rico in the 70's was a hybrid of Cuban music, funk, jazz, and soul. It was much more open to influence and is much more dynamic - Nuyorican salsa is disco whereas Cuban is ballroom. Willie Colon even chopped up the sacred clave so that it was almost unrecognizable, a Cuban would never have done that. One last gripe, I keep hearing how Salsa Timba is so fresh and new and how they are mixing R&B and jazz with salsa (they don't even do it very well). What's so new about it? Wasn't this what salsa was in the 70's from New York. I challenge anyone to listen to Hector Lavoe's La Voz album (as well as countless of Colon, Barretto, Palmieri, Blades tracks) from the mid 70's and tell me that the album isn't littered with funk, soul, and jazz references from the beginning to the end. I give love to both salsa communities (Puerto Rica and Cuba) but its about time Cubans stopped saying that Nuyorican salsa is just a badly made version of Cuban music. The Nuyoricans took Cuban music to a whole new level of experimentation and energy and created a new form that should be recognised.Finally, it's amazing how little recognition is given to the Latino community of New York for creating salsa. It is a forgotten story and a little known fact (even amongst some latinos). I speak to Australian's (even some latino-Autralians) who wouldn't have the first clue about how important New York Puerto Ricans were to salsa history. They just assume its all from Cuba and its all the same music. From what I understand its a similar issue in the US where latino contribution to music and culture is not understood or acknowledged. When pop artists get called salsa you know there is a problem.Buy the album

las cosas en su lugar
Decir que este CD es una respuesta a BVSC no es criticable, pero si pretencioso. En primer lugar porque son dos cosas distintas. El CD de la SHO es salsa neyorquina, el CD de BVSC es son tradicional. Ambos hacen muy bien su trabajo y sobre todo logran un objetivo fundamental: rescatar y reelaborar la musica hecha en estas tierras. La salsa venia de una grave crisis y es recien a mediados de los 90 que comienza a revitalizarse. Este disco es una excelente muestra de que el tumbao sigue vivito y colenado. eso si creo que una desventaja es que los temas sean covers, incluso alguno de ellos son menores que los originales. Creo que el Pueblo Nuevo del genio Pete Conde Rodriguez es mucho mejor.Ahora lo rescatable es que la gente que toca en este disco (Jimmy savater, Ray de la Paz, jimmy Bosch) esta preocupada por darle nueva vida a la salsa dura y olvidarse de la perjudicial "erotic salsa". Y eso no tiene el CD de BVSC. Salvo Compay Segundo y Eliades Ochoa, los demas no son lo mejor de la historia musical cubana. Falto gente como Graciela Grillo (diez veces mejor que Omara Portuondo), Laito Sureda (veinte veces mejor que Ibrahim Ferrer), o la genialidad de los señores Reynaldo Hierrezuelo o Reynaldo Creagh (mil veces mejor que Puntillita Licea). En este caso me gusta mas lo hecho por Vieja Trova Santiaguera que este fenomeno del marketing llamado BVSC. hace unos dias vi a I. Ferrer en Lima con algunos musicos de BVSC y no me convencio. Este disco de SHO que cumple su cometido: sabor, descarga, sandunga, y tumbao. Altamente recomendable para bailar y tomar unos tragos. El CD de BVSC solo fue bueno en su momento, today no more. Pero la salsa y el son aun viven y hay que seguir escuchandolos